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From the highs of seeing the new trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi,’ to the lows of hearing that Carrie Fisher, our own General Leia, has fought her last battle and will not be seen in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX.’

In an interview with ABC News, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy stated:

“Sadly, Carrie will not be in Nine, but we will see a lot of Carrie in Eight.”

This is quite a bombshell as earlier this month Fisher’s brother, Todd, told the New York Daily News that she would, indeed, be in the final installment of the new trilogy. He stated that he and Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd, had given Lucasfilm permission to use her image from footage that was not used in ‘The Last Jedi.’

When first told of his comments by Yahoo, Kennedy seemed surprised and said:

 “I have no idea why he said that. We have not read a script yet. Obviously, when Carrie passed away in December that was a huge blow for all of us, and it caused us to sit with [director] Colin to really think where we were headed with Episode IX. Carrie was a significant part in that story — that was something she very much wanted and something we very much wanted. But given the circumstances, we would not carry on with that.”

Kennedy was able to expand on those comments with ABC News:

‘He was probably confused. We finished everything [with Leia) in Eight, and Carrie is phenomenal in the movie. And we’re so happy that we were able to complete shooting in the summer. Unfortunately, Carrie passed away. So, by the time we were well underway with Episode Nine, in our thoughts we had not written the script yet. But we’ve regrouped. We started over again in January, so, sadly, Carrie will not be in Nine but we’ll see a lot of her in Eight, which is good.”

Fisher passed away in December of 2016 and at that time, the final script had yet to be drafted. Kennedy and ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’ director Colin Trevorrow are “very close” to a revised script and was said to be meeting soon to discuss the changes.

The fact that Lucasfilm confirmed that they had “no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess or General Leia Organa” in Episode IX, may be one of the main reasons for the revised script. It does beg to wonder now how the next film will send the character off considering she has a big role in ‘The Last Jedi’ and was planned to continue on in that capacity in ‘Episode IX.’

Obviously, the issue of how Lucasfilm and Trevorrow will deal with the character will soon be resolved before the production begins later this year. We’ll make sure to let you know what those decisions are when we find out.

How do you feel about Lucasfilm not including General Leia in the last installment of the trilogy? Let us know your thoughts below!

Janice Kay is the Senior Editor for ScienceFiction.com. When not working, you can most likely find her drinking copious amount of mochas while in front of a TV binge watching on sci-fi shows. You can follow her on Twitter for more of her musings.