When it was revealed that Obi-Wan Kenobi would be focused on Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) going on a journey with Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), I cried. Because I grew up wishing that Leia got the time that Luke got in the Star Wars franchise. I wanted to see my girl thriving and being the strong woman we knew her to be. And it took years to finally get that story and they cased the perfect Leia to bring her to life.
Never in all my years of crying over Star Wars have I cried the way I did when I realized that Obi-Wan Kenobi was a story for Leia. It took us so long to get here and while we do know that the plans for Leia in the sequel trilogy was changed due to the unfortunate passing of Carrie Fisher, it still hurt that she got the last movie of the trilogy and that we lost the chance after all these years with her.
So seeing Blair bring Leia to life in the perfectly sassy way just felt right. And it was something I wish I had as a kid because I loved Leia so much but wanted the story to focus more on her rather than just her brother and now we got to see who Leia was as a kid through Blair’s work.
But what so many of us recognized throughout Star Wars Celebration was that Vivien Lyra Blair really has that energy that Carrie Fisher had when she’s talking about Star Wars that feels like the perfect successor to Fisher. It was made abduntantly clear at the Obi-Wan Kenobi panel.
The energy of Carrie Fisher
It’s hard to embody the way of Carrie Fisher. Trust me, I’m someone who has worked my entire life to ask myself “What would Carrie Fisher do?” in all of my decision making. She is my hero. And it brought tears to my eyes to see Blair’s reaction to things and how very Fisher of her it was.
As creative Tommy Stella pointed out on Twitter, when they were talking about Leia hiding in a coat in Obi-Wan Kenobi, she started making fun of it. And it really did give that energy that Fisher often did when she poked fun of the franchise as a whole.
It’s not that we needed Carrie Fisher to be replaced or that Vivien Lyra Blair is that replacement. But, instead, it is (at least for me) the hope that another generation can find their love for Leia through Blair’s performance because she does honor Fisher’s work while making the character her own.
And this panel made me hope for a great many more projects with Blair as Leia. It’s about time we go on the adventures of little Leia Organa and there is no better choice than Vivien Lyra Blair to take us on that journey.
(Featured image: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
