【Watch Genie in a String Bikini (2006)】

When Carrie Fisher,Watch Genie in a String Bikini (2006) beloved author, actor and icon, passed away Tuesday at the far-too-young age of 60, Star Wars fans everywhere felt the grief as a gut punch -- a great disturbance in the Force.

But they could at least take one crumb of comfort from this one fact: we haven't seen the last of Leia yet. And the performance she has filmed could end up being one of her finest.

Princess Leia -- also known as General Organa, leader of the Resistance -- will grace our screens one last time in Star Wars Episode VIII next December.

The still-untitled movie, directed by Rian Johnson, picks up where The Force Awakensleft off in December 2015. The filming portion of Episode VIII wrapped in July 2016, which means all of Fisher's scenes are in the can.

The movie is now officially in post-production, which is mostly a matter of special effects and editing.

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Fisher reprises her role as Leia -- who is now running the Resistance, the only group in the galaxy fighting the resurgent First Order.

We last saw Leia in grief mode herself, sharing a moment with Rey (Daisy Ridley) after the death of Han Solo (Harrison Ford). According to a detail Fisher let slip at Star Wars Celebration in London earlier this year, what comes next for the character is attending Han's funeral.

That makes sense. Lucasfilm has already revealed that Episode VIII opens with the same scene that closed The Force Awakens-- Rey handing the lightsaber to Luke Skywalker.

What we don't know is whether Luke and Leia, brother and sister, will reunite one last time. Or whether Leia will encounter her son Ben, now known as Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), who was effectively stolen from her and taken to the Dark Side of the Force by the still-mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke.

As written, Leia survives the film -- and the intention was that Fisher would star in Episode IX, directed by Colin Trevorrow. The director is on record hoping he could give Leia a larger role in his movie.

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Earlier this year, Trevorrow told Entertainment Tonight he aimed to "find new places that we can take [Luke and Leia] ... they are icons, but they're also people that have suffered tremendous loss and challenge over the course of all these films."

That dovetailed with what Fisher herself publicly hoped for her character, as early as 1982 -- that she could display some sort of emotional response to the loss of her entire planet and the discovery of the fact that her father is Darth Vader.

"Maybe a drinking problem?" she quipped.

Shooting hasn't started for Episode IX, however; that is slated for 2017. Trevorrow and his co-writer Derek Connolly will now have the sad, unenviable task of continuing the series without one of its strongest characters and enduring icons.

But the Force will always be with her.

bod

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