Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia Was to Have A Larger Role in Star Wars: Episode IX

The death of Star Wars icon Carrie Fisher has left questions a plenty for Lucasfilm and Disney, especially considering Princess Leia’s role in Episode IX was said to be larger than in either The Force Awakens, or Episode VIII.

As Lucasfilm and their overlords at Disney begin to formulate their plans for the role of Princess Leia in the wake of Carrie Fisher’s death, details of her potential plot have begun to trickle out. Princess Leia was said to have two pivotal scenes upcoming in Episodes VIII and IX according to The Hollywood Reporter, with a much expanded role in Episode IX.

"Details of where those scenes fit into the movies remain unclear, but insiders say Leia was to have been a bigger part of Episode IX than VIII."

A reunion with her brother Luke, and the most awkward mother/son reunion of all time, a meeting with Kylo Ren were both scripted. The interesting part, is that we don’t yet know if either or both of those scenes have been filmed yet, and and even if they were, what films that they might appear in.

Fisher had filmed all of her scenes for Episode VIII, but again its not clear if the two pivotal scenes mentioned above had been filmed because we still don’t know what film they will appear in. The expanded role in XI for Leia is a bit spoilery, because that of course implies that Leia won’t meet a similar fate to Han Solo in Episode VII, and survive the movie.

Image Credit: Lucasfilm

What might that expanded role be? If we assume that the brother/sister reunion takes place in Episode VIII, that would leave the reunion between Leia and Kylo Ren for Episode IX. Reunion might be the wrong word, as it might prove to be more of a showdown. Leia taking a more active role in the fight with Kylo Ren, along with Rey and/or Luke would certainly qualify as a more expanded role, as opposed to mainly sitting on the sidelines as in The Force Awakens. This is all speculation of course, but the expanded role bit raises more than a few questions.

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How these plans change, or if they even do (CGI stand in?) remains to be seen. What would you like to see?