Over the course of the Star Wars saga, viewers saw Princess Leia’s parents’ courtship, her eventual birth, her rise to power as a leader of the Rebel Alliance, and finally, in 2015’s The Force Awakens, her ascendence to General Leia Organa. Her character arc will continue in this year’s The Last Jedi, although exactly how remains unclear, given actress Carrie Fisher’s death in December. Disney has denied that it will be giving her the computer-animated uncanny valley treatment it employed in Rogue One.
Like all of the classic Star Wars characters, though, she remains both fascinating and mythic, and a new video exploring her “untold story” digs up a number of interesting details.
The video combines research from within the plot and from its creation. For example, Lucas created her first name by combining Lord Of The Rings’ Galadriel with John Carter From Mars’ Dejah, and her iconic side-buns were mistakenly attributed by Lucas to “turn-of-the-century Mexico.” (They were more likely drawn from Arizonian Hopi women in the 1920s.) The video lays out the evidence that she and Luke weren’t intended to be brother and sister—hence that awkward kiss in The Empire Strikes Back—and details how her romantic moment in Cloud City with Han Solo came after a debauched night out with Ford, The Rolling Stones, and the cast of Monty Python. The video doesn’t draw many conclusions about where the character might go; it’s more a celebration of the rich places she has been.