Leia was supposed to be the “Last Jedi” before Carrie Fisher passed away

According to Todd Fisher, Carrie Fisher’s brother, Princess Leia was originally slated to emerge the legendary “last Jedi” in Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker. In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Todd Fisher revealed that director J.J. Abrams was planning to have Leia emerge as a powerful Jedi warrior with lightsaber in hand, but her untimely death in December of 2016 forced him to change the storyline. “She was going to be the big payoff in the final film,” Todd said. “She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. That’s cool right?”

It’s fascinating to wonder about how The Rise of Skywalker might have unfolded if Fisher had not passed away. We saw evidence of Leia’s Force abilities in The Last Jedi. Now, it’s clear that this was setup for planned events in Episode IX.

“People used to say to me, ‘Why is it that Carrie never gets a lightsaber and chops up some bad guys,’” Fisher said. “Obi-Wan was in his prime (dueling with Darth Vader in A New Hope) when he was Carrie’s age!”

Carrie Fisher’s passing forced director J.J. Abrams to retool plans for her character; he’d already worked with her on The Force Awakens (2015), and they were good pals. “The truth is that J.J. Abrams was great friends with Carrie,” Fisher explained.  “[H]e had an extraordinary sense of love for her.”

SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 10: (L-R) Actors Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and more than 6000 fans enjoyed a surprise “Star Wars” Fan Concert performed by the San Diego Symphony, featuring the classic “Star Wars” music of composer John Williams, at the Embarcadero Marina Park South on July 10, 2015 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

Abrams’ affection for Carrie Fisher spurred him to include Leia in The Rise of Skywalker through manipulation of unused film footage from The Force Awakens. Todd considers it a fitting tribute to his sister:

"They had eight minutes of footage. They grabbed every frame and analysed it… and then reverse-engineered it and [got] it into the story the right way. It’s kind of magical. This is, in its own way, a payoff. … It’s Carrie talking to us all from beyond."

So we didn’t get the planned conclusion for Princess Leia, but we will get a fitting ending for her, and a proper sendoff for the actor who played her. “The beautiful thing about the concept of the Force is that there is no real death; you just exist in another dimension,” Todd said. “So Carrie is looking down or sideways or wherever and is still part of us. To be able to see that — it’s magical stuff only in the movies.”

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Star Wars: The Rise of the Jedi premieres on December 19.

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