Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia in 'Star Wars: Episode IX'? Not So Fast, Says Lucasfilm Boss Kathleen Kennedy

A week ago, Todd Fisher made headlines by telling the New York Daily News that his late sister, Carrie Fisher, would still appear in Star Wars: Episode IX despite her death in December.

Todd said that he and Billie Lourd, Carrie’s daughter, had agreed to allow Lucasfilm to use existing footage. “Both of us were like, ‘Yes, how do you take her out of it?’ And the answer is you don’t,” he told the newspaper. He wasn’t clear, though, on what role Leia would play in Episode IX, which is being written and directed by Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World). “I’m not the only part in that equation, but I think the people deserve to have her,” said Fisher. “She’s owned by them. … You don’t mess with this legacy.”

However, speaking to Yahoo Movies on Friday at Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy appeared to be taken aback by Todd Fisher’s remarks and indicated it was premature to discuss how Leia would figure into the story. (Carrie had finished filming her scenes in Episode VIII: The Last Jedi before her death.)

“I have no idea why he said that. We have not read a script yet,” Kennedy said. “Obviously, when Carrie passed away in December that was a huge blow for all of us, and it caused us to sit with Colin to really think where we were headed with Episode IX. Carrie was a significant part in that story — that was something she very much wanted and something we very much wanted. But given the circumstances, we would not carry on with that.”

[UPDATE at 6:15 p.m. ET: Shortly after our interview, Kennedy told ABC’s Good Morning America, “Sadly, Carrie will not be in IX,” Kennedy said. “But we will see a lot of Carrie in VIII.”]

Kennedy said she and Trevorrow are “very close” on a revised script and will be meeting soon to discuss changes.

Meanwhile, she also addressed questions about future Star Wars standalone films, which Star Wars sites have speculated could focus on fan favorites like Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, or Ahsoka Tano.

“There are lots of rumors, but to be perfectly honest, we’re in the midst of talking about all of that right now,” she said. “We haven’t made a ton of decisions yet. We’ve had many, many ideas — we have a very strong story group inside Lucasfilm that we sit and meet with on a regular basis, we have a handful of filmmakers that we’ve been talking to about possibly bringing in. But we just started — we’re four or five weeks in — on the Han Solo movie. In fact, I leave in about 45 minutes to go back to London, where we’re shooting right now. We’re shooting that until August. And we’re finishing [The Last Jedi].

“That’s a lot on our plate at the moment. And then I’d say in the next six to eight months, we’ll have some concentrated meetings on what we’re going to move forward with.”

Princess Leia fans remember Carrie Fisher:

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