No, ‘Episode IX’ Will Not Feature a CGI General Leia, Which Is a Relief
After Carrie Fisher’s untimely death, a lot of fans speculated about how her absence would affect the story of the final Star Wars movie. All of her scenes had been completed for Episode VIII, but production hadn’t yet started on Episode IX, and some wondered whether Lucasfilm would pull a Tarkin and resurrect General Organa using a combination of CGI and motion-capture. A lot of us mad mixed-to-negative feelings about this, wondering whether it was even appropriate for the company to be making these plans so soon after her death, but rest assured, there are currently no plans to do that.
In a post entitled “A Statement Regarding New Rumors,” the Star Wars official website dispelled any rumors that we’d see a CGI Leia in the last movie:
We don’t normally respond to fan or press speculation, but there is a rumor circulating that we would like to address. We want to assure our fans that Lucasfilm has no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess or General Leia Organa.
Carrie Fisher was, is, and always will be a part of the Lucasfilm family. She was our princess, our general, and more importantly, our friend. We are still hurting from her loss. We cherish her memory and legacy as Princess Leia, and will always strive to honor everything she gave to Star Wars.
It’s a very reassuring, sympathetic post, and great news for anyone who was distracted by Peter Cushing’s digital resurrection in Rogue One. That same movie did CGI a younger Princess Leia in at the very end, but that was only for a shot, and for a good reason. To do that to her in the final Star Wars episode, where she has a bigger role and more screen time, might have felt much stranger than simply rewriting her role in the script.