This New ‘Rise of Skywalker’ Clip Teases Leia with a Lightsaber
December 1, 2019Before her tragic death three years ago, Carrie Fisher was set to play a pivotal role in the final Star Wars film. It makes sense: The Force Awakens was Han Solo's movie, The Last Jedi was Luke's, so it stands to reason that Rise of Skywalker would be Leia's. A few weeks ago, Fisher's brother, Todd Fisher, spoke to Yahoo about J.J. Abrams original plan for Leia in the upcoming movie—which apparently would've had her go full Jedi master.
"She was going to be the big payoff in the final film," Todd Fisher said, according to Yahoo. "She was going to be the last Jedi, so to speak. People used to say to me, 'Why is it that Carrie never gets a lightsaber and chops up some bad guys?'" Fisher continued. "Obi-Wan was in his prime when he was Carrie’s age!"
Unfortunately, we'll never get to see that original story arc, since Abrams had to piece together her role in the film using footage from the Last Jedi cutting room floor—but from the look of a new TV spot that dropped this weekend, we might at least get to see her wield a lightsaber, after all.
It's only a glimpse of Leia holding a lightsaber, and it's not exactly proof that Leia's about to spark up her father's old weapon and start doing some Dooku flips, but there's something very fitting about the shot regardless. It'll be exciting to see how Abrams reworked the old footage of Fisher into the final film. "They had eight minutes of footage," Fisher told Yahoo in the same interview. "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."
Of course, the lightsaber in Leia's hands was torn in half during The Last Jedi, but Rey has apparently pieced it back together by the time Rise of Skywalker picks back up. Lightsabers are surprisingly easy to build, all things considered. We'll have to wait for The Rise of Skywalker to hit theaters on December 20 to see if she'll actually spark the sword up. Until then, give the new TV spot a watch above.
