It has already been confirmed that General Leia Organa will still play a major role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker despite the unfortunate passing of the late Carrie Fisher. Director J.J. Abrams has, previously, admitted that he had used scenes that were filmed by Fisher from Star Wars: The Force Awakens to bring back the Resistance's leader.
However, a new report might reveal that Star Wars Episode 9 is doing away with some important sequences that could establish Leia's story. Interestingly, these scenes were expected to show that Leia had previously trained as a Jedi.
Fans have always wondered what happened to Leia Organa after the events in Return of the Jedi. It is believed that Luke Skywalker noticed that his sister is also Force-sensitive and convinced her to train as a Jedi.
Although this possibility was teased in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, Leia's Jedi training has since been erased when EU was considered non-canon. However, this could change with Star Wars Episode 9 as previous reports revealed that there would be a key flashback sequence where Leia is shown training with Luke.
It was, previously, reported that The Rise of Skywalker had cast a younger actress to stand in as Leia Organa for a flashback sequence. It is even believed that Carrie Fisher's own daughter Billie Lourd served as Leia's stand-in in the scene where Leia is supposed to train with Luke Skywalker.
Unfortunately, a new report confirms that the sequence will no longer appear in The Rise of Skywalker. This means that an important part of Leia's story could be removed from the film during recent reshoots.
The report comes from the Making Star Wars podcast Now, This Is Podracing! where it is revealed that the flashback sequence showing Leia Organa's training was supposed to be the film's opening scene. The sequence was supposed to be followed quickly by a scene where Leia herself is training Rey in the present day.
This should have established that Leia will pass on her knowledge to Rey to prepare the young girl for her future battles. However, the scene has since been removed from the theatrical cut.
It is still unclear why Leia Organa's training scene has been deleted from Star Wars Episode 9 during reshoots. Nevertheless, fans can rest assured that the late Carrie Fisher will still have plenty of scenes in the movie. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will finally premiere on December 20, 2019.
