Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker quantifiably sidelines Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) with it being revealed she’s only in one minute and 16 seconds of the movie. The character of Rose Tico was introduced in the second installment of Lucasfilm’s sequel trilogy, Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. A mechanic whose sister Paige (Veronica Ngo) dies early on in the movie, Rose teams up with Finn (John Boyega) to track down a master codebreaker on Canto Bight. She was an integral part of Finn’s story and The Last Jedi seemed to introduce her as a key part of the Resistance moving forward, particularly after working with Finn and Poe (Oscar Isaac).
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Rose quickly became a fan-favorite among many Star Wars fans, though some criticized her storyline for simply serving to facilitate Finn’s character arc. However, some Last Jedi viewers went beyond polite criticism and began harassing Tran for her character and involvement in the Star Wars franchise. It reached the point that Tran deleted her Instagram due to the harassment. Both Johnson and Boyega voiced their support for the actress, and her fans hoped even more that Rose Tico would get the story she deserves in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Instead of Rose having a bigger role in The Rise of Skywalker, though, J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio’s script leaves her behind to study star destroyer specs - and now we can quantify exactly how little screen time Tran is given.
In a report from Slate, reporter Violet Kim used a stopwatch app to count exactly how much screen time Rose gets in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Tran’s Rose appears in one minute and 16 seconds of The Rise of Skywalker’s two hours and 22 minute runtime (“give or take a few seconds” Kim writes). That’s compared to The Last Jedi, in which Rose appears for 10 minutes and 53 seconds of the film’s total two hours and 32 minute runtime. Put into percentages, Rose appears in 7.2 percent of The Last Jedi and 0.9 percent of The Rise of Skywalker.
The numbers of Rose’s screen time in The Rise of Skywalker are staggering, especially when compared to The Last Jedi. Certainly, it’s expected that characters like Finn, Poe, Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) would get the majority of screen time in any of the sequel trilogy movies since they’re the main characters. However, Rose is undeniably introduced in The Last Jedi to be a major supporting player, but The Rise of Skywalker fails to do anything compelling with her character. There are multiple ways in which The Rise of Skywalker retcons The Last Jedi, but many fans feel the most egregious is how Abrams’ film handles Rose’s story, or lack thereof.
If there’s anything positive to come out of Rose’s reduced role in The Rise of Skywalker, it’s that fans are making their voices heard in regards to the character’s treatment. The Last Jedi writer-director Johnson has remained largely mum on the new Star Wars movie, but he did tweet his support for Rose and Tran after The Rise of Skywalker hit theaters. Further, Rose fans have come out in full force on social media to call out Abrams and Lucasfilm for how Rose was sidelined in the film. Perhaps Lucasfilm will heed fan concerns and explore Rose’s story more in a future Star Wars movie, TV show, book or comic. Certainly, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker left many fans wanting more, especially of Rose Tico, and it would be smart for Disney and Lucasfilm to continue these story threads in the future.
