A Few Thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker

Not on The Rise of Skywalker specifically – it’s more of a jumping-off point to look at a certain idea. Heads up, this post will also bring up spoilers from Avengers: End Game.

As the apparent final chapter in the “Skywalker saga” of Star Wars approaches, with the latest trailer dropping recently, I was reminded of a quote that I read more than two years ago that still strikes me at random times. Back in May of 2017, we were about midway between Carrie Fisher’s passing and the release of The Last Jedi, and Vanity Fair printed a cover story on the film, complete with a gorgeous picture of Fisher with Mark Hamill that was taken before she died. In the piece, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy shared this bittersweet story about Fisher:

“The minute [Fisher] finished [filming The Last Jedi], she grabbed me and said, ‘I’d better be at the forefront of IX!’ Because Harrison was front and center on VII, and Mark is front and center on VIII. She thought IX would be her movie. And it would have been.”

Much has been made about how The Rise of Skywalker took unused footage of Fisher from previous films to maintain a presence for Leia in the movie, although the studio’s plans for Leia’s role in it obviously had to change. While we’ll see Fisher in theaters this December and we’ll have that teary smile reserved for seeing actors who’ve passed on “living” again on our screens, what we see of her won’t be what was originally planned for her.

Kennedy’s quote has stuck with me because it’s framed as poignant/tragic/wistful, “Oh, what might have been if only…”, but really, that’s not what it says to me. To me, I can’t ignore the unspoken part that points to what can happen when certain people’s stories are prioritized over others. After more than 30 years, the heroes of the original Star Wars trilogy returned to the franchise, two men and one woman. The first film showcased one of the men, the second showcased the other, while the woman waited her turn. But by the time it came, it was too late.

This is of course an extreme situation, and the moral of the story isn’t “tell women’s stories now before the actresses pass away!” Obviously not. But in less extreme ways, we see this happen with stories for women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. For years, people asked when Marvel was going to make a Black Widow movie, and yes, we’re finally getting one, but not until after the character of Natasha Romanoff herself is dead, which takes a lot of the shine off the apple. J.K. Rowling has talked about her plans for Dean Thomas, who was raised by his Muggle mother, discovering that the father he never knew was actually a wizard who was murdered by Death Eaters during Voldemort’s first rise. These aren’t things we read in the books because they aren’t in the books. They’re things Rowling’s told us because, over the course of seven novels, she “never found the right place” to include them.

When you begin with the male characters, or the white characters, or the straight characters, or the able-bodied characters, and the others have to wait their turn, that turn doesn’t always come. Shows get canceled before they get their chance. The moment passes, and it’s never the “right time” for them to be featured. Their backstory gets dropped from the final draft or their scene gets cut when the episode is two minutes too long. And yes, sometimes, in extreme situations, the actress dies while she’s waiting for her showcase.

That isn’t a tragic what-might-have-been. It’s a by-product, a side effect of the attitude “begin with/center the straight white able-bodied males and roll out the others gradually as time allows.” It’s choices that get made, and that’s why the quote from Kennedy makes me mad more so than sad. Episode IX “would have been” Carrie Fisher’s movie and now it can’t be, but Lucasfilm was the one to decide that it wouldn’t be Episodes VII or VIII.