Oscar Isaac says Carrie Fisher’s Episode IX footage delves deeper into Leia and Poe’s story

We’ve known for a while that the late, great Carrie Fisher left behind enough unused footage from Star Wars: The Last Jedi for director J.J. Abrams to use in the still-untitled Episode IX. But until now, we weren’t sure what kind of footage it was, or how the final Skywalker movie would honor Princess Leia’s iconic place in the Star Wars universe.

Thanks to some new insight from a certain trigger-happy flyboy, though, it looks like Episode IX will use Fisher’s material to further explore the mentoring relationship between Leia and ace Rebel pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac).

In a recent interview with John Fugelsang of Sirius XM Insight, Isaac explained that unused footage Fisher shot for The Last Jedi “gets carried over” in a way that highlights more of the contentious (but affectionate) relationship between Leia and Poe. 

Leia’s big-picture wisdom conflicted early with Poe’s hot-headed lust to destroy an Imperial Dreadnought in The Last Jedi, and that dynamic set a weighty emotional backdrop for the movie’s later scenes, when Poe overstepped his rank to defy Vice Admiral Holdo (Laura Dern) as Leia lay injured and unconscious. 

As SYFY WIRE reported last November, Isaac previously teased that Fisher’s extra footage would respect her Star Wars legacy “in a beautiful way.” And if her Episode IX story is bringing Poe back into the picture to give us more of that teacher-student vibe, those earlier remarks are suddenly starting to make a lot more sense. 

Isaac didn’t say whether his moments with Fisher are the only ones that’ll feature Leia in Episode IX, so it’s possible Princess Leia may make her presence felt with more characters than just Poe Dameron. We’ve still got the rest of 2019 before we finally know for sure: Star Wars: Episode IX makes the jump to light speed to close out the Skywalker saga on Dec. 21.