Why Felicity Jones Has a ‘Rogue One’ Sequel Option in Her Contract

A couple of weeks back, someone asked Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy about a possible Rogue One sequel — a silly question given the film’s position in the Star Wars timeline, but not an entirely absurd one in this age of blockbuster franchises. The answer is, of course, no; there won’t be a Rogue One sequel because there already is a Rogue One sequel (it’s called A New Hope; maybe you’ve heard of it), and yet, Felicity Jones has the option to appear in a spinoff follow-up in her contract. Confusing? Not so much. Spoilers ahead!

Okay, if you’re still with us, there’s a perfectly logical reason for Jones to have a sequel option in her Star Wars contract, an interesting note that was revealed by THR:

The end of Rogue One pulls off the impressively gutsy move of killing off lead character Jyn Erso (Jones) along with her entire crew. They’re all completely, 100 percent dead with no chance of ever returning. But that wasn’t always how the film was going to end. Although the extent of those highly-publicized reshoots was initially unclear, it’s become quite obvious how drastic those changes were, especially when you compare the trailers and TV spots to the finished film — which is what our own Matt Singer did, compiling a whopping 18 moments from the trailers that didn’t appear in the film. And those are just the significant, obvious differences.

The film gives those missing trailer moments some context, and indicates that the original ending of Rogue One was super different from the one it currently has — meaning Jyn lived at the end. And if Jyn Erso were still alive, then she’d be free to appear in another in-between-movies spinoff or prequel, even if it were just a simple cameo.

By the way, THR’s report suggests that Jyn’s sequel appearance would be tied into another Star Wars Story movie about young Luke Skywalker — which is totally bananas because we’ve already seen three movies about young Luke, and if you went any younger than that, you’d be watching him play with toddler-sized farming equipment while Uncle Owen nods approvingly.