Felicity Jones Jokes About Jyn Erso Return In Star Wars

Felicity Jones has joked about the possible return of her Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Jyn Erso to the Star Wars universe. Jyn Erso was the heroine of Disney’s 2016 Rogue One, the first non-Skywalker saga story that the House of Mouse released following 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Rogue One, set immediately before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, follows a group of rebels – led by Jones’ Erso – who hatch a plan to steal plans for the Death Star. Unlike the Star Wars sequel trilogy which was sometimes controversial among fans and ended with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker receiving poor reviews, Rogue One was generally well-received by much of the Star Wars fandom and beyond.

Jyn’s story contained a strand familiar to the Star Wars universe: losing or having little knowledge of one’s parents. As a child, she sees her mother killed by the Empire, and her scientist father captured to work on the Death Star. Rescued by the rebel Saw Guerrera, she lives a life of criminality before teaming up with a band of rebels to find her father and learn more about the Death Star. Along the way, she meets familiar faces from the original and prequel trilogy, including Mon Mothma and Bail Organa. Given Erso’s fate at the end of film, and Kathleen Kennedy’s insistence the Rogue One story would not have a direct sequel, it may now seem a surprise that prior to the film’s release, it was reported that Jones had a sequel option in her contract.

During press for her latest film, The Last Letter From Your Lover, Jones joked with HeyUGuys about the possibility of returning to the Star Wars universe. Asked whether she would be open to reprising her role, she said that the door to a return was never shut. And while she noted that her character did not escape the nuclear havoc of the Death Star at the film’s climax, she added that there’s always a chance in Star Wars that dead characters might return. Jones said:

“Never shut the door on Jyn Erso. Never. I was having this conversation with someone the other day and I was trying to say, ‘Well, look, you know 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 died’. And I was like, ‘Well, there you go.’ There’s a chance for a comeback.”

Though the ‘chance’ for Erso’s comeback might seem slim given that she dies on Scarif, Jones is right to note that there’s always a chance to return in the Star Wars universe. Taking the prequel route might be the most straightforward option, following in greater depth Jyn’s crimes against the Empire before she’s recruited by the Rebel Alliance. And outside of prequels, characters believed to be dead have been revealed as actually being alive, including Boba Fett in The Mandalorian. This route might entice Jones more, as she has previously has spoken about how Jyn could return as an “older and wiser” character.

Given that Cassian Andor, who perished in Jyn’s arms on the Scarif beach, will return in the upcoming Disney+ prequel series Andor, it seems likely that if Disney wished, Erso could once again grace our screens. Andor might be a good fit for a possible Jyn return: set before Rogue One, it’s certain Erso would be alive and getting into trouble somewhere in the galaxy. On the other hand, following Jones’ idea of revisiting Jyn at an older age, it could be possible to revisit Jyn in a story set after Return of the Jedi, such as The Mandalorian or upcoming Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett – but some work would have to be done to explain how Jyn survived the Death Star’s kyber-crystal powered superlaser. Though the plot or timeline of 2023’s Rogue Squadron hasn’t been confirmed, in the Star Wars canon the Squadron was named after Rogue One, the team of rebels led by Jyn. A cameo or expanded role in Rogue Squadron for Jyn may therefore be the most fitting.

Source: HeyUGuys/YouTube