Mark Hamill recently spoke with the New York Times about the upcoming release of ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi,’ and in the process, shed some light about a major theory about Carrie Fisher’s role in the new trilogy, and how things would have gone had she not passed last December.
Apparently, the original idea was for each of the major 3 characters from the first trilogy, Han, Luke and Leia, to be the focal point of a chapter of this new trilogy, which started with Han Solo being a major player in ‘The Force Awakens’ as he leads Rey on her journey and she inherits the Millenium Falcon from him. Next up, clearly, in ‘The Last Jedi,’ it is Luke’s movie as he trains Rey and works with her against the First Order (or whatever is going to happen, we’ll find out in December). And lastly, the final chapter of the trilogy (‘Episode IX’) would have focused on General Leia and her relationship to the new characters. These plans sadly had to be scrapped after her passing, which is even more tragic when you consider the fact that Carrie Fisher was pushing heavily for that screen time in ‘Episode IX’ where we would have really had a chance to see her shine. I’m sure she got to do plenty more in ‘The Last Jedi’ since she seems to be around a bit more than in ‘The Force Awakens,’ but that does not compare to an entire movie where she is right in the heart of the action with the main characters.
According to Hamill during the interview with The New York Times:
“She deserved that second act. Harrison was more prominent in VII, I’m more prominent in this one, and she was meant to be more prominent in the last one. Her timing was perfect, except in this case.”
Of course, not only is it sad that Fisher never got that chance, but now a lot of things about ‘Episode IX’ and the shake-ups following Fisher’s death make a lot more sense. If the script revolved around her character, no wonder there was a sense of panic in trying to rewrite, rework, and inevitably, find a new director to rebuild the movie from scratch now that they had to go in a new direction without General Leia in the picture. It is sad to think of the ‘Episode IX’ that could have been, and while I’m sure they did their best to given Carrie Fisher a proper send-off in ‘The Last Jedi,’ it just is not the same.
Here’s hoping they managed to figure out something, and found a way to honor both the character and the phenomenal actress behind General Leia in both movies.
