The director explained how they incorporated older scenes of the late Fisher in the upcoming film.
The final Star Wars film featuring the late Carrie Fisher will be an emotional one.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker director J.J. Abrams revealed that Fisher, known for her iconic role as Leia, shares some touching scenes with her daughter, Billie Lourd, in the final film in the trilogy.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair published on Wednesday, Abrams opens up about how shocked and sad they were after Fisher's death. The actress died on Dec. 27, 2016 at the age of 60 after going into cardiac arrest on a flight from London to Los Angeles. To complete the trilogy, Abrams used old footage of Fisher for Episode IX and initially decided to cut Lourd -- who portrays Resistance officer Lieutenant Connix -- out of the scenes, thinking it would be too painful for her to see herself with her late mother.
However, Lourd told Abrams that she wanted to be in them.
"There are moments where they're talking; there are moments where they're touching," Abrams shares of the two on screen. "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."
Abrams had been adamant that they didn't feel like a CGI version of Fisher would work and they never thought of recasting the role. So when he found the old footage of Fisher, Abrams said it "felt like we suddenly had found the impossible answer to the impossible question."
Last month at the Star Wars Celebration event in Chicago, Abrams also addressed how he would fill the void after Fisher's death.
"We all talked about how to move on. I mean, she was the best. She was glorious. She was amazing...It was impossible," he expressed. "There was no way. You don't recast that part and you don't suddenly have her disappear."
ET caught up with Abrams at the event, where he went into detail about the meaning behind "The Rise of Skywalker."
Watch the video below to hear what he said.
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