Princess Leia will be in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

Carrie Fisher, who played one of the iconic characters in sci-fi movie history, passed away last Christmas, and questions surrounding her future in Star Wars popped up almost immediately. Disney’s Rogue One, which premiered a few days ahead of Fisher’s unexpected death, made significant use of CGI animation to bring a few characters from the original saga back to the big screen, since the actors who played them are no longer with us.

But Disney said it won’t revive Fisher the same way. The actress completed her work for the then-untitled Episode VIII, and now we’ve learned that Fisher will be included in the final episode of the third saga.

According to Daily News, her brother Todd Fisher said that she will indeed appear in Episode IX. Todd said he and Carrie’s daughter Billie Lourd have granted Disney the rights to use the footage in the saga’s finale.

“Both of us were like, ‘Yes, how do you take her out of it?’ And the answer is you don’t,” her brother said. “She’s as much a part of it as anything and I think her presence now is even more powerful than it was, like Obi-Wan — when the saber cuts him down he becomes more powerful. I feel like that’s what’s happened with Carrie. I think the legacy should continue.”

How exactly Disney will bring Princess Leia back is unclear. Lucasfilm already said that it would not create a digital version of Leia for Episode IX, so they’ll probably use some of the footage that was shot for The Last Jedi.

As for Todd’s comment, it’s unclear whether Princess Leia dies in Episode VIII. On the other hand, this only begs the obvious question: will Leia die in the next movie? Do the scenes Disney wants to use in Episode IX feature a Leia appearance akin to Obi Wan’s in the original saga? If so, that would explain why Fisher may have shot some of these scenes already.

Alas, we’ll have to wait until 2019 to discover exactly how Leia will continue to help the heroes in Star Wars fight the remnants of the Empire.