Star Wars: Episode IX

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Do you think her character will survive? I think Leia will die and at the end of the movie we will see her in ghost form with Luke (and Yoda/Anakin/Obi-Wan?), something similar to the end of Ep 6.

I can't even call it. It sounds like the right people are asking the right questions about stuff, but I don't know. The obvious inclination would be to have Leia go out in a blaze of glory somehow, get audiences roaring... but it goes back to what I've been saying. Would Carrie want that? Should the character be killed quick just because the actress died IRL? I mean, if I played Luke Skywalker for 30 years and I died tomorrow... do I want the character to die with me? Certainly not.

However... it is not a simple issue. Was the plan to kill Leia in IX all along? If so, then proceed as planned, by all means. But... was there even a plan at all? We're kind of led to believe there never was, so... gah. I can't call it. Now that we finally know exactly how they're proceeding (deleted/unused footage of Leia from TFA) I think we at least have some clues but even then, not a full picture of their intent.

I personally think the best the best way to go with everything we know is, incorporate Leia's big addressing of the New Republic scene from TFA (the biggest scene we know was cut from TFA) in some big rallying way, use whatever else they have on the chopping block to insert into the middle of the body of the film... and leave her alive by the end. Books and comics and recastings set between IX and X can tell the rest of that story, but the trilogy of trilogies can end with her presiding over whatever is left aft the end of IX. Because no one else is.