Fisher debuted as Angela in the “Family Guy” season 4 episode “Jungle Love.” Bringing in a geek icon as part of the recurring cast feels like a repeat of how the show recruited former Batman actor Adam West as Quahog’s twisted mayor, also named Adam West. (In the first “Star Wars” parody episode, “Blue Harvest,” Mayor West fills the role of Grand Moff Tarkin.)
Of course, after Fisher’s passing in 2016, “Family Guy” retired Angela’s character. Peter delivers a eulogy for Angela in the episode “Pawtucket Pete,” shouting out Fisher’s most famous role by noting her “voice will live on in tiny droid projected messages.” The most earnest part of the eulogy, which feels more like it’s for Fisher herself, has Peter conclude: “I may have lost a boss, but Heaven has gained a princess.”
Now, the original “Star Wars” trilogy didn’t exactly have an excess of female characters. (There’s a reason Meg Griffin, the show’s perennial butt of jokes, gets reduced to playing various monsters: the garbage squid in “Blue Harvest,” the Space Slug in “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side,” and the Sarlaac in “It’s A Trap.) So, when Mon Mothma shows up, Peter/Han describes her as “the only other chick in the galaxy.”
In “Return of the Jedi,” Mon Mothma is played by Caroline Blakiston. The film doesn’t linger on her character, but she’s implicitly a leader in the Rebel Alliance; she’s the one who delivers the big exposition dump about the second Death Star.
Lucas brought back Mothma in the prequel trilogy finale “Revenge of the Sith,” now played by Genevieve O’Reilly. Most of the younger Mothma’s scenes were cut, but they would’ve established her as a Republic senator and founding member of the Rebels alongside Padmé (Natalie Portman) and Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits). Later “Star Wars” films/TV shows, including “Rogue One” and “Andor,” have brought back O’Reilly as Mon Mothma for expanded roles.
In “It’s A Trap,” though, Fisher only gets to recreate Mothma’s 30-second scene from “Return of the Jedi.” Given Angela’s role as Peter’s boss (i.e. an authority figure like Mon), the dearth of women in “Star Wars,” and that casting Angela as Leia would be too obvious, it’s as fitting a role as she could’ve had.