Short answers, pulled from the story.
George Lucas wrote and refined the Star Wars screenplay over several years before settling on Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan in 1976. The final form appeared in the finished film released that same year after multiple identity changes from earlier drafts.
Carrie Fisher was nineteen years old when she was cast as Princess Leia in 1976. She won the role over Karen Allen, Glenn Close, Farrah Fawcett, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving, Jessica Lange, Terri Nunn, Linda Purl, Meryl Streep, Cindy Williams, and Jodie Foster.
In 1983, Leia infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine disguised as the Ubese bounty hunter Boushh. She frees Han from carbonite but is recaptured and forced into a metal bikini before strangling Jabba to death with her chain.
Leia raises three children with Han: Jaina, Jacen, and Anakin Solo. This timeline appears one day after the events of Return of the Jedi in The Truce at Bakura published in 1993.
The design was created by Aggie Guerard Rodgers and Nilo Rodis-Jamero. The original rubber version sold for $96,000 at auction in 2015 and another version sold for $175,000 in 2024.