Carrie Fisher won’t be in Star Wars Episode IX after all

One sad piece of news came out of Star Wars Celebration today. We were sad to hear that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy clarified an earlier news report about Carrie Fisher’s appearance as General Leia in Episode IX. In an interview Kennedy said that Fisher won’t be in the as yet un-named 9th film in the Skywalker saga.

Carrie Fisher had finished all her scenes for Episode VIII, what is now called The Last Jedi, before her untimely and tragic death. Last week Fisher’s brother Todd had told the New York Daily News that the family had been asked and had given Lucasfilm permission to use previous filmed footage of his sister in Episode IX.

“We finished everything in VIII and Carrie is absolutely phenomenal in the movie,” Kennedy told Good Morning America today, “and we’re so happy we were able to complete filming in the summer. Unfortunately, Carrie passed away [at a] time when we were well underway with Episode IX in our thoughts. We had not written a script yet. But we’ve regrouped. We started over again in January. Sadly, Carrie will not be in IX.”

Lucasfilm had previously released a statement that there was no plan to use a computer generated version of Carrie Fisher for Episode IX.

Kennedy’s full statement with GMA is available in this tweet

We know that Colin Trevorrow, director of Episode IX, had said that Leia originally was supposed to have a larger role in the 9th movie than “The Last Jedi.”

Now we’re left to wonder what will happen to the General Leia character, so perfectly embodied by Carrie Fisher, between The Last Jedi and Episode IX. Our best guess is that she will be tragically killed, given a heroes death, off-screen. We will learn about it in the prologue and Leia’s death will serve to inspire the Resistance to complete whatever impossible goal they need to complete in the movie.

As Kennedy stated, they hadn’t yet written the script for Episode IX, so they can deal with the tragic real life death in the best possible way.

How do you feel about the news that Carrie Fisher won’t be in Episode IX of the Star Wars saga?

Previously: Carrie Fisher tribute at Star Wars Celebration moves us to tears.