When “The Last Jedi” was released in 2018, the complaints from hardcore fans were mostly aimed at Rian Johnson’s unconventional depiction of Luke Skywalker. However, there was quite a large contingent that was also complaining about the new characters who, coincidence or not, were mostly female (Laura Dern's Admiral Holdo and Kelly Marie Tran's Rose Tico). This backlash led to a fan deciding to edit his own 46-minute version of the "The Last Jedi" without any women in it. (an idiotic move if there ever was one).
Dern's Admiral Holdo was perfectly fine and brought some much-needed tension to some of the scenes she was in; she was a highlight and went out with, quite literally, a bang. But Marie Tran's Rose Tico was a problem, a character that felt like a non-starter, underdeveloped and thinly written. Of course, we want strong female characters to be included in these big-budget tentpole blockbusters, but Rose wasn’t the answer.
If you happened to catch “The Rise of Skywalker” you can’t help but notice the reduced role that Rose Tico, a Resistance member, has in the film — she appears in just two scenes and barely has any lines of dialogue. Rose pops up near the beginning of “The Rise of Skywalker” as the main characters get ready to take off on their mission. Finn tells Rose she won’t be going with them and the characters leave without her. She is later shown, very briefly, fighting the First Order on Exogol.
Was removing Rose from the narrative a disrespectful decision on the part of Disney? Does it validate the toxic fandom and criticisms of “The Last Jedi”? This, by the way, drove Tran off social media due to the hate mail she was receiving. No, Rose does not play a big part in “The Rise of Skywalker,” but was she originally supposed to? Entertainment Weekly had an interview with Tran on November 29, in which Tran expressed excitement over where “Rise of Skywalker” takes her character. Tran even expressed excitement for fans to watch Rose finally interact with the heroine of the trilogy, Daisy Ridley’s Rey. And yet there is no scene of Rose and Rey interacting in “Rise of Skywalker.” They barely even share the same space during the film.
Were Rose’s scenes cut off from the final cut of “Rise of Skywalker”? It sure does seem to be the case and only enhances my belief that Disney has been attempting damage control or, as its CEO Bob Iger recently said, a “course correction,” ever since the backlash that stemmed from “The Last Jedi” and isolated, even lost, millions of hardcore fans.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.