

Carrie Fisher’s untimely death in 2016 did more than break the hearts of fans everywhere. It also left Star Wars fans wondering the fate of his most famous role, General Leia Organa (or Princess Leia, if you’re OG). With [SPOILER ALERT] Leia surviving The Last Jedi, it seems that J.J. Abrams, 51, and Disney are trapped in a corner for Episode IX. Enter: the fans. “We, the undersigned, petition to have Meryl Streep, 68, as Princess Leia in STAR WARS Episode IX,” beings the Care2 Petition begging Disney, Lucas Arts and J.J. to cast Meryl, 68, as the leader of the Resistance.
“After the death of Carrie Fisher, there have been a lot of uncertainties in how STAR WARS Episode IX is going to deal with Leia. As Lucasfilm claimed that they have no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fisher with CGI in STAR WARS Episode IX, the more possible solutions are to recast Leia or to write her out of the film,” the petition reads. The author cites Meryl’s performance in Postcards From The Edge, the 1990 movie written by Carrie (and based on her own experiences with mental health and alcohol abuse) as evidence as why Meryl would be “an ideal candidate to play Leia in STAR WARS Episode IX.”
“As a close friend of Carrie Fisher, Meryl Streep may have huge ton of pressure to played Leia. However, we strongly believed that she is the best hope for us to see the legacy of Carrie Fisher in Episode IX,” the petition reads. As of time of publication, it had close to 11,000 signatures. Episode XII, aka The Last Jedi, made $1.3 billion dollars worldwide, according to BoxOfficeMojo, so it will probably take about 1000X more signatures to sway the minds at Disney over such an important decision.
Will Mark Hamill, 66, sign that petition? “I think it would be tough recasting because she’s so indelibly linked to that character,” he said while speaking to Collider (per Esquire). “They’ve already ruled out the idea of computer generating her performance like they did with Peter Cushing [in Rogue One], so that’s got to be a really, not an insurmountable problem, but … I know the script had been developed enough so when we lost her they had to go back to square one. She’s irreplaceable as far as I’m concerned.”