Carrie Fisher’s appearance at New York Comic Con (NYCC) was curtailed due to additional photography on Star Wars: Episode 8. Does this indicate an expanded role for General Leia in the upcoming sequel to The Force Awakens, due out in theaters Dec. 15, 2017? For a full picture of what’s going on with Leia in Star Wars: Episode 8, we’ll need to dive into some huge spoilers from earlier this year, when several rumors and leaks suggested that Leia’s role in the Resistance against the First Order would be reduced in Star Wars: Episode 8.
The first set leak in March indicated that Laura Dern will be playing a Resistance officer at odds with Leia’s leadership. After Leia is injured in an explosion, Dern’s character takes over, eventually leading to a mutiny led by Poe Dameron. This sounds like it could be marginalizing Leia as a major player in Resistance politics, setting up Poe Dameron as a future leader of the movement.
But the second leak suggests that Leia’s future may take an interesting turn in Star Wars: Episode 8. According to an anonymous commenter claiming to work on the set of the film (he or she previously leaked descriptions from the set of The Force Awakens that proved accurate), Leia is indeed injured in an explosion, but manages to survive by using the Force. Could Leia abandon the secular path of government and military leadership for her brother’s new Jedi Order?
With so little known about the plot of Star Wars: Episode 8, it’s impossible to say what Carrie Fisher’s additional photography means. Still, it at least suggests she’s not going to be cut out of the Episode 8 loop entirely.
