With the unexpected death of Carrie Fisher in December 2016, the producers of Star Wars had to not only reckon with the loss of a friend and colleague, but also determine how to proceed with the finale of the sequel trilogy, in which General Leia Organa played a pivotal role as leader of the Resistance.
"Like everyone here who knew her, I loved Carrie," J.J. Abrams, who directed and co-wrote 2015's The Force Awakens and the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker, said at a recent press event. "I knew her for a long time, not very well but for a while before [we worked on] Force Awakens. [...] Obviously, as we've discussed, the idea of continuing the story without Leia was an impossibility. And there was no way we were going to do a digital Leia, there was no way we were going to recast it. We couldn't do it without her."
To that end, it was announced shortly after Fisher's death at age 60 that Lucasfilm would utilize unused footage from The Force Awakens and 2017's The Last Jedi to complete Leia's character arc.
"When we went back to look at the scenes we hadn't used [with her] in The Force Awakens, we realized we had an opportunity," Abrams explained. "We could use that footage, the lines she was saying, the lighting... we knew we had the opportunity to use the footage to create scenes that Leia would be in."
"And of course, if Carrie had still been around, and it's impossible for me to think that she isn't... we've been editing with her for about a year, and she's very much alive with us in every scene," he continued. "If we had Carrie alive and with us, would we have done some things differently? Of course we would have. But we had the opportunity to have Carrie in the movie. And working with the entire cast, including Billie Lourd, her daughter, who's in scenes with her, we were able to do something that I like to think Carrie would be happy with. She's great in the movie. It's still emotional and moving to think of her and how sad we all are that she's not sitting up here with us."
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film arrives Dec. 20.