Carrie Fisher suffers heart attack on plane, dies at age 60*

Obviously there is no way to know this, but I would like to think that Carrie would appreciate her death having that emotional impact.

I'm reminded of David Bowie's video to the song Lazerus - he knew he was dying and he turned it into a final work of art. Or the video to Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt. One could make a case that it was exploiting a frail old man, but the end result was an extraordinary powerful statement on mortality.

We all exploit ourselves, and actors exploit their own emotions to do their work. Carrie drew from her substance abuse issues and mental health problems in her writing. I just feel that she deserves one last great scene.

 

Exactly.

 

There's a huge difference between acknowledging your own mortality in your work and using the death of another in your own work.

 

The actress is gone. They have only two choices - ignore it or use it. The second is more artistically valid (obviously in my opinion.)

 

I'm in agreement with @Chris DeVoe

What else can they do? Have her on an off-screen mission? She's been a main character for 7 films now, to have her off on a mission and not actually show some of that mission would be bizarre.

By that reasoning, tribute songs about dead artists would also be a no no.

 

Wouldn't they be doing re-shoots right now if anything was gonna change?
So as there has been no mention of anything..............

 

If you're interested in seeing Carrie Fisher in her last TV role, then check out Brit comedy drama Catastrophe. Season 3 is now airing in the UK. Not sure when Amazon will show it - this year sometime...

 

Not if they have her die between films or off-screen in Episode 9. We as the audience might find out about the characters death in 9's crawl, or her ship could be destroyed with her on it. There are a number of ways to make it emotional for the audience.
My theory is they could do a 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', seeing the truck Marion is on explode was highly emotional for both Indy and the audience. Now, of course in that film we find out that Marion was not ultimately killed and was on another truck, but they could do something along those lines. The other characters seeing or hearing about Leia's death would be emotional, and I think that would telegraph to the audience in the theater.

 

I didn't say it was a "no-no" - those are your words. But it's completely different from reflecting on your own mortality in your own work.

Since we don't know anything about the scripts for the next two Star Wars films, it's impossible to say if there's a good way to handle Leia's death on camera or off without it feeling shoehorned in. They should do whatever services the story the best (which I'd imagine is what they will do). That opens a whole host of possibilities, from not acknowledging Fisher's death at all to making it a central point of one of the films, and everything inbetween.

 

I don't know how you can NOT acknowledge her death. Suddenly Leia just disappears from the story? Her character arc over 8 films just piddles out to nothing? Her death would lend a lot of emotion to the story. The resistance loses a great leader, Rey loses a new found friend, Luke loses his sister. Personal opinion of course, but I think not acknowledging Carries death by having one of the main characters just disappear or ride off into the sunset would be anti-climactic. I mean her character is all about fighting for what is right and good, she has been putting herself on the line ready to die to restore peace to the galaxy for 8 films.

 

They ain't talking, but I'd bet there's a 90% chance they did have to make some changes in Star Wars VIII to account for Carrie Fisher's unavailability for Episode IX.

 

We have no idea how the next chapter was slated to end, or what role was envisioned for Leia in the final film. I suspect it would be easier to write around her absence rather than kill her off, since she's not available for any filming. If they do kill her off it will have to be largely offscreen, which is something of a cheat. Dramatically, it could work just as well to have her absent or "missing".

In fact, looking for Leia could provide an interesting opening thread for IX...

 

Well, I disagree and don't think either one of us is going to change our minds, so i think we'll just have to disagree with each other.

 

People have talked about whether they could use a CGI double for Carrie Fisher in Star Wars IX. I say, they may use a CGI double in the new film just to create a new scene where her character dies on-screen. That would make good solid dramatic sense, plus if they end the film on that note, it would give Luke, Chewbacca, and the new girl inspiration to avenge her death.

 

Even if Carrie was still alive, they'd use a digital double for some scenes anyway.

 

Is it likely that in time, after episodes VIII and IX have been released, that we'll be told what the original storyline was, and how it changed because of Carrie's death?

 

The digital double/ computer generated image they used of her at the end of 'Rogue One' was terrible - it almost ruined the entire movie for me.

 

I think it would be very jarring and difficult to pull off, technically, creatively and most of all tastefully.

 

Pretty much exactly what I envisioned.

I think they more or less have to kill her character off. To just explain her absence away with something like "Oh, she's just off doing Resistance business" wouldn't at all be emotionally satisfying to the audience. Especially since, presumably, IX will resolve all the story threads of VII and VIII, the same way Return of the Jedi did for the original trilogy.

 

Lucasfilm has made it very clear that they will not digitally recreate Carrie Fisher for either of the new films.
A Statement Regarding New Rumors | StarWars.com

There is the possibility that some of the footage shot for episode 8 will be shifted to episode 9. It was mentioned in the Rogue One thread that filmmakers tend to shoot a ton of footage for big productions such as these. Much of the footage goes unused. It's possible that more footage of Fisher was shot than was needed and that, with some creative rewrites, some of that footage will be used for episode 9. Let's not forget that Fisher did not have a very large role in The Force Awakens. Fisher's role in episodes 8 and 9 might not have been much larger than her role in The Force Awakens. The new characters are the primary focus of these films.

 

Leia will be written off as having moved to Ireland to take care of her super-centenarian Auntie Katie.

 

No, she's going to be played in some scenes by the director's chiropractor.

(I'd say "too soon" if I didn't know Carrie's very dark sense of humor.)

 

Of course! After all, this is the woman who died by drowning in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.

 

Some reports are indicating that there was a larger part for Leia in IX than in VIII.

 

They keep a lot of secrets at Disney.

I agree: it was weird, robotic, and creepy to me.



(Guess which one is fake. Hint: it's the one where she has dull eyes and plastic skin.)