As fans continue to pay their respects to Star Wars icon and mental health advocate Carrie Fisher following her tragic death last month, Disney is reportedly beginning the process of discussing the future of the franchise.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow is set to arrive in Los Angeles the week of January 10 to meet with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy to discuss options.
The report goes on to say that Carrie Fisher’s General Leia was set to have an even bigger role in Episode IX than VIII, which included key scenes with Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren.
As it stands right now, Episode VIII has already completed filming, while Episode IX is in the early stages of pre-production with no start date for filming set just yet. THR insiders say the status of the Episode IX script is unknown, but some options that may be considered include writing out Leia and reshooting her Episode VIII scenes – similar to what happened with Rogue One – or use CGI to fill the void and use Leia in reduced screen time.
Either way, I would not want to be in that meeting as this will be a tremendously difficult decision for the studio. General Leia’s compact role in The Force Awakens was one of the more criticized aspects of the film, so fans were clamoring for more of Carrie Fisher’s iconic character.
Unfortunately, the reality is sacrifices will have to be made.
May the Force be with Disney and Lucasfilm moving forward with this.
[THR]
