‘Star Wars: Episode IX’: Unused “Force Awakens" Carrie Fisher Footage Will Develop Poe and Leia’s Relationship

We know that the late Carrie Fisher will posthumously appear, for the final time, as Leia Organa in next year's J.J. Abrams-directed Star Wars: Episode IX.

During a recent interview with Sirius XM host John Fugelsang, Isaac mentioned that the relationship between Leia and Poe will continue through “Episode IX” thanks to the use of the previously shot footage. The bond between the two characters was supposed to appear in “The Force Awakens,” but was eventually cut from the final cut, alas, we will see it now in the final chapter.

“I wasn’t surprised because I remember we were doing that, we worked a lot,” Isaac said of the scenes making their way back into the franchise. “[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.”

As for what it was like to see footage shot from years ago being repurposed for “Episode IX,” Isaac admitted it was “definitely an unusual thing,” but added, “I also think it was right to engage with her character, and not just let it be something that fades away.”

Her role is said to consist of mostly unused footage from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi and according to Fisher’s brother, Todd Fisher, Lucasfilm has a lot of leftover material to work with:

Fisher told “Good Morning America” that there are “a lot of minutes of footage” being used of Fisher. “I don’t mean just outtakes,” he said. “This is unused, new content that could be woven into the storyline. That’s what’s going to give everybody such a great kick. It’s going to look like it was meant to be. Like it was shot yesterday. We’re not allowed to talk about the details of anything, but we’re thrilled at what’s been done.”

“Star Wars: Episode IX” opens in theaters nationwide from Disney on December 20.