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Though Carrie Fisher may have died before she could start any work on Star Wars Episode IX, her performance as General Leia in The Last Jedi was complete, and the end had her sailing off in the Falcon with what was left of the Resistance. With Fisher supposed to be the main part of Episode IX before her death, rumors are now coming out that Meryl Streep will replace her in the film.
MovieWeb reports that several rumors are coming out online of Streep replacing Fisher in the film. Streep is said to be good friends with Fisher, and in some way, she had already played Fisher herself in the film Postcards from the Edge, a movie based on Fisher’s life (which she wrote herself) where a substance-addicted actress (Fisher) has to deal with the pressures of having a celebrity mother (Debbie Reynolds).
There is even a fan petition going around to have Streep replace Fisher in the movie. It writes:
“As the fans of STAR WARS and Carrie Fisher, we really want Leia to shine in Episode IX and we certainly do not want her to be written out of the film abruptly without a reasonable plot. Therefore, recasting Leia is an ideal option for us and we believe that Meryl Streep is an ideal candidate to play Leia. We strongly believed that she is the best hope for us to see the legacy of Carrie Fisher in Episode IX. May the force be with Carrie Fisher, Meryl Streep, and Princess Leia.”
Judging by the backlash on Solo’s Alden Ehrenreich for not being an exact replica of young Harrison Ford, there is sure to be a crazy amount of backlash if Streep were asked to replace Fisher in the role. Lucasfilm has gone out to say that they won’t be recreating Fisher with CGI, so the only logical direction for Leia’s story to go is either to write the character off or have her replaced by an actress—that actress being Meryl Streep (allegedly).
Though it is definitely an interesting rumor, there isn’t enough solid evidence to have us believe that Fisher getting replaced by Streep is true. Some even guess that the rumor was allowed to spread by Lucasfilm as a way to see how audiences would react if Fisher was ever replaced.
Will Streep be in Episode IX? I think it’s unlikely. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when the movie comes out Dec. 20, 2019.
