Leia Is No Longer Called Princess In 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

Star Wars: The Force Awakens information keeps coming out of of the cover story from next week's issue of Entertainment Weekly. The latest details include the reveal that Leia Organa is no longer called a Princess. Is this just an excuse to not include Leia in the Disney Princess line-up? Details after the jump.

Director and co-writer JJ Abrams reveals in the next issue of Entertainment Weekly that Leia Organa (or should her name now include her birth family name of Skywalker, or a different surname from her possible marriage with Han Solo?) is no longer called "Princess":

"She's referred to as General, But ... there's a moment in the movie where a character sort of slips and calls her 'Princess.'"

General is a lot more fitting for her role as a military leader anyway. Who slips up has not been revealed, but my guess is that Han Solo could be the one to do it in a lovingly/sad moment.

As for what role Leia will play in The Force Awakens, Abrams says that "the stakes are pretty high in the story for her, so there's not much goofing around where Leia's concerned." Actress Carrie Fisher describes the older General Leia as "solitary. Under a lot of pressure. Committed as ever to her cause, but I would imagine feeling somewhat defeated, tired, and pissed."

Last night over a dinner conversation with friends we wondered why Leia was even considered a princess in the first place. From the movies (i.e. canon) who know that Leia was adopted by Bail Organa, who served as the First Chairman and Viceroy of Alderaan, and served in the Galactic Senate as the Senator of the Alderaan. But how does that make him him a King or Leia a princess? For some reason, I had never really questioned her title and just had accepted it ever since seeing the movies as a child.

The answer is this: Bail Organa was married to Queen Breha of Alderaan, which is how Leia became the Princess of Alderaan. Of course, Alderaan was destroyed in a demonstration of the Death Star during Star Wars: A New Hope, and thus it makes sense that Leia is no longer a Princess — the world no longer exists and hasn't for almost four decades at this point in the timeline.