Star Wars secret revealed: Why Princess Leia spoke with British accent in A New Hope

For all the plaudits, George Lucas' Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope still had its fair share of scenes that hardcore fans still negatively nitpick to this day. One of the sequences in question sees heroine Princess Leia, (played by Carrie Fisher) meet Grand Moff Tarkin.

The scene infamously involves her conversing with the villain as he tries to get her to reveal the Rebels' location before he blows up Alderaan from the safety of the Death Star. In the scene, the typically American-accented character talks in the clipped tones of the Queen's English instead.

For viewers, it seemed completely out of place, and there has been no real explanation as to why she spoke that way. But now, new canon novel Star Wars: Bloodline is set to explain that Leia did it to mock Tarkin and his own voice, tying in perfectly with Leia's sassy personality throughout the original trilogy.

Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, author Claudia Gray explained how she was inspired by that scene, and Fisher's honest response to it.

"In interviews, Fisher laughs at herself for that scene she has with Tarkin in A New Hope, because she has an English accent in that scene, and she doesn't in any other scene in the movie. She sort of laughs at her younger self for being so influenced by Peter Cushing. But I thought, 'I'm gonna use that.'

"So there's an explanation in [Bloodline] that she's actually making fun of Tarkin. She's mocking his accent in that moment. She remembers that's what she was doing. So that moment has been explained. It's no longer a problem."

Bloodline, which was released in the US yesterday (3 May) - focuses exclusively on Leia Organa, now a respected senator in the New Republic, who has been charged with investigating a terrorist threat. Fans of The Force Awakens are likely to enjoy the novel, as it also centres on her relationship with Han Solo and the pair's young son Ben (antagonist Kylo Ren in the latest installment) as he adventures around the galaxy and learns the ways of the Force from his uncle, Luke Skywalker.

However, while she seems the most content she's ever been, she is still plagued by the knowledge that her father was Darth Vader. "You see a lot of people bringing up her past to her in this book: Is she the princess? Is she the senator? What about her family connections?" explains Gray of the themes of the book, which will evidently see Leia conflicted as to who she really is in the run-up to the events cinema-goers saw in Episode VII.

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