Kelly Marie Tran won fans' hearts in Star Wars: The Last Jedi as Rose Tico, a Resistance mechanic who finds the strength within herself to become a hero.
She broke barriers as the first Asian American woman to play a leading role in the Star Wars franchise, but the high-profile part also made her the target of a harassment campaign. Tran deleted her Instagram and later eloquently spoke out on her refusal to be marginalized for her Vietnamese American identity.
But in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, her character spends most of the movie on the sidelines.
kelly marie tran in #TheRiseOfSkywalker
Tran and Rose simply deserved better, some people said after the final film in the saga premiered this week.
There’s a lot to like and a lot to dislike in #TROS , but no matter how you feel, can we agree Rose Tico deserves better?
kinda have absolutely no desire to watch the new st*r w*rs after hearing they practically wrote kelly marie tran out of it. it's sort of extremely gross to me
"They Jar Jar Binks-ed her because trolls bullied her off the Internet."
What #StarWarsRiseofSkywalker did to Rose Tico is unconscionable. Kelly Marie Tran got less screen time than Dominic Monaghan’s random new character. They Jar Jar Binks-ed her because trolls bullied her off the Internet. Kelly deserved better.
And, people said, it felt like Disney and director J.J. Abrams had given in to the trolls and their hate.
Kelly Marie Tran in The Rise of Skywalker was treated so fucking horribly. Literally pushed to the side and ignored by Finn in a scene after asking if he needs help, absolutely insane. The most blatant feeding into of hate from The Last Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker.
I don’t care what your feelings are towards Star Wars, The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker... we should all be disgusted in the way Kelly Marie Tran was treated in RoS. She was done dirty.
“Kelly Marie Tran was treated abominably by #StarWars and by TROS specifically, validating racism and online bullies” is the only Discourse I am currently accepting, thank you.
#WheresRose
Now that the movie is out... Kelly Marie Tran was robbed. Rose Tico was robbed. We were robbed of seeing our girl in action. #WheresRose #TheRiseOfSkywalker #StarWars
the way they did kelly marie tran's character dirty after all the backlash and racist harassment she received in tlj making her character, a main part of the cast to a mere extra with two lines is very sad... rose tico deserved better
It is shameful that Disney/Star Wars basically wrote Rose Tico out of the TROS instead of ignoring the haters, recognizing valid criticism, and giving the character a meaningful final story. Kelly Marie Tran deserved better.
Meanwhile, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson weighed in with praise for Tran.
👑
In fact, it was the only thing the director tweeted related to The Rise of Skywalker. 👀
RIAN JOHNSON IGNORING THE EXISTENCE OF TROS AND HYPING UP KELLY MARIE TRAN IS THE KIND OF CHAOTIC ENERGY IM HERE FOR
Tran's looks for the movie's premieres were also fire — and represented the work of Asian designers.
Power to Kelly Marie Tran. She didn't dress for the Star Wars sequel she got, she dressed for the one she deserved.
can we please talk about how kelly marie tran chose to wear not (1) but (2!!!) dresses designed by asian american designers at the star wars premieres! the first is custom-made by taiwanese-canadian @JasonWu and the second is made by vietnamese @phuong_my.
May the Force be with you, Kelly.
I hope Kelly Marie Tran has a long, successful career working for people who don't capitulate to racist and misogynistic pieces of shit.