Jyn Erso Snub From Top 50 Star Wars Characters List Shouldn't Come As a Surprise

Star Wars

Oct 18

With a quarter of this century nearly over, you’ll see various “best of” lists, such as the best Star Wars villains of all time or the best Marvel characters of all time. Similarly, Empire Magazine just released its list of “The 50 Greatest Star Wars Characters of All Time”. Many, in fact, most fan favorites made the list. Their order is certainly debatable, and it was surprising to see that Kylo Ren was ranked ahead of characters like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader. Still, for most fans, it was probably fun to go through the list and find their favorites. Regardless of where they were ranked, it’s always great to see the characters that you grew up with and who got you through bad times being honored.

What completely shocked many fans was the names that didn’t make the cut. One shocking omission was General Hera Syndulla, who served as a pilot and fought during the Rebellion. Hera was a main character on Star Wars: Rebels before making her live-action debut in Ahsoka. Just as shocking, but not surprising, is the exclusion of Jyn Erso from this list. Surely, a character who was the lead of her own movie and whose sacrifice helped save billions of lives would be deserving of a spot on the list of the greatest Star Wars characters? Apparently not, but this isn’t surprising in the year 2025, because this has been a terrible year for Jyn Erso fans. While Empire’s list is based on their personal opinions, the tide turned against Felicity Jones’s Rogue One character a while ago.

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Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — Image Source: HDQWalls.com

When Andor premiered, I was sure the series would include a cameo from Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso. Andor is probably the last time she could’ve appeared as the character. In Season One, Gilroy seemed to draw several parallels between the early lives of the titular character, Cassian Andor, and Jyn Erso. Their stories seemed connected, as Cassian was just as lost as Jyn. Fans often discussed how and when Jyn could appear in Season 2. Would the show’s final arc focus on how the Rebel Alliance found Jyn Erso, and would Cassian be shown getting information on Jyn? Jyn hid her identity and had many aliases, much like Andor. She did it to remain hidden, as her father, Galen Erso, was a very well-known scientist who had seemingly abandoned her when she was a child. Galen had his reasons, but it all led Jyn to Saw Gerrera, another important Andor character with whom she had a connection. If the Galen connection weren’t explored, then surely, Saw would at least mention his adoptive daughter in Season 2 as a nod to Rogue One? After all, Andor is a prequel to Rogue One, which was a prequel to A New Hope and included several nods to Episode IV, including appearances by Darth Vader and Leia Organa.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen either. The Galen Erso name drop seemed like it was forced in, and the final arc of Andor had little to do with the events of Rogue One. Cassian did leave for the Ring of Kafrene at the end of the season, but he could’ve easily left for a trip to Niamos. How and when the Rebel Alliance found information on Jyn and her location was never shown. In fact, during an interrogation between Director Orson Krennic and Dedra Meero, the latter was asked to reveal information on the secret project the Empire was working on, a project Dedra was aware of. This felt like the perfect opportunity for Dedra to say, “Project Stardust”. Instead, she called it the “Death Star.” It would’ve been far more appropriate for her to call it by its discreet title, the meaning of which no one understood except Jyn. Except that didn’t happen either, perhaps because Stardust is Jyn, and Tony Gilroy didn’t wish to go there.

All of this happened during Andor Season 2; however, even during the season’s promotion, Gilroy, Diego Luna, and Alan Tudyk hardly ever mentioned Felicity Jones or her character. At the time, fans didn’t think much of it, assuming that there was still a good chance that Jyn’s name would be mentioned near the end of the season, or that Felicity Jones would appear in a scene that captures how Jyn would end up a prisoner on Wobani. Again, Jyn Erso fans were let down. If all this wasn’t disappointing enough, Gilroy was asked about a Jyn cameo during the promotion for Season 2. He said a Jyn cameo would be “lame” and hinted that if Andor’s Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) had ever met Jyn, she would’ve found her irritating. He also admitted that he was aware that fans had shipped Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso for 10 years, but that it would be better if those fans would “re-orient their thinking.” Andor has proven to be a success, and Gilroy’s opinion on Jyn Erso as a character could be one of the reasons why perceptions regarding her have shifted.

There’s no denying that Andor changed Cassian’s background as a character. Some things about Cassian that were previously canon were changed, including his canonical age. Andor made him older and revealed that he had a relationship with Bix Caleen. Bix chose to leave him so he could fully commit to the Rebellion. In an interview during Season 2, Diego Luna revealed that he believes Cassian would have gone back to Bix if he had survived the events of Rogue One. While Diego is entitled to his opinion, this led many fans to say that Cassian died in the arms of a woman he didn’t love, and felt bad for him. Interviews with Gilroy and Luna seemed to suggest that Cassian hugging Jyn or holding her hand at the end of Rogue One was meaningless, as he would’ve done the same with anyone in her place. This severely undermines her and whatever undefinable connection she and Cassian had during the movie, as well as their obvious chemistry. Many fans who watched Rogue One before Andor believed that Jyn and Cassian had things in common, which helped them develop a strong connection that they could’ve explored if they had survived. However, Gilroy and Luna definitely seem to disagree.

Post Andor, social media was flooded with posts from fans who wished Rogue One had been about Cassian and not Jyn, who believed Jyn was a poorly written and poorly performed character. It’s an odd turn of events for the Star Wars fandom, which tends to soften its stance on characters and actors with the passage of time. It’s also sad to see fans claiming that Felicity Jones can’t act because she is a 2-time Oscar nominee. Rogue One made over a billion dollars, and no one knew about Cassian Andor’s backstory before they watched it, and yet, they flocked to theaters 10 years ago for a movie led by Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso.

Now, 10 years later, with Andor used as the measuring stick to compare the standard of Star Wars writing and production, even a billion-dollar movie led by a 2-time Oscar-nominated actress doesn’t seem good enough. In short, this was the worst year to be a Jyn Erso fan. Despite how disappointing it was to see that a Rogue One prequel didn’t even bother to mention Jyn by name, I still hope that in another 10 years, everyone will like Jyn Erso again, even if she wasn’t Tony Gilroy’s creation, and even if she had absolutely nothing to do with Andor. Until then, this year has been a lesson that it doesn’t take long for fans to turn on a character or movie, and it doesn’t help if the creatives try their best to exclude any mention of her, or the actress who played her; It normalizes it, and Jyn’s name being left off a long list of the greatest Star Wars characters despite retrieving the Death Star plans and dying for the galaxy is proof that it’s easy to write off a female character, even if she led her own movie. Perhaps Jyn wasn’t written as well as Cassian because she wasn’t given a 24-episode-long series that cost over $600 million to make, but they both died for the same cause, and it should’ve been enough for her to secure a place among the best characters in Star Wars.

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