Following the death of Carrie Fisher in late December 2016, media outlets speculated on whether her role would be recast for "Episode IX" and whether the absence of her character would affect the film's plot. A few weeks later, Lucasfilm stated that they would not digitally recreate Fisher's performance for the film. In April 2017, Kathleen Kennedy stated that Fisher would not be in "Episode IX", but it was later announced that Fisher would in fact appear using unreleased footage from "The Force Awakens". In August, it was reported that Jack Thorne would rewrite the script.