Star Wars fans can rest assured that General Leia Organa will still be a major part of Episode IX. However, director J.J. Abrams didn't actually have a lot to work with when looking for unused footage of the late Carrie Fisher. It has been revealed that Abrams only had around eight minutes of Leia footage to recycle in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The revelation comes from Carrie's brother Todd Fisher, who spoke to Yahoo! about his sister's role in The Rise of Skywalker. Although there were some unused footage of Leia from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Todd says it was a lot less than what most of us imagined.
"They had eight minutes of footage. They grabbed every frame and analyzed it... and then reverse-engineered it and [got] it into the story the right way. It's kind of magical," he said.
Sure, eight minutes sounds like appropriate screentime for Leia but it's best to remember that the scenes weren't necessarily in line with the story in The Rise of Skywalker. Nevertheless, Abrams seems to have found the best way to make it work by writing Leia's scenes around the available footage. Needless to say, we're looking forward to seeing our princess-turned-general this December.
The Rise of Skywalker will also feature Leia's brother Luke Skywalker although the character has been killed off in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Hopefully, we'll see another reunion between the two characters in Episode IX.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will finally hit theaters on December 20.
Related: Star Wars: George Lucas Reportedly Approves of The Mandalorian
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Star Wars: Episode IX