Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker used Return of the Jedi outtakes for *that* cameo

(Image credit: LucasFilm)

As we continue to process Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, more and more news about the movie's production has emerged. One news story that led to much discussion online was writer Chris Terrio discussing General Leia's role in the movie.

**Spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ahead**

Terrio told The Hollywood Reporter that Rose Tico's (Kelly Marie Tran) minor role came about due to difficulties with making her scene with Leia work. All of Leia's scenes were made using repurposed footage from The Force Awakens, as Carrie Fisher died before filming on The Rise of Skywalker could begin. Rose's scenes with Leia apparently did not “meet the standard of photorealism” that was needed for the final product.

In the same interview, Terrio said that the Leia flashbacks – which saw her training to become a Jedi Knight with her brother Luke Skywalker – used footage from Return of the Jedi to create that image of Leia.

"We also had access to the dailies from the original trilogy, and in the flashback of Luke and Leia, that image of Carrie comes from Return of the Jedi," he said. "So, we had access to everything in the archive, which turned out to be super helpful. So, yeah, the original trilogy was on our table for the flashback and for audio."

Roger Guyett, who acted as visual effects supervisor on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, has since clarified the comments, saying that outtakes from Return of the Jedi were indeed used for Leia and Luke's faces.

“The truth is, there are not that many outtakes,” Guyett told Inverse, “but we took a couple of shots that we thought would work. The idea was just to use their real faces, so it required a tremendous amount of pre-planning and, of course, you want to integrate them into the scene. It wasn’t like you wanted to have a shot of Luke and then cut to a shot of Leia. We wanted to do a shot of Luke and then pan to Leia.”

For more spoiler-filled analysis on The Rise of Skywalker check out:
– Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ending explained
– Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker cameos in full
– Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Easter eggs and references

Jack Shepherd is the former Senior Entertainment Editor of GamesRadar. Jack used to work at The Independent as a general culture writer before specializing in TV and film for the likes of GR+, Total Film, SFX, and others. You can now find Jack working as a freelance journalist and editor.