Carrie Fisher's Brother Says Leia Was Being Set Up as "The Last Jedi" in STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER

Carrie Fisher had a pretty cool moment using the Force in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was really the first time she really used some aspects of her abilities. Well, according to to Carrie Fisher’s brother Todd Fisher, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker would have originally seen Leia fully embrace her Force abilities, and she was going to be “The Last Jedi.”

While talking to Yahoo Entertainment, Fisher revealed:

“She was going to be the big payoff in the final film. She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. That’s cool right? People used to say to me, ‘Why is it that Carrie never gets a lightsaber and chops up some bad guys?’ Obi-Wan was in his prime when he was Carrie’s age!”

It would have been interesting to see how that story arc for Leia would have turned out! While Leia will be in The Rise of Skywalker thanks to unused footage that was shot for the previous films, with the limited footage available, there’s no way they could carry this story arc forward.

In 2017 Mark Hamill did explain that Leia’s role was going to be much more prominent in The Rise of Skywalker. So, we knew that was the original plan, but we didn’t know she was being built up as “The Last Jedi”.

"You’re going to really love her in (The Last Jedi). I know they’re going to try and find a way to close her story in (Episode) 9 that gives her the respect she deserves, because (Han Solo) was more prominent in 7 (The Force Awakens), Luke’s a little more prominent in 8, and certainly Leia was meant to be more prominent in 9."

Todd Fisher went on to reveal that Abrams had eight minutes of Fisher to work with in the upcoming film:

"The truth is that J.J. Abrams was great friends with Carrie... he had an extraordinary sense of love for her. They had eight minutes of footage. They grabbed every frame and analyzed it... and then reverse-engineered it and [got] it into the story the right way. It’s kind of magical.

“This is, in its own way, a payoff. ... It’s Carrie talking to us all from beyond. The beautiful thing about the concept of the Force is that there is no real death; you just exist in another dimension. So Carrie is looking down or sideways or wherever and is still part of us. To be able to see that — it’s magical stuff only in the movies.”

Well, it’ll be interesting to see how things play out in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when it lands in theaters on December 20th.