‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’: Felicity Jones & Diego Luna Should Have Made Out At The End, Yes, They Should Have

**Spoiler Alert for the ending of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story**

Back in December, I left a screening of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story feeling vaguely unsatisfied. Something about the film felt incomplete in my mind. There had been the promise of something and it had not been fulfilled. It wasn’t until my friends and I were clambering down the stairs to the subway when I realized what it was. See, one of them exclaimed, “I’m so happy they didn’t kiss at the end!” Soon everyone I was with nodded in assent.

But I did not nod in assent. No, I most certainly did not. For as smart and progressive as a statement as it was, I did not agree with it. I was not happy that “they” — Felicity Jones’s Jyn Erso and Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor — didn’t kiss at the end. I was furious that they didn’t.

Let me back up and make something clear: I firmly believe that there’s more to life than romance. I certainly don’t think that a heroine needs to be settled with a boyfriend by the end of a movie to have a happy ending. I was utterly happy with Rey and Finn’s totally chill, non-romantic relationship in Star Wars: The Force Awakens because those two lost kids needed friends in that movie. I’m also not what the kids on the internet call, “a shipper.” I didn’t even know there was a hardcore fangroup devoted to “shipping” Jyn and Cassian until this week. (By the way, I believe it’s called “rebelcaptain,” but I’m not sure.) Furthermore, I understand that Jyn and Cassian kind of had their hands full with the whole “sneaking into the Imperial archives” and “stealing the Death Star plans” and “resigning themselves to death” thing. Romance may not have been in the cards. I get it. To quote another Lucasfilm franchise, it was very much a “no time for love, Dr. Jones!” situation.

And yet, I say this with full sincerity: Jyn and Cassian really ought to have made out hardcore at the end of that movie. As the glowing mushroom cloud of doom rolled towards them, they should have been groping for each other in some final moment of explosive ecstasy. There could have even have been some from Here To Eternity beach humping. I don’t know if they would have had time for that, but you catch my drift.

This isn’t coming out of nowhere, though. I didn’t just decide, “Oh, yeah, those two should make out” with utter caprice. The reason why I want sweet sexual catharsis for these two insanely gorgeous freedom fighters is because for the entire third act of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, they had been hard core non-stop eye-fucking. You don’t believe me? Check out this:

They are totally sizing each other’s bodies up. There’s a crackle of sexual dynamite sizzling between them. They are not pushing each other into the “friend zone.” This is the body language of two people who want to bone.

Or how about this tender moment after they’ve managed to finally upload the Death Star plans to Scarif’s version of the “the cloud”?

If you’re asking yourself, “Wait? Is Diego Luna going in for a kiss?” I would say, “No, but doesn’t it look like that?” Which is important. It’s important because – and this should go without saying – cinema is a visual medium. We pick up information about both the plot and characters from what we see. And what I see in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a pair of actors who have really strong chemistry and who can’t resist injecting, at the very least, a subtext of romance into their performances. Heck, there were so many reshoots of this film, I am willing to bet there is a version where they do make out (but then Lucasfilm decided to cut it because sensuality has never really fit in the Star Wars universe and it felt “off”).

Yeah, I said it: Star Wars kind of sucks at the sexy stuff. For all its rogues and all its princesses, Star Wars is marked by a certain kind of asexuality. The closest thing we get to red hot action is Han Solo and Princess Leia’s romance, but even that is cooled down for a bit when Han Solo gets literally frozen in carbonite (by Leia’s dad, natch!). Speaking of Anakin Skywalker…his entire relationship with Padme is so awkward and so devoid of chemistry, I don’t believe they ever had offscreen sex at all. For all we know, Luke and Leia were conceived with a Jedi turkey baster or in some kind of asexual blood magic space ritual like the one Alejandro Jodorowsky had planned for his never-filmed version of Dune. The Force Awakens introduced a delightful running gag about Chewbacca being a ladies’ man, but as of right now, the most sexual thing about Star Wars is Lando Calrissian’s line delivery. That’s fine, I guess. Again, not every story has to have romance in it, but as the Star Wars universe expands, shouldn’t it include some new version of romance? Anywhere? 

Even though Star Wars characters are riffs on classic mythic archetypes, they are incredibly human portrayals of these archetypes. We root for Luke Skywalker not because he represents some anthropological archetype, but because he feels like the nice kid we had homeroom with in 10th grade. He feels like one of us. He feels human. Love, lust, and desire are a part of the human experience — and it’s a part of the human experience that gets pushed aside in the Star Wars narrative. And so what do fans do when they notice their favorite Star Wars characters not living fully “human” lives? They look for subtext and run with it. Much like I’m convinced Jyn and Cassian had a little something-something percolating between them, scores of fans on the internet see the shades of desire between Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ Finn and Poe or the hallmarks of a long-term relationship between Rogue One‘s Baze and Chirrut (the latter of which I totally see because they have kind of a Bert and Ernie vibegoing on).

If Star Wars is going to continue to present us with these awesome new casts of three-dimensional characters, we’re going to wonder why most of these characters are side-stepping one of the trickiest, messiest, and most exhilarating parts of being a fully-rounded human being: love.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story didn’t necessarily need a romantic subplot, but the seeds of it were there. The seeds of romance are scattered across the newly rebooted Star Wars cinematic canon. At some point, Star Wars is going to have to give us some kind of realistic romance or that galaxy far, far way is going to seem way too alien for us to relate to. Not everyone has to fall in love, but someone better.

And maybe this is just me, but if I was on a beach with Diego Luna, and we had spent a week flirting, and I knew we were about to die, I would try to jump his bones. I would at least angle for a kiss.

But again, that could just be messy, dirty, all-too-human me talking.

Stream Rogue One: A Star Wars Story on Netflix