Shortly after Carrie Fisher’s death, we learned that the plan was for Star Wars: Episode IX to focus on General Leia’s story. Since Star Wars: The Last Jedi was still a year away, I wasn’t quite convinced that Leia would make it out of the movie alive. However, even though it looked like she was a goner early on in The Last Jedi, General Organa survived to the end of the film.
It has also been confirmed that Leia will not be digitally recreated, so the assumption for many was that J.J. Abrams, Chris Terrio, and the rest of the team behind Episode IX would have to figure out a way to write her out of the story.
Given the nature of Fisher’s character, this would probably have to involve an offscreen death. Since Leia has been through Han’s death, her son’s turn to the dark side, and her brother’s disappearance without retiring, she seems like the kind of person who would keep fighting the war until the very end.
Giving a character as iconic and beloved as Leia a satisfying offscreen death is an impossible task, and that’s part of the reason why a number of Star Wars fans are open to the idea of having the role recast. The name that has gotten the most attention due to a fan petition is one of the greatest actresses in film history, Meryl Streep.
While Streep is qualified to play pretty much any role, having her, or anyone for that matter, play Leia would be pretty jarring. I’m not doubting Streep’s ability to convincingly play Leia since an actor of her caliber could convincingly play Batman if she wanted to. It’s more the fact that Fisher has been Leia in the collective consciousness for the last forty years, and replacing her, even due to death, just wouldn’t sit right.
This is a truly terrible situation since Leia would be in a really interesting place after the events of The Last Jedi. There was a decent chance we would have seen her communicate with Luke’s force ghost, and potentially another face-to-face encounter with her son.
If another actor were to take Fisher’s place, we would be able to see some more memorable, overwhelmingly emotional moments with Leia, but they certainly wouldn’t pack the same punch without Fisher delivering them.
There is, of course, the argument that this would be better than nothing, but I don’t necessarily think that’s true. However, this all depends on how Abrams handles Episode IX. If done right, we could still feel Leia’s presence on the characters without having her be in the movie.
In The Dark Knight Rises, not only is there no visual references to the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, but the Joker isn’t even said by name. Christopher Nolan said he did this out of respect for Ledger. Even still, the Joker’s impact is certainly felt in the movie. He is the reason why Bruce Wayne is a miserable, bearded old man who doesn’t go outside anymore.
While Leia’s effect on the characters of Episode IX will fall on the other side of the emotional spectrum, the point remains. A character does not have to be present for their existence to matter in a movie.
So instead of recasting her, the movie might be better off just focusing on the other characters and how Leia affected them. In a roundabout way, this was already set up with Poe in The Last Jedi. There’s no way for Abrams to address the Leia situation without it being weird in some capacity, but with a little creativity, he can honor Fisher and her character while still moving the story forward.
Carrie Fisher has always been Leia, so while it’s heartbreaking for all of us, it only makes sense for her character to pass on as well.