Star Wars: Rogue One's Felicity Jones on Potential Andor Season 2 Return
The Rebellion has begun in Star Wars: Andor — but it's one fight that Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) will be sitting out. 2015's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story introduces Jyn as the rebellious daughter of the scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), who reluctantly helped the Galactic Empire build its planet-destroying ultimate weapon: the Death Star. It's not until after Andor — currently set in 5 BBY, or five years Before the Battle of Yavin that ends with the destruction of the planet-like battle station — that Jyn joins Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the Death Star plans-stealing squad known as call sign Rogue One.
When BBC One's The One Show asked if Jones will return as Jyn Erso in the second and final season of the Rogue One prequel series Andor, Jones said, "I'm afraid to say I won't be, but I still have hope for Jyn Erso at some point to make a comeback. But no, sadly I won't be."
"I actually wouldn't want to repeat any of [my characters]," added Jones, whose one-off Star Wars character perishes in the final moments of Rogue One. "It's so funny — once you've sort of done it and you've kind of put them to bed, then you're ready for the next challenge."
The Gareth Edwards-directed Star Wars spin-off is set immediately before A New Hope, and teams Jyn and Cassian with a doomed-to-die group of Rebels that includes the blind staff-wielding warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), a devout believer of the Force; the Partisan assassin Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen); ex-Imperial cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed); and reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk).
Andor season 2 will consist of a final 12 episodes and span the five-year gap between the prequel series and Rogue One, ending at the point where audiences meet Luna's Rebel captain in the 2015 film.
"Directors work in blocks of three episodes, so we did four blocks [in Season 1] of three episodes each. We looked and said, 'Wow, it'd be really interesting if we come back, and we use each block [of episodes] to represent a year," series creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy told Empire Magazine of the five-year narrative. "We'll move a year closer with each block. From a narrative point of view, it's really exciting to be able to work on something where you do a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then jump a year."
Gilroy added: "Rogue One is more about an event than the actual journey of characters. It's quite amazing to start a show where it's not about where we can end. It's about, how did we end there?"
Star Wars: Andor season 2 is slated to premiere August 2024 on Disney+.