The Real Reason Rogue One's Jyn Erso Didn't Appear In Andor

Although the "Andor" series finale has been pretty well received by fans, some viewers were disappointed that Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) never made an appearance. She was, after all, the co-lead of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," i.e. the movie that "Andor" leads directly into, and she even shared her final moments of life with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). But Jyn is nowhere to be found in all two seasons of "Andor," not even as a quick cameo.

When asked in an interview with Entertainment Weekly if he had ever considered including her in the show, creator Tony Gilroy answered bluntly, "No." He went on to clarify:

"In the end, I realized if people didn't absolutely have to be there, they shouldn't. And it would've been lame to bring Jyn back as a cameo. That would've been really disrespectful in a way. I'd rather honor 'Rogue' and keep it straight."

Even in the intense season 2 finale, where some sort of reference to Jyn would've been easily accepted by fans, Gilroy held firm to his rule of no cheap cameos. "Episode 12 is very unique. It's its own energy and we are not trying to hype anything in 12. We always knew it was going to be not a low energy, but a different kind of episode," he explained. The result is a season 2 (and series) finale that feels like a conclusion in its own right, not just a way to convince new viewers to check out "Rogue One" for the ending to Cassian's story.

In the same interview, Gilroy noted that he had nearly included a few other "Rogue One" cameos in "Andor," adding: 

"I always thought, 'Oh my God, I'm going to have to deal with Tivic the spy!' 'Should I deal with Galen Erso? And was there anybody else?' I really thought I was going to have to use Danny Mays as Tivic. I thought, 'Well, we probably should.'"

Tivic, as "Rogue One" fans may recall, is the Rebel spy whom Cassian kills at the start of the movie. The final few episodes of "Andor" feature references to Tivic, but we never see him on screen. The bigger deal is Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the man who designed that infamous weakness inside the Death Star that the Rebels exploit in "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope." Given Galen's importance to the Rebels' eventual victory, it would've been understandable if Gilroy had elected to break his cameos rule for that particular character's sake.

But Gilroy once again decided that "Andor" needed to be its own story as much as possible and focused on finishing off its main characters' arcs instead of teasing the arcs for characters from other projects. It was a welcome change of pace for the "Star Wars" franchise, which has otherwise been obsessed with cramming in constant cameos and callbacks to previous movies. It's also just one of the many reasons why "Andor" has felt like such a breath of fresh air.

"Andor" is now streaming in its entirety on Disney+.