ST Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa) in Episode IX

Considering how sad it is that Carrie really did die, out of respect for her I don’t think Leia will be killed by anybody.

Leia making her own choice to cross over seems like the best way to go. Seeing her ship blow up or killing her off in between movies doesn’t feel right.

 

Padme would never do it, either, based on what we saw of her in TPM and AOTC.
But anyway, I was not being serious.

 

I think Leia dying in between the films is more dramatically powerful than "Oh, General Organa needs you to do this and this. She can't tell you this because shes, uhm, over there."

 

i think they may just have her die peacefully, not being blown up by the enemy or going out in a blaze against the enemy , becoming a force type or even being killed by hux to make kylo angry. maybe they will go for a simple route instead of making it complicated and we can see the aftermath of her death reverberating throughout the movie with all the characters, sometimes the simplest story is the best. Carrie's passing did create an issue, either they will somehow still go with the story they had planned for ep 9 originally or if they just cant make that story work without carrie then they will change it instead trying to force it given that TLJ leaves room to go either way with certain characters and story points. anyways it will be interesting to see what JJ/LF do in the end.

 

For all the talk of them not creating digital older Leia for IX, it's interesting to note that technically they already have:

https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2316531/how-star-wars-the-last-jedi-shot-leia-in-space

 

TBH I really wouldn't mind digital Leia, but I also wouldn't want any disrespect towards CF. I would want her honored.

 

Eh I think it would have more of an emotional impact if we see the characters learning about Leia’s death rather than reading it in the crawl and then hearing a line of dialogue about how bummed everybody is that she’s dead. Show don’t tell.

 

True, they could have the characters mourn learning her passing and have it mirror reality with people learning of Carrie Fisher's unexpected passing. But I don't want, nor can I think of anyone who would, have it that she's still around just not appearing in the movie for some convoluted reason.

But, now, while LFL did say they wouldn't use a digital recreation of Carrie Fisher, it's possible they could make use of pre-existed Fisher footage, maybe something cut from TFA or TLJ.

 

Indeed. It would be ridiculous if throughout the movie you'd have Poe, Rey, and the rest of the cast walking into rooms looking for Leia only to be told, "I'm afraid you just missed her". I'm completely confident they won't do that.

 

They could also cover her last few days in a novel.

 

It doesn't even have to be a dramatic explosion. Think the Henry Blake death reveal from MASH. You don't see the actual death. The impact is fully created by the others reacting to his death.

 

Big time. Something like that could work.

 

@The Regular Mustache And this trope is now pushing 40 years since it had that impact on MASH. so it would play as fairly fresh if JJ chose to go that angle.

 

I might've said this before but I wonder if Rey and Kylo will have a shared surreal dream that informs them of Leia's death? We'll see Rey and Kylo in the dream world together, neither sure what's going on or what's causing the shared dream. A character we haven't seen before addresses them both and eventually Rey and Kylo piece it together that Leia is dead. Cut to seeing Rey and Kylo waking up, shocked by what they just learned.

 

I'd take that. Regardless of how it goes down, I think Leia's death is going to push them into a dialog. Could be a catalyst for a very interesting interaction.

 

That's my guess too. And if the two do meet up for a conversation, (assuming it's not a Force Skype) I wonder if Rey will tell Finn that she's going to meet Kylo or will she keep it a secret which Finn discovers later? I can't tell which would deliver more dramatic tension. I could see Finn saying, "You're going to him aren't you" and Rey would explain that she feels like might be able to use this moment to turn Ben. Finn reminds Rey that she tried that before and it didn't work. Rey perhaps says that the Resistance currently has no plan for defeating the First Order so she has to use this moment as an opportunity to weaken the leader of the First Order, Kylo. Finn doesn't like the plan but knows that he can't stop Rey so she goes.

If something like this happens I wonder if we'll learn that Leia crossed over to the other side specifically because she hoped it would bring Kylo and Rey together. Of course the big question would be what would Kylo and Rey be discussing? I suppose they'd be commiserating in their grief? Perhaps this would be the moment where we get a little more information about why Kylo fell to the dark side?

