Carrie Fisher Will Return To Star Wars In Episode IX

During an interview on The Star Wars Show at Star Wars Celebration Europe, Carrie Fisher confirmed she will be reprising her role as Leia in Star Wars: Episode IX.

During an interview on The Star Wars Show at Star Wars Celebration Europe, Carrie Fisher confirmed she will part of the Star Wars: Episode IX shoot. This means General Leia Organa, unless she has mastered the Force in such a way as to be able to become a Force ghost after death, will not die in Episode VIII.

The video below is from the Star Wars Celebration livestream and is queued for the time Carrie and her dog Gary surprise The Star Wars Show hostess Andi Gutierrez with the interview session. Carrie talks about Episode IX at about 2:18:05.

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It is a huge relief to know Leia is, in all likelihood, not going to die in Episode VIII. Of all the three original Star Wars characters, she is the one I would be most upset about losing. For me, Han Solo’s death in The Force Awakens was not surprising; Solo, as great as he is, is an expendable character who J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan accurately, if a bit harshly described as a piece of great-looking luggage: he just sits, contributing little more than his personality and comedy relief to the movie’s plot (via Entertainment Weekly). Luke Skywalker, as much as I don’t like to think about it, I could see dying in Episode VIII to push Rey along on her journey to fulfilling her destiny. It happens often in stories which feature the hero’s journey as a storytelling device: the hero’s mentor must pass on in order to keep the hero’s own story moving forward, for better or worse.

Leia, on the other hand, is neither expendable nor, oddly, important enough to just kill off. She is a vital figure in the political scheme of the galaxy and in her relationships with Luke, Rey, and Chewbacca, but she is not (at least as far as we know) a mentor figure on par with Obi Wan Kenobi or Yoda in anyone’s hero’s journey. Her death would devastate many, yes, but to no end other than shock value. The only scenario her death might benefit is in providing motivation for Kylo Ren to return to the light side or retreat further away from it. But then, that part of his story development was already accomplished in his murder of his father. From every storytelling angle, then, Leia does not deserve to die.

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And in Episode VIII, at least, it doesn’t look like she will.