JJ Abrams on the ‘spiritual, cosmic’ decision to bring back Carrie Fisher in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker

Filmmaker JJ Abrams says it was a difficult job for him to incorporate old footage of the late Carrie Fisher in his upcoming film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Fisher, 60, died on December 27, 2016 after suffering a cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Abrams had last year announced that he will be using unseen footage shot for The Force Awakens to build Leia's character in the upcoming movie, which marks the final chapter in the Skywalker Saga of the hit franchise.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the director assured the fans that Fisher appearance will be seamless in the new film.

"It's hard to even talk about it without sounding like I’m being some kind of cosmic spiritual goofball but it felt like we suddenly had found the impossible answer to the impossible question," Abrams said about the unseen footage.

He revealed that new scenes were created to fit Fisher's dialogues from the unseen footage into new situations. "It was a bizarre kind of left side/right side of the brain sort of Venn diagram thing, of figuring out how to create the puzzle based on the pieces we had," Abrams added.

According to the filmmaker, Fisher will be seen interacting with a Resistance officer Lieutenant Connix, who is played by the actor's real-life daughter Billie Lourd. He said initially he wrote Lourd out of the scenes but changed his mind after protests from the actor.

"So, there are moments where they’re talking; there are moments where they’re touching," Abrams said.

"There are moments in this movie where Carrie is there, and I really do feel there is an element of the uncanny, spiritual, you know, classic Carrie, that it would have happened this way, because somehow it worked. And I never thought it would," he added.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is slated for release in December 2019.

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