Tony Gilroy says he's sorry for hurting the sentiments of Jyn and Cassian shippers with his choices in Andor Season 2. In an interview with Collider, Gilroy discussed Bix and Cassian's relationship and emphasized that Jyn and Cassian were never a canon ship.
Despite that, Gilroy is well aware that for the past 9 years, many Rogue One fans have written hundreds of fan fiction stories where Cassian and Jyn end up together. About the Jyn and Cassian fanfics, Gilroy says, “I felt bad for the people who had invested so much time in the fan fiction and stuff like that. The people who really had gone deep on it. It's not considered canon, and it's not something I have to pay attention to."
It's not so much about what fans, including me, saw on screen in terms of actual romantic moments. Indeed, Cassian and Jyn never kissed, but if that's the criterion to see that two people have great chemistry, then the bar for romance has fallen to a new low. How will anyone enjoy a Jane Austen romance if they can't see the chemistry between two people who are at loggerheads? In that situation, a brush of the shoulders or an eyelock is the only proof you have that two people have chemistry.
Cassian and Jyn had fiery exchanges, and what I loved about them the most is that they were virtually equals. Jyn never had help and was repeatedly abandoned by people she thought of as family. Andor has recontextualized everything for me, because I no longer see Cassian as Jyn's equal. Cassian was never as alone as Jyn. In comparison, it didn't take millions of attempts to convince Jyn that she had to do something for the Rebel Alliance.
She wanted to undo the damage her father was responsible for through the creation of the Death Star. Once she committed herself to that cause, she made friends who could've been a permanent part of her life had she survived Scarif. Cassian was one of those new friends. Thanks to Diego Luna and Felicity Jones's chemistry in Rogue One, I shipped Jyn and Cassian, fondly known as 'Rebel Captain' by fans, for 9 years.
However, I can't help but notice that there's something off. Tony Gilroy, Diego Luna, and Alan Tudyk tried to avoid mentioning Felicity Jones's name throughout the show's promotion. Even though Andor is over, Gilroy and the cast continue to give detailed interviews, and Felicity is either never mentioned or referred to by her on-screen name. I don't know the reason, but I suspect they would rather not have fans remind them that Jyn Erso was the main protagonist of Rogue One.
Gilroy is on record as saying it would've been "lame" to bring Jyn Erso back for Andor Season 2, even though I can write several pages on why this would've been a lovely way to get back a character who's the face of a billion-dollar movie. There's also something disrespectful about Gilroy and Luna saying Jyn was just someone who happened to be there in Cassian's final moments. Hence, anyone would've held Jyn's hand, or Cassian would've held hands with anyone if he knew he was about to die.
Jyn wasn't just anyone. She was someone who deserved happiness in life, and someone who ended up giving her life to destroy a weapon she had no hand in creating. She deserved love just as much as Bix, and it cheapens the poignancy of Jyn and Cassian's final moments alive together by saying Cassian would've held anyone's hand in that moment.
We get it. Bix and Cassian are canon, very canon. Diego believes Cassian would've gone back to Bix if he had survived Rogue One. That's another nail in the Jyn and Cassian coffin, but let's not disrespect Jyn Erso by making her a nobody or an anybody that Cassian just happened to die in the arms of.
Jyn is one of the best heroines in Star Wars, and a lot of little girls grew up loving her. Star Wars Celebration was filled with fans who cosplayed as Jyn. It's disrespectful to shoot down anyone who asks about a Jyn Erso cameo as "lame", tell fans to "reorient their thinking" because they imagined her with Andor's great male lead, and imply she was the only hand available for Cassian to hold in his last moments. I don't even think I needed a long explanation from Tony Gilroy about what I saw in that elevator scene during Cassian and Jyn's final moments in Rogue One. Neither do the hundreds of other fans who have spent countless hours creating fanfiction and artwork for them.
Jyn was a person. I'm determined to write fanfics about her, but this time, she'll end up with someone other than Cassian. She'll end up with her equal. I would appreciate it if everyone stopped asking Tony Gilroy questions about Jyn Erso, because so far, all his answers have made it sound like he sees her as nothing more than an inconvenience. The result is a flood of hate tweets for Rogue One's writing, Jyn Erso's story, and Felicity Jones's performance.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is streaming on Disney+.