Star Wars Episode IX: Duel Of The Fates - 10 Things We Learned From Colin Trevorrow's Leaked Script
10. It Was Supposedly Written After Carrie Fisher's Death
The initial write-up on r/StarWarsLeaks (taken from Burnett's video) states that this version of Episode IX was completed a week prior to Carrie Fisher's death, on December 16 2016. However, as The Playlist points out, both Trevorrow and Lucasfilm producer Kathleen Kennedy had repeatedly claimed that early drafts of the Episode IX script had heavily featured Leia.
This means that this version of Duel of the Fates was likely written after Fisher's passing, and that it was co-written by Derek Connolly. Trevorrow and Connolly's script had supposedly leaked at the beginning of December 2019, but this was immediately dismissed by the director on Twitter.
It's with this in mind that the new, verified Episode IX script from Trevorrow doesn't feature Leia in as pivotal a role as was initially thought. She still features in the story, and even shares a few moments with Rey, so this is actually one element of the script that doesn't diverge as heavily from The Rise of Skywalker as it does in other places.