Star Wars: Here Is How & When Princess Leia Died    

As one of the three most important characters of the original Star Wars trilogy, Princess Leia Organa quickly became a cultural icon among sci-fi fans. Due to her popularity, she returned to the sequel trilogy, where Leia’s role in the galaxy became more important because of her relationship with Kylo Ren. But at the same time, her time as a character also needed to end. So, how and when did Princess Leia die?

Leia Organa died when she overexerted herself using the Force to reach out to her son across the galaxy. Leia was weak and injured at that time due to her previous encounters. As such, she died on 35 ABY, right before the Resistance went to Exegol to defeat the First Order.

The storyline of Leia in the sequel trilogy allowed us to see a mother’s love because she was more than willing to give up her life for the sake of the redemption of her son, Ben Solo. In that regard, she died as a mother and was able to help convert one of the most important characters back to the side of the good. Now, let’s look at what happened to Leia.

Carrie Fisher’s death sealed Leia’s fate

After Leia Organa became one of the most influential sci-fi characters in the history of the world due to the massive popularity and success of Star Wars, her story eventually continued 30 years after the release of the original Star Wars movie. As such, Carrie Fisher reprised her role as Leia Organa in the sequel trilogy, which became an incredibly successful storyline in terms of its performance at the box office.

Of course, she took on a different role this time because she was no longer a princess. Instead, she was a general that led the Resistance against the First Order. But the most important role she took was that of a mother. And that’s because she was trying to find a way to keep everything together while her son had become the evil Kylo Ren, who was one of the leaders of the First Order.

In that regard, Leia had two very important roles in the sequel trilogy even though the storyline now focused on the new generation of characters. She still needed to lead the Resistance even though her son was the one leading the First Order. And despite that, she never lost hope that her son could return from the darkness.

So, with that, it was clear that Leia’s role would be very big in the sequel trilogy. But the problem was that Carrie Fisher, who played Leia in all Star Wars movies, passed away in December 2016. Fisher’s death came before the release of ‘Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi,’ released in 2017, as fans were quick to speculate about her ultimate fate in the movie.

In ‘The Last Jedi,’ we saw a Leia Organa death scare when a First Order pilot shot the bridge of the ship where Leia was on. The bridge’s destruction forced Leia out of the ship and into the depths of space, where people thought she would die. However, she used the Force to pull herself back into the ship before she froze to death.

Leia survived the events of ‘The Last Jedi,’ although she was pretty injured after that because of what happened to her. But fans understood that because Carrie Fisher didn’t get to finish filming ‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker,’ she would die in that movie or be killed off-screen. She did appear in ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ but Fisher’s death already sealed Leia’s fate in the movie.

Leia died redeeming her son

After Carrie Fisher’s death, Lucasfilm opted not to recast her for her role in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ because it would be an insult to recast one of the most iconic roles in the history of movies. Instead, the directors used footage from ‘The Last Jedi’ and some of the scenes Fisher shot for ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ to complete her story. And we all know that she was never going to live through the events of the movie.

Leia’s role in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ wasn’t very big, even though she played Rey’s master between the events of the two movies. She also left most of the leadership duties to the younger members of the Resistance because she had already grown too weak and old to lead on the front as a general.

While Rey was pursuing Kylo Ren, a duel happened on Kef Bir. This was the final duel between them, as Leia could sense through the Force what was happening between her son and the girl she took in and trained. That was when she tried to reach out to Kylo Ren through the Force.

Take note that Leia’s health had already become an issue because using the Force and nearly dying in the cold temperatures of space weakened her body. She still trained Rey and led the Resistance as a general. But it was clear that she was preserving through it and was no longer the same spry general she used to be.

So, she overexerted herself when she tried to reach out to Kylo Ren. She used the Force so that she could reach her son and called him by his birthname of Ben. This act was too much for her body to bear because she had already become too weak due to her previous injuries. So, with that, she ended up dying, similar to how her twin brother died when he overexerted himself after using Force projection.

Nevertheless, the fact that Leia reached out to Kylo Ren was one of the things that ultimately led to his redemption because he decided to become Ben Solo once more in honor of his mother, who was the one who gave him that name. He helped Rey defeat Palpatine on 35 ABY, more than 30 years after the Rebels defeated the Empire.

With that, Leia died without regrets because she was instrumental in the victory of the Resistance against the First Order. She redeemed her son from the dark side, similar to how Luke redeemed their father. And Leia’s leadership already left the Resistance the tools they needed to defeat the First Order once and for all and bring long-lasting peace to the galaxy.

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