When our princess and general, Carrie Fisher, tragically passed away in December of 2016 our sorrow at the loss of such an icon and human being was accompanied by uncertainty for the character she portrayed on screen. Fisher's passing came before the release of Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi and the decision was made not to alter that film so as to keep her beautiful final performance intact.
This meant, however, that it would be up to Star Wars: Episode IX writers JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio to handle the loss of FIsher and to decide what to do with her character. Kathleen Kennedy, head of LucasFilm, has already ruled out any use of digital reconstruction akin to what we saw in 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with the return of Peter Cushing's Tarkin.
This obviously limits the ways that the sequel can handle the situation, with the main avenues being an off-screen death or disappearance revealed in the opening crawl, a body double used for a death early on or in what could prove a controversial decision: recast the role with someone else so as to keep the character, who was said to be very much at the forefront of the original Episode IX, alive for the final chapter.
In an interview with
Collider, Mark Hamill was asked about the latter and what his thoughts were about recasting the role of General Leia in the upcoming film:
"First of all, I don't know what the specific plans were for that character, but just the way Han Solo was more prominent in 7, Luke was more prominent in 8, we assumed that Leia would be more prominent in 9, especially since the dynamic of having Kylo Ren as her son... I think it would be tough recasting, only because she's so indelibly linked with that character. They've already ruled out the idea of computer-generating her performance like they did with Peter Cushing, so, gee, that's gotta be a really... not an insurmountable problem, but I know the script had been developed enough that when we lost her, they had to go back to square one. But she's irreplaceable, as far as I'm concerned."
The interviewer then continued his line of questioning in regards to Star Wars: Episode IX, asking whether Hamill had any idea if he would return to the role of Luke Skywalker as a force ghost in the sequel trilogy's finale:
"You know, I have to phrase it correctly because I had the most amazing entrance ever in my career in 7, I had this incredible exit in 8, so I didn't really have a beginning, middle and end, I had a beginning and an end, but it feels complete, in a way. Whatever they decide, you know, if it's minimal or non-existent, I'm fine with 9. But it's all up to Chris Terrio and J.J. Abrams, who are writing it right now."
What do you think? How do you think Leia's character should be handled in Episode IX ? Would you like to see Hamill return to the franchise as a force ghost? Leave your thoughts below.