While there’s plenty of excitement for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the release will be certainly bittersweet, given that it will mark the final time we get to see Carrie Fisher in the role of Leia Organa, the actress having sadly passed away this past December.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, writer-director Rian Johnson has been speaking about Fisher’s role as General Leia in the hotly-anticipated blockbuster:
“[Leia has] suffered quite a bit,” states Johnson. “While I was figuring out what her deal was going to be in this film, it’s one of the things I talked about with Carrie before I started writing: where the character would go… There’s no way that we could’ve known this would’ve been the last Star Wars movie she would be in, so it’s not like we made the film thinking that we were bringing closure to the character. But watching the film, there’s going to be a very emotional reaction to what she does in this movie.”
Johnson also discussed the challenges facing the Resistance in The Last Jedi: “They’re a small band that’s now cut off, on its own, and hunted when the Republic is shattered. When the First Order did that hit, the Resistance is isolated, and they’re very, very vulnerable. That’s where we pick them up… I don’t want to tip the hat too much, but I will say that the heat is immediately turned up on the Resistance. Everybody is put in a pressure cooker right away, and relationships crack and strain under that pressure. That was really interesting to me, the notion of putting this small army under a lot of external pressure and showing some of the results within the Resistance itself.”
The article also goes on to reiterate that no changes were made to The Last Jedi following Fisher’s death, and that Star Wars: Episode IX is being rewritten out of respect for her passing.
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In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is set for release on December 14th in the UK and December 15th in the States and sees returning cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Simon Pegg (Unkar Plutt), and Warwick Davis joined by new additions Jimmy Vee (Pan) as R2-D2, Kelly Marie Tran (Ladies Like Us) as Rose, and Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Laura Dern (Jurassic Park).
Originally published August 11, 2017. Updated April 17, 2018.
