It’s just a garbage world to live in where Carrie Fisher does not get to take her final curtain call in Star Wars: Episode IX, as Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill already got to do with their beloved characters—possible Force ghosts notwithstanding. But that’s where we are, and that already difficult circumstance is compounded, for those behind the scenes, by the question of where things go from here, with another movie—one intended to include Fisher and Leia—still on the horizon.
That difficult question was put to Hamill in an interview with Collider, and while he of course said Fisher is “irreplaceable, you know, as far as I’m concerned,” he also reaffirmed that the upcoming ending to the movie trilogy had been built around her to the point that losing her brought the film’s story back to “square one.” He said,
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, you know, as far as I’m concerned.
Hamill has also commented that he’s still not sure whether he’ll be making an appearance in the movie as a Force ghost, although he’s a master spoiler keeper at this point, so it’s hard to say how much he really knows. But it sounds like even he doesn’t know what the plan will ultimately be to deal with Leia’s absence (unless they do surprise us all and recast her), and also like he’s probably glad not to be the one to have to make that decision, with the word “insurmountable” crossing his mind, even if he ultimately believes they’ll find a way around it. With a digital performance ruled out, neither of the other options is particularly enticing, no matter how irreplaceable Fisher is—not that a CGI replacement ever sounded like a good option to begin with.
Recasting her would certainly be hard to swallow, but so would Admiral Ackbarring Leia offscreen. (Come on, not even Ackbar deserved that.) Shortly after Fisher’s death, my immediate reaction was that she shouldn’t be recast, but I’ve seen plenty of Leia fans asking for the character to get her due, even if it’s without Fisher, and I can’t help sympathizing with that. Still, I’m as stuck as anyone else is as far as making an actual decision on what the best choice would be, so feel free to talk it out in the comments. It’s going to be a while before we know for sure what J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm ultimately decide on.
(via Collider, image: Disney/Lucasfilm)
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