Mark Hamill is passionate about Carrie Fisher and the iconic Princess Leia — especially in regards to his thoughts on replacing her in Star Wars: Episode IX.
Recently, news has surfaced about a fan petition circulating that advocates for the replacement of Carrie Fisher with actress Meryl Streep in the role of Leia Organa. When we lost our princess and General, Carrie Fisher, the writers for Episode IX — who had already begun work on the script –had to go back to square one and figure out what to do with the characters in Fisher’s absence. Mark Hamill himself was affected tremendously by this tragedy. Deeply.
Will they use a digital recreation as they did with young Princess Leia in Rogue One? Will they find another actress to replace Fisher? Will they resolve her story off-screen?
All of these questions have been bouncing around in the heads of fans, much less those involved with the project.
Though we don’t know exactly how things will look in terms of Leia’s story in Episode IX, Mark Hamill did address some fans’ questions in a recent interview:
https://twitter.com/Lukeskywa1ker_/status/981509761383518209
"More from Dork Side of the ForceThe High Republic Adventures (2023) 1 reviewDaniel José Older named a High Republic Adventures character after someone specialHow animation changed Star Wars: Ewoks and DroidsKelleran Beq comes to Star Wars: Galaxy of HeroesThe Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal becomes No. 1 on IMDb’s Starmeter for 2023“We don’t normally respond to fan or press speculation, but there is a rumor circulating that we would like to address. We want to assure our fans that Lucasfilm has no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess or General Leia Organa. Carrie Fisher was, is, and always will be a part of the Lucasfilm family. She was our princess, our general, and more importantly, our friend. We are still hurting from her loss. We cherish her memory and legacy as Princess Leia, and will always strive to honor everything she gave to Star Wars.”"
Regarding the idea of Carrie being replaced, Mark Hamill insisted that Carrie Fisher is irreplaceable in the Role of Leia Organa. I, for one, completely agree with this assertion.
As much as I love Meryl Streep and think she is a phenomenal actress, it is impossible to replace someone as iconic as Carrie Fisher and a role as iconic as Princess Leia without doing damage to the franchise.
So, two concluding thoughts on this whole situation. First, Carrie Fisher was and always will be Princess Leia and no one else in the entire galaxy could or should replace her in that role.
Secondly, I would not want to be J.J. Abrams having to navigate these waters, because resolving the story of one of the most iconic movie characters of all time is going to require a lot of risky creativity.
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What do you think? How should they resolve Leia’s Star Wars story? Let us know in the comments below!