J.J. Abrams might have managed to bring the late Carrie Fisher back to the big screen in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, however, it seems like the process was actually much more complicated than putting together extra footage of General Organa in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Cinema Blend went on an interview with Roger Guyett and Patrick Tubach, the supervisors at Industrial Light & Magic Visual Effects and during the discussion, the entertainment news outlet learned that The Rise of Skywalker's visual effects team actually had to put significant effort into bringing Leah back to the big screen for Episode IX.
Lucasfilm might have kept its promises to avoid recreating Leia's image digitally, but the studio did try its best to tweak the old footage of Leia to fit her into the narrative for The Rise of Skywalker. The filmmakers knew that it was important to have General Organa's new role in the film be specific to Episode IX, making sure that the appearance wouldn't be tied to The Force Awakens.
"If you think about, when you look at any of those shots, of course when you really start thinking about it, the truth is she's got a different costume. She's got different hair. She's wearing different jewelry. Okay. Because she's unique to nine. That's the idea," Guyett explained in his interview with the publication.
Guess Abrams and his team put a whole lot of effort into making sure that Leia was perfect for The Rise of Skywalker. We got to appreciate the work put into that.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently screening in cinemas.
Read: The Rise of Skywalker Writer Explains Why the Opening Crawl Starts with Palpatine's Big Reveal
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Episode IX