If you’re a Star Wars fan, you already know that you’re going to do a lot of emoting in the theater when the next movie comes out. So prepare yourself for another wave of emotion with this news: Princess Leia isn’t a princess anymore. According to Entertainment Weekly’s latest interview with J.J. Abrams and Carrie Fisher, the rebel leader has a new title that reflects her role as, well, a rebel leader. “She’s referred to as General,” Abrams told EW. “But … there’s a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her ‘Princess.’”
Let’s pause on the latter half of that quote for a moment and do some imagining: At some point during the new Star Wars, a character — let’s be honest, it’s some unnamed rebel soldier, but we can hope that it’s Han Solo — calls General Leia, “princess.” Then, Leia turns — hopefully toward the camera, in a close-up, hopefully while her melancholy theme from the original trilogy transitions to the trumpets you hear in the rebel throne room at the end of A New Hope (not that we’re already deeply invested in this moment) — and, with deadly seriousness, intones: “I’m no princess. I’m your general.”
Or, you know, something to that effect. No matter what, it will be a GIF for the ages.
Elsewhere in EW’s interview, Abrams also promised that the “stakes are pretty high” in Leia’s story. Fisher, for her part, said that she likes the upgrade, though she has her own suggestion for a title. “People should say, ‘Hey! You! My one true joy!’” she said. (Is anyone enjoying the Star Wars press tour more than Carrie Fisher? Probably not.)
