Star Wars: Rian Johnson didn’t ‘adjust’ Leia’s role in The Last Jedi
By Buckie Wells
After Carrie Fisher’s death, we’ve all been wondering how Rian Johnson planned to finish General Leia’s story in The Last Jedi, and now, we have a better idea.
From A New Hope‘s Princess Leia to the general we all know and love today, Carrie Fisher gave us one of the most iconic Star Wars characters of all time. And she faithfully remained the “caretaker” of said character until her unfortunate death last December.
The Force Awakens continued her story, but we all expected The Last Jedi to bring it to an end. Lucasfilm already announced that CGI Leia was totally off the table, which made it seem like portions of December’s film would be rewritten or edited differently to ease us into a send-off.
However, director Rian Johnson holds different plans for the film.
In an interview with The New York Times (via Mashable), Johnson said that nothing changed:
"“We don’t adjust what happens to her in this movie. She gives a beautiful and complete performance in this film.”"
It’s not like there’s any sort of secret here or a bad PR image that Lucasfilm wants to avoid. Perhaps the best way to honor her memory would be to allow Star Wars fans to envision her absence however they want. Though she won’t appear in Episode IX, do we really need an explanation as to why? Honestly, there are like a million loose ends in the Star Wars saga films. So what’s one more?
Except it’s Carrie Fisher. She’s not a loose end, but she was very vocal about people trying to “adjust” who she is. I’m perfectly okay with General Leia passing the torch and just operating off-screen in our imaginations.
Related Story: Star Wars: In defense of Kathleen Kennedy
When Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on Dec. 15, how they handle General Leia is just one of a hundred things we’re anticipating to see. But if Carrie Fisher taught us anything, it’s that she doesn’t really need to be handled anyway.