‘Star Wars’ boss Kathleen Kennedy has revealed that Episode IX was supposed to have put long-serving character General Leia in the spotlight.
Kathleen, the President of LucasFilms, has said she made the promise to returning star Carrie Fisher prior to her death, after her co-stars Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill took centre stage in the first two films in the rebooted trilogy.
Describing a conversation they had once filming had wrapped on the upcoming film ‘The Last Jedi’, Kathleen told Vanity Fair: “The minute she finished, she grabbed me and said, ‘I’d better be at the forefront of IX!’.
“Because Harrison was front and centre on VII, and Mark is front and centre on VIII. She thought IX would be her movie. And it would have been.”
Sadly, these plans won’t be coming to fruition, as it was revealed that ‘The Last Jedi’ would be the late Carrie Fisher’s last ‘Star Wars’ film.
Carrie appears in one of four special ‘Star Wars’ covers for the new issue of Vanity Fair, shot by esteemed photographer Annie Leibovitz.
After Carrie made the briefest of cameos in CGI form at the end of ‘Star Wars’ off-shoot ‘Rogue One’, it was suggested shortly after her death that the same could be done for the impending ninth film in the sci-fi saga.
However, LucasFilm was quick to pour water on this suggestion, insisting: “We want to assure our fans that Lucasfilm has no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess or General Leia Organa.”
Fortunately, ‘Star Wars’ fans can still look forward to seeing Carrie performing in ‘The Last Jedi’, which is released later this year.
Read the full ‘Star Wars’ feature over on Vanity Fair’s website.