Crazy Rich Asians and In The Heights director Jon M. Chu wants to expand the Star Wars universe with a new series about Rose Tico.
Posting on Twitter, Chu called on Disney to shine a spotlight on Rose, a Resistance member who was played by Kelly Marie Tran in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
“Put me in coach,” Chu tweeted at the Disney+ and Star Wars Twitter accounts. “Let’s make this series happen. #RoseTicoDeservedBetter.”
Chu joins a sizable part of the Star Wars fanbase who wanted to see more of Rose in the latest trilogy installment after her character’s introduction in The Last Jedi. Some fans felt that Rose was sidelined in The Rise of Skywalker, an argument bolstered by the fact that out of the film’s two hours and 22 minutes runtime, Rose only appears for about 76 seconds, according to Slate.
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Some fans also felt that within that minute-plus of screen time, the character was not given any particular amount of closure. The Last Jedi introduced Rose as someone who has escaped oppression at the hands of the First Order, joined the Resistance as a loyal fighter and mechanic, and helped save the day in a climactic sequence on the planet Crait. In The Rise of Skywalker, Rose is mainly relegated to staying at a Rebel base offscreen, looking through Imperial schematics.
Ok @disneyplus . Put me in coach. Let’s make this series happen. #RoseTicoDeservedBetter @starwars
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) December 27, 2019
After Rose was introduced in The Last Jedi, a small but vocal minority of toxic Star Wars fans targeted Tran with racist and sexist attacks on social media. Tran was driven off of Instagram after the release of the film, and the actress has spoken out about the harassment in interviews and a New York Times op-ed. Rose’s few appearances in The Rise of Skywalker gave some fans the impression that those concerns were sidestepped by shelving the character, rather than doing Rose’s arc justice. Disappointed at the film’s approach to the outsized vitriol against both Rose and Tran, fans got the hashtag #JusticeForRose trending on social media in the week following The Rise of Skywalker’s release. The hashtag Chu used in his own tweet, #RoseTicoDeservedBetter, also got plenty of traction.
As for Chu’s call to action, Disney has not announced any plans to move forward with a Rose Tico TV series. But it’s a large galaxy, and Rose has likely had many adventures throughout — so watch this space, just in case.