Lacey Bridges
Quite frankly, it’s not anything anybody would want to discuss right now – though I’m guessing they (as in the studio and filmmakers) have had to raise the question.
Carrie Fisher, who played the iconic Princess Leia (now General Leia) in the “Star Wars” saga, died yesterday aged 60.
The actress and writer had recently returned to the series to reprise Leia, with “Star Wars : The Force Awakens” (2015), and was expected to be back for the next two instalments in the new trilogy.
While it’s too early to say whether Leia will be written out of “Star Wars Episode IV”, due to start filming in the Spring for a 2019 release, Fisher has completed work on next year’s “Star Wars Episode VIII”. Word is, Leia has a very prominent part to play in the film- her last gift to her fans, if you will.
It’ll be hard to explain why the character suddenly disappears from the scene come 2019’s instalment, but as we saw with Paul Walker’s “Fast & Furious 7” and even young Leia herself in this month’s “Rogue One : A Star Wars Story”, there are other options. But is a CGI Carrie Fisher – for an entire movie – going to piss off fans? Quite possibly.
Another option is to recast the role – which will be also hard to take, considering we’ve only ever associated Fisher with the part – or simply have the character retire offscreen.
Whatever happens, you can rest assure Fisher’s presence will still be felt in both instalments – whether she’s in them or not.