Lastly I wonder if Hux will send somebody to spy on Kylo. Hux's spy follows Kylo to his meeting with Rey and from there the spy learns where the Resistance are hiding. Maybe initially Rey and/or Finn believe that Kylo tricked Rey into meeting up so that Kylo could learn where the Resistance are hiding.

 

I think said meeting would put them on the outs with both of their factions. Their factions would want them to kill the other, not commiserate over Leia's death.

And that would lead to Kylo getting shanked by Hux.

 

I see something like that happening.

 

If there's a time jump it really wouldn't need to go down like that.

You watch the saga in chronological order and major characters just weave in and out.

There are ways to structure IX that don't require Leia's death, with perhaps a minimal hologram appearance. I just doubt they will go there.

 

True. It just seems like it would be better story telling if they somehow came up with a way to make Liea presence a big part of the movie rather than basically ignoring her character.

 

Agreed I would hate to have the idea that the whole film she's just...offscreen, but they constantly talk about her and stuff she's doing.

However, I wouldn't mind if she were actually still alive but just elsewhere in the galaxy-for a legit purpose, which makes sense that we wouldn't see her. Like maybe she's doing something with the senate, and "representin'" over there-or serving as an ambassador to the different worlds or something. Doing important work, which logically keeps her away throughout Episode IX. Considering that, I could imagine something like a hologram cameo (perhaps using old stock footage from previous films) could be effective to help in that respect.

If she was portrayed as to not survive the ST, I would hope it's done this way. Characters learning of it, and reacting appropriately. I would NOT like to find out that she simply passed offscreen in the (presumably) years between TLJ and IX. Seems like too much of an afterthought. EIther way, I wouldn't mind if she actually survived the ST. No reason they ALL have to be killed off after all. Besides-what more beautiful irony could there be than to see that after tragically losing Carrie, that Leia "lives on?"

 

I mean if you're watching the films chronologically both Palpatine and Yoda just fall right offscreen in Episode IV. Yoda isn't mentioned, but Palpatine is, and his effect is felt even with no appearance.

The ST is already set up to accommodate an offscreen Leia, unintentionally of course. How? By having:

- No political scenes
- No Leia/Kylo scenes
- Having Leia voice giving up on her son

So how do you keep Leia around without an appearance? You have her off wresting control of the Republic, with the action taking place where it always has, on the military front lines. And have the writing reinforce what Leia already said in TLJ, that she knows her son is gone. So that's that. It's Rey who reaches him, as it was Rey who did so in TLJ. Have Kylo know that he burned bridges with his mom already, which again, he already believes.

They could easily do a Leia hologram appearance and a distant shot of her giving a speech, or standing on a platform ala TPM.

Again, it's possible. It's just about shifting focus.

 

Ironically, the template for what to do with Leia in IX has been set by JJ himself with Luke in TFA.

We have Luke whose importance is clearly established in the crawl, then he's mentioned 3-4 times in the film, but ultimately only seen in one scene at the very end, in a wordless cameo.

So...

What if it's stated in the crawl and discussed by other characters that Leia and a small group of rebels are on some important mission...I'd love it if it's stated that Leia is seeking out and recruiting young Force sensitives who will then be the next generation trained by Rey...whatever it is, but the point is that it's a crucial mission but it's off the beaten path of the main conflict of Rey vs Kylo. (Who better to recruit new Jedi than Leia? Plus a full novel about Leia finding other force sensitives during the Ep IX timeline would be awesome).

Then they use unused footage from TLJ + body double for a wide shot + slight CG (changing her costume basically) in order to have a Leia appearance at the very end of the film when she shows up with a handful of future Jedi.

 

Still think she should die in the opening sequence of IX. Use a body double/maybe some CGI to get a couple of shots of her in there before she goes down. Then you've got your emotional catalyst for the rest of the movie.

 

But that's just adding one more plot point to a film that has to have finality to a lot of plot points and characters.