Okay, hopefully my latest idea will garner better reactions from you guys.

Fanedit Forums user Gaith suggested that the film open with a funeral for Princess Leia before the opening crawl. This quote comes from the official thread for the movie:

Lucasfilm logo. “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”
SMASH CUT to a silent (with music) funeral scene. As with Glee and Cory Monteith, we all know why the character’s gone, so there’s really no need to explain it in-universe. (Canon sources elsewhere could officially designate it space cancer or whatever, but my idea lets the funeral be a tribute to Fisher as much as possible, just as the ending to Furious 7 was obviously for Paul Walker, rather than for Brian O’Conner.) Fade out.
STAR WARS title fanfare, crawl, movie.
In short, Fisher’s passing would be so significant that it would be the only time the Episode format of “A long time ago”, STAR WARS title fanfare, crawl, movie would ever be broken. I get that most don’t enthusiastically love Thor: The Dark World as I do, but I think the two-minute dialogue-free Frigga funeral is a freakin’ fantastic scene that would make an excellent model.

A very unique idea that unfortunately wasn’t implemented in the film itself.