The next Star Wars movie should be a Rose Tico spinoff
Disney already has the perfect director lined up.
It’s no secret that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was divisive. Was the film disrespectful to The Last Jedi? Was the smooching necessary?
However, one of the biggest issues most fans can agree on was the film’s alienation of Rose Tico. After it was revealed that the beloved character had a little over a minute of screen time in Episode IX — an abysmal amount considering the film’s nearly two and half hour runtime — the only conclusion is for the next Star Wars film to be a Rose Tico spinoff.
Thankfully, Disney might already have a director lined up for the next Star Wars movie.
Minor spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
When asked why Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose Tico was barely in The Rise of Skywalker, co-screenwriter Chris Terrio made it clear that sidelining her was never the intention. In fact, Rose’s screen time was reportedly cut because they had a hard time with the late Carrie Fisher’s footage. Speaking with Awards Daily, Terrio said Rose was meant to share several scenes with General Leia Organa, but the scenes did “not meet the standard of photorealism,” so they got axed.
Rose Tico had WAY more to do in 'The Last Jedi'.
The excuse is flimsy at best. After all, Rey’s scenes with Leia didn’t get cut. Plus, Poe asked Rose to join him, Finn, and Rey on their journey to find the wayfinder device and she said no, opting to remain at the base. Rose’s screen time could have easily been rectified had she gone with the trio instead. There was very little happening at the base anyway, making the oversight even more egregious. And so Terrio’s reasoning, likely meant to assuage, didn’t soothe already agitated fans of Rose Tico.
Over on Twitter, the hashtag #RoseTicoDeservedBetter began trending and drew the attention of Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu. In a tweet, Chu asked Disney to hire him for a Disney+ series starring Kelly Marie Tran. But forget a spinoff series, the next Star Wars movie should be a Rose Tico spinoff!
Hear me out. We know the next Star Wars film is being announced in January and is already scheduled for release in 2022. We don’t know anything beyond that, but since J.J. Abrams and Terrio admitted to messing up regarding Rose’s screen time, the next step should be for Lucasfilm to fast-track a movie starring Kelly Marie Tran. Put Rose front and center, give her a great storyline, more backstory, a funny alien or droid sidekick, and voila! The movie could be a prequel or a sequel. Either way, it’s justice for Rose.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a Disney+ series, there would be more eyeballs on a movie (not everyone has access to Disney+). Jon M. Chu is first and foremost a movie director after all. Since he’s already expressed interest in helming a Rose spinoff, he could direct the next Star Wars movie in place of booted Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.
It wasn’t that long ago that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed the studio “won’t abandon the characters created in the most recent trilogy.” Since Episode IX has already abandoned Rose, the only way to right the wrongs of her mistreatment is for Star Wars to deliver on that promise and greenlight a Rose Tico Star Wars movie immediately.
It’s what she (and her fans) deserves.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently playing in theaters.
