The late actress’s mother was silver screen icon Debbie Reynolds, and her father was the equally famous singer Eddie Fisher — he famously left Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor, setting Carrie up for what was, at best, a challenging situation.
Nonetheless, Carrie, too, decided to pursue a career in entertainment and found herself cast as Princess Leia Organa in George Lucas’s Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) at age 19.
Carrie went on, as all Star Wars fans know, to become synonymous with Princess Leia. She played the part for over 40 years, from Lucas’s original trilogy in the 1970s and 1980s to the sequel trilogy that spanned from 2015 to 2019, ultimately ending the Skywalker Saga.
The films of the sequel trilogy — Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — were extremely divisive, and many Star Wars fans, as well as iconic Jedi Master Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill, have expressed their disappointment with the overall storyline.
Two specific sore spots Skywalker’s portrayal in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, which received the most backlash of any Star Wars movie in the most recent trilogy, and the perceived sidelining of John Boyega’s character, ex-stormtrooper Finn.
As we’ve pointed out in our past coverage, the odds of the Star Wars sequel trilogy actually being retconned entirely — despite the rampant rumor mill — are highly unlikely for a number of reasons, including the financial success of the three films at the global box office.
Inverse made an excellent point about the actress, who approved the creative decisions — including the casting of her daughter, Billie Lourd [pictured above] — made in the final three Skywalker Saga movies before her December 2016 death:
…[she] placed her faith in JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson to make a certain series of films.
Fisher co-dedicated her final memoir — The Princess Diarist— to her Star Wars co-stars and directors (excluding Richard Marquand). Fisher loved working with Abrams and Johnson. Had she not, she wouldn’t have said nice things about them. The snub of Return of the Jedi director Marquand speaks volumes. Fisher wasn’t someone who played diplomatic Hollywood games. She was honest and upfront, and she was behind the creative decisions of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. All the way.
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Credit: Lucasfilm
