Rogue One: A Jyn Origin Story Idea Was Deemed Too Similar To Rey’s

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s Jyn (Felicity Jones) had a similar backstory to Rey (Daisy Ridley) in an early version of the script, so they changed it. The first anthology film from the space-set franchise came out in 2016, a year after the successful renaissance of Star Wars via J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its narrative, however, brought fans back to the original trilogy timeline, filling in some important story gaps.

Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rogue One explained how the Rebellion got a hold of the plans for the first Death Star which was instrumental in its destruction. Rebel fighter Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) led the team in securing the plans of the galactic super weapon built by the evil Empire in the hopes of finding a way to destroy it. He was joined by a string of unusual allies, including Jyn – whose father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), was responsible for the Death Star’s design, as well as its fatal flaw that the Rebellion took advantage of in A New Hope. By the end of the movie, all members of the ragtag team died for a good cause.

Each member of Rogue One‘s suicide squad came from very different backgrounds. While the film shed a light on their respective stories, Jyn’s history was important in the movie’s overall narrative. While she was always going to have links to Galen, the filmmakers had to establish what she’s been doing before she encountered the Rebellion. Writer Chris Weitz reveals during CineFix watch-along that they tinkered on the possibility that she’s a scavenger, but since it was too similar to Star Wars sequel trilogy’s Rey, they had to change it.

At one point Jyn was already a rebel soldier. We toyed with various other possibilities, that she was a deserter, she was a Rey-like scavenger, but obviously you can’t do that once you learn what the other hand of the Star Wars universe is doing.

The similarities between Rey and Jyn were the basis of many theories back when fans didn’t know much about the characters yet. Both played by British actresses who look similar, some posited they might be related, like mother and daughter. This was a bit murky given the timeline, but there were people who were convinced that this would be the case considering that everyone was obsessed with lineage and character connections in Star Wars. Had Rogue One filmmakers pushed through with a scavenger origin for Jyn, it would’ve only fueled those speculations.

Jyn’s fate at the end of Rogue One: A Star Wars Storydiminishes the chance of her factoring in other projects set after the events of the movie, unless it’s a flashback scene or a recorded message cameo. But fans will get to spend more time with Luna’s Cassian Andor, who’s headlining an upcoming Disney+ Star Wars prequel series alongside Alan Tudyk (K-2SO)

Source: CineFix

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