Meryl Streep Playing Leia in 'Episode IX' is 'Star Wars' Fake News
Some people think there is a “rumor” about Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep playing Leia Organa in Star Wars: Episode IX. But this rumor is worse than a rumor, it’s just fake news. Here’s why there is no reason to believe Meryl Streep is taking over for Carrie Fisher anytime soon.
On Thursday, MovieWeb published an article with the headline “Meryl Streep Rumored to Replace Carrie Fisher as Leia in Star Wars 9.” This notion came from an article published on Dork Side of the Force the same day which was reporting on a fan petition where exactly 8, 049 people want Streep to play “Princess Leia.” First of all, don’t they know she’s a General now? Second, there is no reason to believe that 8,049 people have convinced Lucasfilm and representatives for Streep to suddenly play Leia in the last film in the current Star Wars trilogy.
Leia is mad.
The fan petition started on a site called Care2Petitions, which claims it needed 9,000 people to support it before the petition reaches its. Maybe these people know something we don’t. Does Meryl Streep have something in her contracts that say if 9,000 people ask her to be in a movie that she is compelled to do it? Here’s the relevant part of the petition:
“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.”
There are several paragraphs before this statement and absolutely no warning that the makers of the petition are going to start talking about Streep until that point. The logic seems to have gone something like this: We must recast Leia. Recasting is good. MERYL STREEP.
So, as of this writing, Meryl Streep is not playing Leia in a Star Wars movie. In the wake of Fisher’s tragic death in 2016, Lucasfilm has said, on numerous occasions, that they are planning on using CGI or recasting the role Leia. - Star Wars: Episode IX is out in theaters on December 20, 2019.
