True Detective: Night Country lead actress Jodie Foster has revealed she was offered the Princess Leia role in the original Star Wars movie back in the ’70s. Her accepting the part could’ve substantially changed the course of the beloved story.
Via The Hollywood Reporter, the actress talked on NBC’s Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon about turning down what would become one of the most iconic roles in movie history. “They were going for a younger Princess Leia, but I had a conflict,” she said, “I was doing a Disney movie and I just didn’t want to pull out of the Disney movie because I was already under contract.” The Disney production she was referring to probably was 1976’s Freaky Friday.
THR’s piece points out that having Foster instead of Carrie Fisher in the role could’ve changed the story quite a bit, as she was more of a preteen when A New Hope was filmed. As the original trilogy of movies progressed, however, the ramifications would’ve been wilder. For example, the ‘twins twist’ with Luke and Leia wouldn’t exist even if they were revealed to be siblings. Moreover, the character dynamics between the two would’ve been very different, including no silly little kiss in The Empire Strikes Back. Plus, potentially no romance with Han Solo at that point.
Of course, the domino effect would have only gotten larger as Lucas started developing the prequels, etc. It’s just a ‘what if’ scenario in our minds, but sometimes it’s fun to wonder about what could’ve been due to very small changes. It’s also yet another reminder of how many elements of the OG Star Wars movies were barely fixed in place. In a way, the Disney-backed sequel installments were faithful to the original trilogy’s chaotic creative process too.
With the Skywalker Saga now done, what’s next for Star Wars? A lot, and not just on Disney Plus, as Lucasfilm has just announced a ‘Mandalorian & Grogu’ movie and continues to develop a post-IX movie starring Daisy Ridley.