Star Wars: J.J. Abrams Details How Editing Leia in The Rise of Skywalker Was "Doubly Heartbreaking"

Following the sudden passing of actress and icon Carrie Fisher in December of 2016, the future of [...]

By Spencer Perry

Following the sudden passing of actress and icon Carrie Fisher in December of 2016, the future of the galaxy far, far away seemed very uncertain. Even before Star Wars: The Last Jedi had arrived in theaters, it was uncertain how her death would impact the upcoming ninth episode of the Star Wars saga, now titled Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Rian Johnson's middle chapter concluded with her character General Leia Organa escaping with the remnants of the Rebellion toward an uncertain future. Since then it has been revealed that Fisher will reprise her role once again, her new appearance arriving from footage previously shot for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the process for which director J.J. Abrams has detailed in a new interview.

Abrams previously revealed that Fisher's appearance in the film was constructed from about 8 minutes of deleted footage from the 2015 feature, and speaking with EW he's now gone into detail about how they were able to arrive where they have and why it was so emotional to put it together.

"We realized very early on there was no way we could tell this story without Leia and the idea, obviously, of recasting her was something that we would never think of (And) a digital Leia, as well as it could have been done I suppose, was just never something that we wanted to try. And saying that she had passed away or something or was off somewhere felt like a cheat, and it was a real problem. Then I remembered we had these scenes that we hadn't used from Episode 7, so I compiled the footage and went back and looked at it and it was like finding this impossible answer to this impossible question. While it wasn't immediately apparent exactly how we would use everything, what suddenly became clear were these scenes I had bemoaned cutting because I hate the idea of shooting a scene and wasting anyone's time on set and then not using it, but the truth is it was like the gift of the gods. We suddenly had in like a classic Carrie way these amazing moments that we realized if we wrote around and shot around what we had, so when you see her in the movie it's her. She's there. It's not like there's some crazy digital trickery, it's like she's just in the movie, and to have gotten to work with her again in this way it's so odd because I'm in the editing room cutting scenes with her in this film as if I would with any of the other characters or actors in the movie. She's just not with us anymore. So the fact that she's not here today and we're not able to like have her be a part of this ridiculous experience is sort of doubly heart breaking."

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is directed by J.J. Abrams and also stars Daisey Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Joonas Suotamo, Anthony Daniels, Jimmy Vee, Dave Chapman, Brian Herring, Mark Hamill, Billie Lourd, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Keri Russell, Dominic Monaghan, Richard E. Grant. and Greg Grunberg. The official synopsis for the film reads:

"Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in U.S. theaters on December 20."

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