Rogue One expanded the Star Wars galaxy with a trove of new characters and worlds, but nearly 10 years later it’s perhaps most memorable for its more nostalgic swings. The film’s use of deepfake technology to bring back characters from the original Star Wars trilogy, like Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia, earned mixed reactions in 2016, but that approach has come to subtly (and negatively) define the next phase of the saga.
New Lucasfilm projects are digging even deeper into the Age of the Empire, an era that could have focused on a young Leia Organa. But the franchise seems entirely disinterested in recasting a new actor to portray the character, leaving a distracting vacuum at the story’s center.
