Araya Diaz Araya Diaz

EARLIER THIS WEEK, a Star Wars fan began an online petition to ease their uncertainties about “how Star Wars Episode IX is going to deal with Leia”, after the untimely death of actress Carrie Fisher.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, they made their case:

As 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 a more ideal option for us.

They even went as far as suggesting that Meryl Streep stepped into Carrie’s old role. Within a few days, the petition received over 10,000 signatures.

Jesse Grant Jesse Grant

Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, caught wind of this petition.

Paula Lobo Paula Lobo

Unsurprisingly, he’s not really into the idea. As a close friend of Carrie Fisher, who has known her for decades, he said that she is irreplaceable.

Speaking to Collider, Hamill said that on a practical level, it wouldn’t make much sense:

First of all, I don’t know what the specific plans were for that character but just the way Han Solo [Harrison Ford] was more prominent in seven, Luke more prominent in eight, we assumed Leia would be more prominent in nine, especially since the dynamic of having Kylo Ren as her son [was introduced].

Albert L. Ortega Albert L. Ortega

On an emotional level, it’s just as difficult.

I think it would be tough recasting Carrie because she is so indelibly linked to that character. They’ve already ruled out a computer generated performance like they did with Peter Cushing, so, gee, that’s gotta be a really – not insurmountable problem – but I know that the script had been in development so that when we lost her, they had to go back to square one. But she is irreplaceable, you know, as far as I’m concerned.

DailyEdge is on Instagram!