A new photo from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has given fans a look at how old footage has been used to bring Carrie Fisher’s General Leia Organa back to life in the new film.
Star Wars fans were heartbroken in 2016 when Fisher passed away due to complications from a heart attack, and while she had completed all her scenes for The Last Jedi, her passing caused complications for The Rise of Skywalker.
Leia was originally supposed to be at the forefront of the film like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were for the previous two films.
Lucasfilm didn’t even look into the options of recasting or digitally recreating Fisher’s likeness, so JJ Abrams decided they’d use old footage of the actress from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and wrote new scenes so Fisher was still part of the film.
In the teaser trailer, we got a quick glimpse of Leia hugging Rey, but a new image has given fans their best look at her.
Vanity Fair did a spread on The Rise of Skywalker which included an image of John Williams conducting the movie’s score. In the background you can see a photo of Leia, it’s quite small, but thankfully Redditor Dentface has shared an upscaled version of the shot which you can see here:
It looks as though they have used this scene of Leia from Force Awakens:
Carrie Fisher in Force Awakens
The new photo shows they’ve made some touch ups to make Leia appear older, they’ve added some grey to her hair and aged her skin.
We still don’t have much idea of what kind of role Leia will play in the film, but hopefully, as we get closer to the release date it will become a little clearer.