Star Wars: Gillian Anderson Originally Slated to Play Princess Leia in 'American Gods'

Bryan Fuller and Michael Green brought the first season of American Gods to life, which saw Gillian Anderson as Media, one of the New Gods, taking on multiple iconic personas from pop culture. The duo parted ways with the series for Season Two, with Fuller recently revealing their plans for the season would have seen Anderson play Leia Organa.

In a tweet which has since been deleted [H/T io9], Fuller confessed, "Me and [Green] never abandoned American Gods. We were dedicated to cast, crafted the season, wrote 5 episodes, even had Media as Mr. Rogers & Princess Leia. We were in the process of reducing scope due to a dramatic budget reduction when we were fired."

With Fuller, Green, and Anderson herself having parted ways with the series, it's unclear if Leia will still appear in some capacity, though with Kahyun Kim taking on the role of "New Media," the original plans for Season Two were likely changed drastically enough as to abandoned those concepts. Given Carrie Fisher's legacy as Leia, selecting any actress to embrace the persona would be a difficult task, yet Anderson's abilities and passionate fans would have likely led to well-received results.

Interestingly, this is only one of many instances of surprising revelations we've seen this year regarding the famous Star Wars character.

Fisher passed away shortly after production wrapped on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with that film seemingly being Fisher's last appearance in a live-action Star Wars movie. When production on Star Wars: Episode IX kicked off, Lucasfilm announced it would be using unseen footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens to craft the character's on-screen presence, with the production having received the blessing of Fisher's daughter Billie Lourd.

Shortly after this announcement, Lucasfilm revealed that Leia would be appearing in the animated Star Wars Resistance, which took place between the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Rachel Butera was revealed as the actress voicing the character, only for a controversy to dash those plans.

In September, Butera took to Twitter to offer up an impression of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in regards to her assault allegations against Supreme Court then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The actress immediately faced a social media backlash, as most users found the impression to be insulting and in poor taste regarding such a sensitive subject. Butera deleted the video and her entire Twitter account.

Leia finally appeared in Star Wars Resistance earlier this month, with her voice being credited to Carolyn Hennesy instead of Butera.

While we likely won't see Leia in Season Two of American Gods, which premieres on March 10, 2019, we can see her in Star Wars: Episode IX, which hits theaters in December of 2019.

Do you wish we could have seen Anderson as Leia in the series? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!