Carrie Fisher was supernaturally witty and magical: JJ Abrams

JJ Abrams says it would be impossible to imagine the end of "Star Wars" saga after almost 40 years without the story's heart, Princess Leia, played by the late Carrie Fisher, who had sort of predicted that he was not yet done with the galaxy far, far away.

Abrams, who successfully launched the franchise's sequel trilogy with 2015's "The Force Awakens", had not signed on for the upcoming "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" but he stepped in after Colin Trevorrow left the project over creative differences with Lucasfilm.

Speaking at the D23 Expo where an exclusive trailer and poster from the much-awaited film was shown to the audience, Abrams opened up about working with Fisher, who died of a cardiac arrest on December 27, 2016 at the age of 60.

"The character of Leia is, in a way, the heart of this story. We couldn't possibly talk about the end of these nine films without Leia and we realised that we had footage from 'Episode 7' and we didn't even know that we could use it in a new ..