by MannyOrtez » December 29th 2016 3:36 pm
First off - tremendously sad news. She meant a lot to a lot of people, especially people who struggle with mental health. She'll be missed.
In terms of the logistics of Episode 8 - they might have filmed all of her scenes, but they are now stuck with her on-set dialogue, since she won't be alive to record ADR. If her scenes are like they are in Episode 7, that might not be a huge issue (no action scenes, pretty much just two people talking inside a studio set), but keep in mind a lot of the dialogue in these films is ADR.
In terms of what they do in Episode 9 - I have no idea. They are left with either letting real-life affect their outcome and/or picking from some distasteful choices. It might be some combo approach. Re-edit her Ep 8 role to be smaller, write in some explanation for her absence, save some of her Ep 8 footage for Ep 9 and hope you can make it fit, get a voice actor to dub her lines, use a CG Leia for some shots (didn't Fast and Furious do this with Paul Walker?), etc., etc. It's going to be a nightmare no matter what they choose, to be honest. No one is going to feel good about it.