Star Wars 9: Mark Hamill weighs in on whether Princess Leia should be recast
'She’s irreplaceable, as far as I’m concerned'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Soon after completing filming on Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Carrie Fisher sadly passed away, leaving an enormous hole in the galaxy far, far away.
As has been widely publicised, Fisher’s iconic Princess/General Leia was intended to have a major role in Episode IX, similar to how Han Solo had the majority of Force Awakens screen-time and Luke Skywalker was the primary original trio character in Last Jedi.
Mark Hamill – who plays Luke – has since commented on whether LucasFilm and Disney should recast the character for the upcoming movie.
Speaking to Collider, the actor acknowledged how Leia was supposed to be key to Episode IX – “especially since the dynamic of having Kylo Ren as her son” – adding: ”I think it would be tough recasting, only because she’s so indelibly linked with that character.
“They’ve already ruled out the idea of computer generating her performance like they did with Peter Cushing.
“So, gee, that’s really got to be… not an insurmountable problem… but I know the script had been developed enough so that when we lost her they had to go back to square one. But she’s irreplaceable, as far as I’m concerned.”
Hamill has been promoting the DVD release of Last Jedi in recent weeks, revealing his preferred order for watching the many, many Star Wars movies.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments