There are so many things that went frustratingly unexplained in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and one of them was the truth about Jannah, Naomi Ackie’s reformed Stormtrooper who befriends Finn and the other Resistance heroes in Episode IX. The movie ends with the promise that she and Lando will head off for adventures together in the Millennium Falcon as she searches for her family, but Lucasfilm has clarified elsewhere that she’s actually Lando’s daughter.
That was apparently not the original plan, though, and Jannah’s origins could still be retconned in a future chapter in the saga. A now-deleted user on Reddit shared an intriguing post to the /r/starwarsspeculation subreddit recently. They claim to be a former Lucasfilm employee revealing what they know about the fabled J.J. Abrams Cut of TROS and what changed in the theatrical release. For one, they say that Finn and Jannah were initially siblings and their surname would’ve been Galfridian.
This was ultimately left out of The Rise of Skywalker, but the user notes that Lucasfilm hasn’t entirely disregarded the idea and they’re “told this is still on the table for future stories.” There are a couple of eventualities that this could mean, then. First is that Jannah won’t end up being Lando’s daughter, after all, with that off-screen confirmation being wiped away. Or maybe they’ll stick with her being Lando’s kid and Finn will be revealed as the son of Billy Dee Williams’ character, too.
Finn’s alleged last name may confirm that the Legends character Finn Galfridian was his original template as well. This Finn is one of Luke’s proteges who had a crush on Jaina Solo, who effectively became Rey in the Disney canon. Sure enough, this Redditor claims that Abrams wanted Finn to be a Jedi and end up with Rey, but the studio pushed back against him on both these counts.
In any case, if there is a place for Jannah to return to Star Wars, then it would be in the upcoming Lando TV series that’s headed to Disney Plus. As for where Finn could fit in, John Boyega doesn’t seem all that keen to reprise his role anytime soon, but reports online have said that he could still be coaxed back to that galaxy far, far away.
