Given that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story digitally recreated Carrie Fisher’s likeness from A New Hope, there were questions about if Star Wars: Episode IX might do something similar.
Whether Leia will die in Episode IX or make it out alive remains to be seen.
So rather than Leia simply being mentioned, we will see her, although it will be interesting to see just how much footage will appear in the final cut.
Lucasfilm quickly put the kibosh on the CGI idea, as well as having someone else play General Leia Organa, and a year and a half later, now we know that Episode IX will make use of footage of Fisher that didn’t make it into The Force Awakens.