Oscar Isaac says Force Awakens footage of Carrie Fisher repurposed for Star Wars: Episode IX will further flesh out Poe Dameron's relationship with General Leia Organa. After Fisher tragically passed away in December 2016, Lucasfilm was forced to start Episode IX development over from scratch. The original plan called for Leia to be at the forefront, much like Han Solo in Force Awakens and Luke Skywalker in Last Jedi. Many fans wondered how (or if) the character would be incorporated into the trilogy finale, and last summer Lucasfilm revealed old footage from the previous films would be used.
How exactly this is executed remains to be seen. Obviously, J.J. Abrams and company wouldn't have gone in this direction if they didn't have the utmost confidence in their plan, but it'll still be interesting to watch come into fruition. Even with the magic of post-production providing avenues to manipulate the scenes as the crew sees fit, one would have to imagine the team is somewhat limited with what they can do. Still, from the sound of things there's some good material for Abrams to sift through, and a lot of it apparently involves interactions between Leia and Poe.
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While speaking with Sirius XM's John Fugelsang (hat tip IndieWire), Isaac briefly discussed the Fisher footage, revealing that parts of it detail the close relationship Leia had with the hotshot Resistance pilot:
“I wasn’t surprised because I remember we were doing that, we worked a lot. [Fisher] and I worked together so much. We would talk about the scenes, and we got very tight during the shooting of that. So it was a beautiful thing to see, and it gets carried over into the new film as well.”
A fascinating thing to keep in mind is that the scenes Isaac's discussing, of course, were written and shot years ago for the first film in a trilogy when nobody could have anticipated these turn of events. Poe's also had an additional film of character growth and development now, where he learned hard lessons about what it means to be a leader. Without knowing the context of the footage, one would hope that these bits don't simply rehash beats from the earlier movies and instead move Poe's arc forward in a meaningful way. A deleted Force Awakens subplot involving the Resistance owning a super-weapon called the Warhammer may provide some clues, as that could raise some morally ambiguous conversations between the two. Regardless of the content, it'll nevertheless be nice to see Fisher and Isaac together onscreen. In some respects, Poe is the son Leia wishes she had, and anything that strengthens their connection will be appreciated.
Hopefully, some lingering questions about Leia's Episode IX role are resolved during Celebration Chicago next month. It's already been confirmed an Episode IX panel will be a centerpiece of the convention, and it's widely expected the film's first trailer will debut there. Historically, Star Wars teaser trailers are more about establishing the tone and atmosphere of a given movie, keeping several plot details under lock and key to play up the mystery. That'll likely be the case with Episode IX, but it wouldn't hurt Lucasfilm to peel back the curtain a little more than usual and give fans a greater idea of how their Leia plan will function.
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Source: Sirius XM (via IndieWire)
