Carrie Fisher might have tragically passed away before she could finish filming her scenes for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but Star Wars' princess will remain the "heart" of the highly anticipated sequel trilogy entry.
Star Wars: Episode IX director J.J. Abrams headed down to Disney's D23 Expo over the weekend (via The Digital Spy), and there the filmmaker revealed that the late Star Wars legend would still appear in the film because he simply "could not possibly tell the end" of the Skywalker saga without Fisher.
"The character of Leia is really, in a way, the heart of this story," Abrams told fans who were in attendance at the convention, "We realized we could not possibly tell the end of these nine films without Leia. We realized that we had footage from Episode VII, and we could use it in a new way."
Lucasfilm dropped a new teaser for The Rise of Skywalker today, and while there weren't that many shots from the new film, we do get to see a new few sequences from the film, including a shot of Leia in the jungle.
Hearing that Leia has become the heart of Episode IX shouldn't come as a surprise to fans. Episode IX was always meant to be a tribute to Leia, the same way that The Force Awakens was meant to be a tribute to Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the same way that The Last Jedi was meant to be a tribute to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker premieres December 20, 2019.
Read: Watch Rey Head To The Dark Side In New Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Teaser
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