Ahead of the release of The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill says he’s still getting over Carrie Fisher’s death

IT’S nearly been a year since the sudden, untimely death of Star Wars great Carrie Fisher, but her on-screen brother Mark Hamill admits he’s still not over it.

STAR Wars star Mark Hamill admits he is still coming to terms with the death of his long-time friend and cast mate Carrie Fisher on the eve of the latest film instalment.

Fisher died of a heart attack last December, just after finishing filming her role as Princess Leia in The Last Jedi, the eighth episode of the much loved and hugely successful sci-fi franchise, which opens around the world next week.

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Gone but not forgotten, Carrie Fisher in her final performance as Leia in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Hamill, who plays Fisher’s on-screen brother Luke Skywalker, said that although the two had their disagreements in the 41 years they had known each other, the pair felt like real-life siblings and that she would not want the sadness of her death to overshadow the new movie.

“She’s irreplaceable and we all loved her and it was impossible not to have fun when you were around Carrie,” said in Tokyo today.

“It’s so hard for me to think of her in the past tense because she is so alive in my mind. In the film, she is just wonderful and it’s unfortunate that it gives the aura of melancholy to a film that doesn’t deserve it, not in real life.

“But instead of being angry that she is not with us any more I just want to appreciate the time that we had together and the whole world really feels like they have lost a member of the family because we all knew her so well. But I know that she would want us to enjoy the film and to be happy and laugh, because that’s what Carrie was all about.”

Mark Hamill with his on-screen sister and longtime friend Carrie Fisher, pictured in 2015, before her untimely death last year. Picture: Araya Diaz/Getty Images for The Midnight Mission

The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson said that Fisher’s final performance was a tribute to her iconic character of Princess Leia and hoped it would give her fans around the world a sense of closure after the outpouring of grief that followed her death almost 12 months ago.

“I think her performance in the film is a beautiful tribute to the character,” Johnson said. “She gives a beautiful performance in this movie and obviously we didn’t know it would be a farewell performance when we were creating it but I know that all the fans who grew up watching her on screen and watching Carrie and being inspired by Carrie are going through their own type of loss at her being gone. I am very happy we have this performance from her and I hope it gives the fans who watch the film something.”

The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson (left) with stars Mark Hamill and Adam Driver and producer Kathleen Kennedy at a red-carpet fan event in Tokyo this week. Picture: Christopher Jue/Getty Images for Disney

Fisher had finished filming her scenes for The Last Jedi, but her character was expected to be front and centre for episode 9, forcing producer Kathleen Kennedy and returning director JJ Abrams so make major changes for the final chapter of the trilogy.

“It was a tremendous loss — so unexpected,” said Kennedy. “No one anticipated that. So obviously the story ideas that we had for Episode 9 were affected by this and we have spent the last year or so confronting that and it’s important to us that we honour and respect Carrie and try to find a way we can honour and respect the character of Princess Leia. I think we have and that’s something we have been working very hard to do. We will start shooting Episode 9 in the (US) summer and I think that JJ is going to handle that beautifully.”