Disney reportedly already negotiating with Carrie Fisher’s estate to CGI her into future Star Wars films

The studio's been described as moving with 'unseemly haste'

UPDATE: Lucasfilm has confirmed it will not be digitally recreating Fisher's performance as General Leia Organa in any upcoming Star Wars films. Full story here.

Disney is thought to have already started trying to work out how to posthumously add Carrie Fisher’s General Leia into Star Wars 9.

The report comes from BBC Newsnight, which noted that some might see the studio as having moved with “unseemly haste”.

Presenter Kirsty Wark didn’t specifically mention Episode IX, but the third instalment in the new trilogy is the biggest question mark for Disney right now, given Leia would surely have featured in its story outline/screenplay.

​Wark said, following a segment on CGI resurrections (via io9):

Carrie Fisher died less than a fortnight ago, but in the minds of Disney movie moguls and Star Wars fans, she’s very much alive. And with what might be regarded as unseemly haste, Disney is negotiating with the actor’s estate over her continued appearance in the franchise. If Disney gets the go-ahead, Carrie Fisher will join Peter Cushing, who, last month, fifteen years after his death, played a key role in Rogue One as Grand Moff Tarkin. With computers, anything is possible, but is it desirable? While some living actors are contracting over the use of their image when they die, others, like Robin Williams, who killed himself in 2014, explicitly banned the commercial use of his image until 2039.

There was mild controversy about using Cushing’s likeness without his specific consent, and there is certain to be much more heated debate should Disney try and “bring back” an actress as beloved as Fisher.