Rebellions are built on hope. So are fandoms, apparently. At least, this refers to the ones that aren't built on endless infighting and absolutely hating the thing they're fans of. But this isn't an editorial. It's a story about giving just a sliver of hope to fans of a Star Wars movie that revolved around the concept (and also killed a lot of characters).
Felicity Jones, who many know for playing the rebel too rebellious for the Rebellion known as Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, recently had a nice chat about the role and her future. Not only is she keenly aware of how beloved her character is among fans of the film, but she also knows full well how badly they'd love to see her in another Star Wars movie. The only problem there is that Jyn's status at the end of Rogue One leaves very little to the imagination. But that doesn't necessarily mean the imagination doesn't still have room to run absolutely wild.
When speaking with the HeyUGuys YouTube channel, Jones expressed her own thoughts on the potential for Jyn's return, particularly based on how fans view the whole situation. After expressing her own passive interest in someday playing the character again, she mentioned a talk she'd recently had with a Star Wars fan regarding Jyn's fate. "I was having this conversation with someone the other day," Jones said, "and I was trying to say, 'It's a bit of a nuclear fallout at the end of the film. And they were like, 'No, it didn't feel like that, it doesn't feel like they die.' And I was like, 'Well, there you go. There's a chance of a comeback.'"
She appeared good-natured about the whole thing, even if her reaction and demeanor suggested that she doesn't expect that Jyn actually survived basically being shot by the whole entire Death Star. It seems that even though Rogue One was very clear about the deaths of Jyn, Diego Luna's Cassian Andor, and the rest of the titular team of misfits, that hasn't stopped fans from continuing to speculate that at least some of them might show up again one day. There's optimism, and then there's a fandom. It's really quite touching.
Rogue One ended with Jyn and Cassian (the latter of whom will soon star in his own Disney Plus prequel series Andor) stopping to rest on the beach of Scarif, knowing they're about to die but still proud of the mission they just accomplished. The emotion behind it all really put forth the idea that this wasn't some fake-out and that they really died. But fans still hope and darn if that isn't a perfect (if ironic) testament to the message of the film itself.
Plus, if Andor can exist as a series, then maybe Jones can still come back to give fans some backstory. Sure, some people still hold on to hope that she somehow escaped that blast that decimated everything in a huge radius, and it's hard to blame them in a series where Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc pit. But it might be a good idea to temper expectations so there isn't too much disappointment. Besides, if Jyn actually does show up in a prequel series, then it'll be an even bigger surprise.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now available on Disney Plus.
Source: HeyUGuys/YouTube