It’s been two years, another Star Wars installment, and a posthumous Grammy, but every once in a while when I’m feeling crappy about getting old or being a weirdo, a Carrie Fisher anecdote lifts my spirits: her embrace of mental illness down to the Prozac urn; her f-off to ageism (“My body hasn’t aged as well as I have. Blow us”); the legendary phallic warning to a sexual harasser via chopped-off cow tongue; and the whole rest of the iceberg which can not be blurbed. When you scroll through tabloid headlines about how over-40 women still look sexy in bikini selfies all the time, it’s nice to keep in mind that all of that stuff is stupid, and nobody cares.
That has absolutely nothing to do with this news, but for anybody else who’s longing for more, J.J. Abrams has announced that he will use unseen footage from Star Wars: Episode VII to conclude Leia’s story in Episode IX, an idea which Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy had allegedly sniffed at.
He has said in a statement, via The Hollywood Reporter:
We desperately loved Carrie Fisher. Finding a truly satisfying conclusion to the Skywalker saga without her eluded us. We were never going to recast, or use a CG character. With the support and blessing from her daughter, Billie [Lourd], we have found a way to honor Carrie’s legacy and role as Leia in Episode IX by using unseen footage we shot together in Episode VII.
Abrams also has the blessing of Fisher’s brother, and her daughter Billie will be co-starring.
The movie begins filming August 1st and is set to come out December 2019.