Jyn was originally supposed to have a MUCH bigger connection to the Jedi in “Rogue One”
How much did you love badass, fightin’ Jyn Erso in Rogue One? Now take what you know, and love, about Jyn, and can you imagine her as a Jedi? The answer is DUH, and there’s a reason you’re super into that idea right now: In early versions of Rogue One Jyn’s mother was a Jedi!
Rogue One focus a lot on Jyn’s ties to her parents — including her mother, who was killed while she was a child (And her father then later went on to design the Death Star, as you do). But according to director Gareth Edwards, in early versions of the film, they considered making Jyn’s mother a Jedi, which would’ve honestly been so cool. But, Edwards told Entertainment Weekly that they ultimately changed their minds and the reason why made complete sense:
“The problem was that the second you make her mom a Jedi you spend the entire movie questioning whether Jyn is a Jedi or not. Eventually, we came up with the idea that her father should have designed the Death Star. That became a stronger way into the stealing of the Death Star plans. We let go of the mother being a Jedi, and she became just a rebellious mom.
So without Jyn’s mom being a Jedi, it left the film Jedi-less. And that’s pretty unique for a Star Wars film. Writer Gary Whitta also told EW that was a concern for him:
"I was concerned about it for a while. They are basically extinct. There are two left [Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi], and they’re in hiding. You’re not going to see a Jedi in this film. How do we still get some element of the fact that the Force hasn’t gone anywhere? That it’s just in the background?
Well, the film ended up being pretty epic, even without any Jedi. And since the next Star Wars film has Jedi in the title, we’ll assume that there will be plenty of The Force to go around!
