Kelly Marie Tran Is Interested in Reprising Rose Tico

Kelly Marie Tran became more well-known to the Star Wars fandom when she starred as Rose Tico in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. Within that film, she played a member of the Resistance who loses her sister in a battle and then helps Finn try to get the First Order off the trail of the Resistance fleet. The casino subplot on Canto Bight was considered by many to be "filler," and the multiple points of failure within the film did not help much. Some people felt rubbed the wrong way when Rose crashed into Finn's ship to keep him from sacrificing himself, even though he probably would not have destroyed the cannon had he kept going. However, the character of Rose had compelling things to say, such as how people need to focus more on saving what they love than on giving in to hate. It is just that the circumstances surrounding these moments are not always executed in the best way.

Following the release of the film, some fans showed hatred for the character of Rose, and Tran eventually decided to leave social media. Thankfully, at the next Star Wars Celebration, people showed support for the actress by chanting her name when she was onstage. More recently, the virtual Star Wars fan convention known as ForceFest included a panel titled "Rose Tico Deserved Better," which felt very timely in light of the fact that Rose had a very small amount of screentime in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. It felt odd that this character who played a big part in the previous film was suddenly sidelined in the next film. This move has left a bad taste in the mouths of fans who genuinely like Kelly Marie Tran and her character. Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu even said that he would love to helm a Rose Tico story starring Kelly Marie Tran.

Earlier this month, Kelly Marie Tran was interviewed by Collider about the Hulu anthology series Monsterland. Unsurprisingly, the conversation included a question about Star Wars:

"In December 2019, director Jon M. Chu threw his hat into the ring for making a Disney+ Rose Tico series. Is that a character that you’d like to revisit, if an opportunity came up to explore other aspects of her in a TV series?

TRAN: He’s so cool. I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. It’s so strange. I had so much fun being in that world but I feel like the pieces would have to fall into a perfect little puzzle and everything would have to feel like it’s the right time and the right moment and the right story, like with any other project. But I don’t know."

So it seems that Kelly Marie Tran is still interested in the role, though it might be conditional. Given that Rose had very little screentime in The Rise of Skywalker, to the point where she could have been written out without changing the plot, she would probably want a sizable role for the character to be ensured. At least, that is what I would think if I were in her position. Kelly Marie Tran as displayed no ill will toward The Rise of Skywalker, though John Boyega has recently been vocal about Lucasfilm not knowing what to do with him, Tran, and Oscar Isaac, compared to the treatment of white leads Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver. Even if making these characters of different backgrounds have lesser roles was unintentional, it still feels strange that some of the people behind the scenes seemed to not know what to do with the characters.

While it does not seem that a Rose Tico series or film is in the cards in the near future, it might be worth visiting at some point. Daisy Ridley has not closed the door on returning to Star Wars someday. Perhaps the two could even be co-leads with sizable roles in a future film. One could probably even come up with Rose's own post-sequel trilogy story that would not be dependent on the other characters that we have seen. Hopefully, we can get a live-action story with Rose Tico that will make up (at least a bit) for the lack of her presence in The Rise of Skywalker.

Written By Steven Shinder

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