Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi almost cast To All the Boys star Lana Condor as Rose Tico before the role went to Kelly Marie Tran. In 2017 with the release of The Last Jedi, Star Wars fans were introduced to Rose Tico, a character who lost her sister in an early battle with the First Order and went on a mission with Finn (John Boyega) to prevent further loss of life for the Resistance. Rose returned in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but fans of the character were disappointed to see she didn't have much to do, remaining with the Resistance ground team as Finn went off on an adventure with Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Poe (Oscar Isaac).
Leading up to and in the wake of The Last Jedi's release, many were excited for the character of Rose, with Tran becoming the first Asian-American woman in a main role in a Star Wars movie. However, Rose also had her critics. Some made the valid point that the character largely exists to teach Finn a lesson about the cost of war, while other criticisms were rooted in racism and misogyny. Tran was on the receiving end of so much harassment that she deleted her Instagram; Johnson and Boyega publicly defended the actress and denounced her harassers. For better or for worse, Tran rose to fame thanks to her role in Star Wars, but it turns out another actress came close to landing the part of Rose.
In an interview with StyleCaster to promote her new Netflix movie, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You - the sequel to the 2018 smash hit To All the Boys I've Loved Before - Condor spoke about where she was in her career when she was cast as the YA rom-com's lead. Condor revealed she came close enough to joining the cast of The Last Jedi that she met with Boyega for a chemistry read. “This was before The Force Awakens came out, and they were already reading for the sequel," the actress explained. Condor eventually lost the role to Tran, but she got her own breakout part in 2018's To All the Boys I've Loved Before:
Had I done Star Wars, I wouldn’t have been able to do To All the Boys, so that’s an example of one door closes and another opens.
As the actress points out, everything worked out for Condor as she moved on from losing the Star Wars role to getting cast as the lead in To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Fans of Condor may have liked to see her play Rose, especially since the actress was sidelined in another sci-fi/action film franchise after playing Jubilee in X-Men: Apocalypse. But, considering Rose was also sidelined in The Rise of Skywalker, it would've been disappointing to see that happen twice to the same actress. Instead, Condor got her breakout role in To All the Boys and she's now starring in the sequel, P.S. I Still Love You, with a third film already done based on the third novel in Jenny Han's series: Always and Forever, Lara Jean.
It was ultimately Johnson and Lucasfilm's decision to cast Tran in The Last Jedi and the role helped launch her career. After her character was sidelined in The Rise of Skywalker, fans have campaigned for Tran to get a Rose spinoff Star Wars series or be cast in Johnson's upcoming Knives Out sequel. Meanwhile, Condor is leading her own rom-com film series on Netflix with To All the Boys. So although Condor may have been hurt to lose the Star Wars: The Last Jedi role at the time, it appears everything worked out well for both actresses.
Source: StyleCaster