‘Stranger Things’ Star Could Be Princess Leia In New ‘Star Wars’ Series

Might Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown play Princess Leia in a new Star Wars streaming series on Disney+? That’s the latest rumor, and it parrots popular fan speculation and media suggestions that the performer is a perfect choice to helm a film or series about the Rebel leader originally portrayed by the late Carrie Fisher.

Tabloids first broke this latest rumor, which casts instant doubt on its credibility, but it’s a great idea and there’s little doubt Disney has Brown in their sights. For her part, Brown has been vocal about her love of Fisher and her interest in reprising the role.

I previously suggested this exact casting, for a Leia prequel series about the princess-turned-general’s teenage years and how she got more involved in the rebellion. It’s the type of show that could bring unique approaches and perspectives to the Star Wars universe — namely, a younger and more modern approach.

While my suggested title of Rebel Scum is might seem a bit camp-leaning, it’s still an awesome title for a series with decidedly modern sensibilities. And yes, a story from a youth perspective of the relatively new Empire and emerging Rebellion would benefit from presenting the ideas and momentum of the resistance as modern and rising above older, failed approaches. Leia as a modern inspirational figure in her time reflects the character as an inspirational in our own time and is the best approach,

Irreverent music, wild worlds and crazy spy adventures, colorful casts of characters and creatures, and a focus not just on the plot points of the Rebellion but also the life moments of “rebellion.”

We’d see Leia navigating her world as a teenager whose every move is scrutinized, with her spying activities frequently overlap with her familial and royal duties, and interrupting her regular life plans with friends. Rebelling against the old ways, rebelling against leaders who were fooled by Palpatine, rebelling against the confines of royal life, rebelling against the rising authoritarianism and evil.

Star Wars took inspiration from many things, but one key one is fascism and Nazism. The Empire in the original trilogy was clearly heavily based on the Nazis, and now we have renewed relevance for the rise of fascism and the threat of modern Nazism — use this to get into the nuances of not just the larger dictatorship, but the street level support and enabling of it, as well as the ways the existing systems are ill equipped to deal with such a threat.

Will some viewers complain about injecting politics into Star Wars? Sure, but these are the same people so lacking in self-awareness and so incapable of recognizing basic subtext in storytelling that they consistently fail to recognize political themes in the fiction they gorge themselves on with the barest of attention or true understanding. If they don’t want politically aware Star Wars then they should never have watched any Star Wars to begin with. And they’re certainly free to not watch it anymore.

But let’s be honest, we all know they’ll watch it. They’ll complain, but they’ll watch it. They’ll deny watching it (and insist I’m wrong here), but they’ll watch it. And more importantly, the overwhelming majority of viewers and fans aren’t trolls and are eager to see more Star Wars that’s consistent with what they love about it — namely, the themes about rebellion and resistance against violent authoritarianism that seeks to crush the human spirit and enslave the masses for its evil purposes, in terrific sci-fi action-adventure stories. Rageaholic trolls in any fandom are loud, and there’s sadly too many of them, but ultimately — like all other extreme, bigoted, or fascistic groups and movements — they pretend to be bigger and more common than they really are, when there’s always far more of us than of them.

Princess Leia deserves her own series. Of the three human leads in the original trilogy (Leia, Luke, and Han) she’s received the least amount of revival attention and screen time compared to the other two, even though one of them was killed off while Leia still had two more movies and a TV series supporting turn on her own schedule.

But that’s changing, thank goodness, with Vivien Lyra Blair recently playing a child version of Leia in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series streaming on Disney+. And while there are a few other performers who could no doubt do a terrific job portraying Princess Leia (I recently pointed out, Phoebe Fox is an excellent performer who bears a resemblance to Carrie Fisher and could play a 30-something Leia), Millie Bobby Brown is the best casting choice because the best iteration of a Leia project would explore the exciting story of how she grew up within a resistance movement right in the seat of power as the government fell and darkness reigned.

This also makes it even easier to set up a later series doing the unthinkable — recasting the original trilogy and rebooting it on Disney+ to tell all of those stories we missed with these characters. I won’t restate all of the details, but I hope you’ll go read my other article about this, even if you strongly object to the idea right now, because there might be some points and information you weren’t aware of or hadn’t considered yet.

Brown could easily transition into portraying Leia for a longer run, into the reboot of the original trilogy as an ongoing series. It wouldn’t per se replace the original trilogy, the idea is to focus on the in-between tales (and if you’ve not read the Marvel comic book series set during those periods, it’s some of the best Star Wars writing in any medium and I urge you to check it out) and just touch on the stories in those films to keep the narrative flowing.

We should find out soon whether Brown reaches a final deal with Lucasfilm and Disney to join the Star Wars franchise. I’m rooting for it to happen, and considering the enthusiasm for the idea on both sides of the negotiations — and among fandom at large, not to mention global mainstream audiences in general — I think the Force is with us, and the amazing legacy created and nurtured by Carrie Fisher will continue.