).
Here's a question....what is Leia "Princess" of? Her father is not a king, he is a diplomat. Maybe "Princess" is a diplomatic title in the SW universe?
Princess title is very vague. Apparently in the original concept of the film her father was a king. Somewhere between that and the final script it became a diplomatic title. If you remember Natalee Portman was a Queen but somehow only because she was elected to serve as such for a term. Its just more about the Star Wars universe I don't fully understand. I'm sure there's someone on this board who could write a doctorial dissertation of the subject.
Leia is princess of the planet
Alderaan, a member of the
Imperial Senate and an agent of the
Rebel Alliance
Leia was created by
Star Wars creator
George Lucas. In 1999, Lucas explained his early development of Leia, Luke and
Obi-Wan Kenobi:
The first [version] talked about a princess and an old general. The second version involved a father, his son, and his daughter; the daughter was the heroine of the film. Now the daughter has become Luke,
Mark Hamill's character. There was also the story of two brothers where I transformed one of them into a sister. The older brother was imprisoned, and the young sister had to rescue him and bring him back to their dad.
[1]
Film historian Laurent Bouzereau notes in his 1997 book
Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays that in the rough draft of
Star Wars, Leia is the spoiled teenage daughter of King Kayos and Queen Breha of Aquilae, with two brothers,
Biggs and Windy; Biggs returned to the fourth draft as a childhood friend of Luke.
[2] According to
Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas (1999), Luke Skywalker was originally Luke Starkiller and Leia was "the daughter of
Owen Lars and his wife
Beru and seems to be Luke's cousin–together they visit the grave of his mother, who perished with his father on a planet destroyed by the
Death Star."
[3] J. W. Rinzler explains in
The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film (2007) that a later story synopsis establishes Leia as "Leia Antilles", the daughter of Bail Antilles from the peaceful world of Organa Major. In the fourth draft it was established that "Leia Organa" came instead from Alderaan.
[4]
Fisher was 19 when she was cast as Princess Leia,
[5] with actresses including
Amy Irving,
Cindy Williams and
Jodie Foster also up for the role.
[6][7] In 2014,
InkTank reported that the extended list of "more than two dozen actresses" who had auditioned for Leia included
Glenn Close,
Farrah Fawcett,
Jessica Lange,
Sissy Spacek,
Sigourney Weaver,
Cybill Shepherd,
Jane Seymour,
Anjelica Huston,
Kim Basinger,
Kathleen Turner,
Geena Davis and
Meryl Streep.
[8][9][10] Asked about Streep in 2015, Fisher said, "Bullshit! I've never heard that one. But Jodie Foster was up for it... that one I knew the most. Amy Irving and Jodie. And I got it."
[11]
The second draft of the
Return of the Jedi screenplay contained dialogue in which Obi-Wan tells Luke he has a twin sister. She and their mother were "sent to the protection of friends in a distant system. The mother died shortly thereafter, and Luke's sister was adopted by Ben's friends, the governor of Alderaan and his wife."
[12] Fisher explained in 1983: "Leia's real father left her mother when she was pregnant, so her mother married this King Organa. I was adopted and grew up set apart from other people because I was a princess."
[13]
Composer
John Williams created a musical
leitmotif for Leia which recurs throughout the
Star Wars saga. "Princess Leia's Theme" was recorded as a concert suite (4:18 length) for the
score of the 1977 film.
