Press conference reveals Leia's grand role in 'The Rise of Skywalker'
It's something fans had been hoping for in a big way.
This article has been updated.
Though it’s unclear just how much (or how little) screen time Carrie Fisher will have as General Leia Organa in The Rise of Skywalker, her rumored role in the film has seemingly just been low-key confirmed. Journalists who recently attended a Star Wars press event have noticed a display featuring Leia’s costume from Episode IX which very clearly confirms something many fans were hoping for in a big way.
Likely spoilers ahead for The Rise of Skywalker. To be clear, this does derive from something that is on display in public.
According to the Twitter account of a James Baney, a contributor to StarWarsNewsNet, a placard at Star Wars press event straight-up says that Leia is now “training Rey in the ways of the Force, for the galaxy is still in need of a Jedi.”
From a costume display at press conference. Is Leia a Jedi Master?
On some level, this revelation isn’t really a spoiler, but instead, a confirmation of what makes sense based on what we know happened in The Last Jedi. In that movie, Leia very clearly demonstrated Force-powers beyond anything we’d ever seen Luke or Anakin do up to that point. So, if Leia wasn’t training Rey in the ways of the Force, even off-screen, a normal Star Wars fan would have every right to give into their anger and turn to the Dark side.
Leia in space in 'The Last Jedi'
Leia training Rey as a Jedi isn’t exactly a twist, but rather something that probably should have happened at the end of The Force Awakens. Sure, it’s reasonable to assume that Leia has maybe kept some of her powers hidden for political reasons, but still, the fact that Leia was kind of a glorified bureaucrat in The Force Awakens, and in a coma for half of The Last Jedi is borderline criminal. Leia’s Force powers in The Last Jedi were awesome, but on some level, her role as Rey’s new teacher feel even more significant.
In the original Star Wars, the visage of Leia is what creates the “call to adventure” for the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker. And yet, Leia herself is perhaps, even a bigger hero than Luke or Han. And now, at the very end of the saga, it seems like Leia will finally get the badass master status she’s deserved for decades. It’s just a shame that Fisher isn’t still around to make jokes about it.
The Rise of Skywalker: Leia’s Jedi School Kicks Ass is out everywhere on December 20, 2019.
