Carrie Fisher will appear as Princess Leia in Star Wars: Episode IX, her brother has confirmed.

Speaking to the New York Daily News at the opening night gala of the TCM film festival in Los Angeles, Todd Fisher said that he and the late actor’s daughter, Billie Lourd, have given Disney and Lucasfilm permission to use recent footage of Fisher in the film.

“Both of us were like, ‘Yes, how do you take her out of it?’ And the answer is you don’t,” said Todd Fisher. “She’s as much a part of it as anything, and I think her presence now is even more powerful than it was, like Obi-Wan – when the saber cuts him down, he becomes more powerful. I feel like that’s what’s happened with Carrie. I think the legacy should continue.”

Fisher said that he was unsure of the role his sister would play in the film, which has not yet begun filming. “I’m not the only part in that equation, but I think the people deserve to have her,” said Fisher. “She’s owned by them.”

The Daily News report suggests that CGI would not be used to digitally recreate Fisher in the film. In January, Disney was forced to deny rumours that Fisher would be digitally recreated in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, otherwise known as Episode VIII. Previously, the studio had been criticised for recreating the late Peter Cushing’s character of Grand Moff Tarkin in prequel film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A re-creation of Fisher as a young Princess Leia also appeared in the film.

Filming for the as-yet-untitled Episode IX is set to begin this July. Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow will direct the film, due to be released in cinemas on 23 May 2019.