For fans of the Star Wars franchise, every new movie is a big event. A new release usually means fans lining up for hours, waiting to be one of the first to see the newest movie in one of the biggest franchises in entertainment history.

But the latest movie promises to be different. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is set to be released December 19, will be the last of the franchise. It will also pay tribute to Princess Leia, and the actress that played her, the late Carrie Fisher.

Fisher’s daughter, Billie Lourd stars in the upcoming movie and revealed the hardest part about returning to series her mom helped make famous. 

‘The Rise of Skywalker’ reunites mother and daughter

Billie Lourd hasn’t always been an actress. In fact, the American Horror Story star got her first acting credit just four years ago. Lourd’s role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was her very first part and the movie that brought Fisher back to the franchise after decades. 

Sadly, The Last Jedi would be the last movie that the two women filmed together. Fisher died in December 2016.

But now Lourd and her mother will share the big screen again. Fisher will appear in the upcoming movie via unused footage from her previous films. The writers of the new film essentially wrote the movie based around the footage they had of the late star.

Director J.J. Abrams told Vanity Fair, “[it was a] bizarre kind of left side/right side of the brain sort of Venn diagram thing, of figuring out how to create the puzzle based on the pieces we had.”

For Lourd, the movie was difficult but important

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Initially, Lourd and Fisher weren’t meant to share the screen in The Rise of Skywalker. Abrams said that he wasn’t sure how the young actress would feel about being in scenes with her mom. But Lourd told Abrams that she had to do the scenes. She knew it would be difficult but she wanted to have this memory for herself and for her future children. 

During his interview with Vanity Fair, Abrams recalled watching the actress film the scenes with her mother. He told the magazine: “She would get emotional and sort of have to excuse herself for a minute. I know it was hard for her for a while.”

The actress wasn’t always a fan of her mom’s work

It seems natural to assume that Lourd was always a die-hard Star Wars fan, destined to continue her mom’s legacy. But in a recently penned essay for Time Magazine, the actress admitted, this wasn’t always the case. So much so that every time the movie would be on she would scream and tell her mom that it was too loud. 

But as she grew up, she began to appreciate the legacy of Princess Leia. She recalled attending a Comic-Con event with her mother and being in awe of just how much her fans loved her.

When Fisher called her daughter years later asking her if she wanted to audition for The Last Jedi, the 27-year-old says she couldn’t think of anything that would make her happier.

After Fisher died in 2016, Lourd knew she had a special job. She was now in charge of protecting Princess Leia’s legacy. It was with this knowledge that she gave Abrams the go-ahead to use the footage of her mom for the final film. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be unlike any other Star Wars film before it. It will remember a legend and bring the series to an end. And with Princess Leia protector watching over her legacy, we can only expect the film to be nothing less than magical.