How Andor Quietly Built A Very Cool Connection Between A Hotel Bellhop And Rogue One's Jyn Erso

The seed for a famous Star Wars slogan was quietly planted, by the most unassuming of characters, in Episode 8 of Andor Season 2.

The five-word phrase would go on to be recited by both Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna) and Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) in Andor's 2016 "sequel movie" Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and it also was reverse-engineered to lay the foundation for the very first Star Wars film's post-release subhed, A New Hope.

In Andor Episode 8, with a quiet protest-turned-massacre unfolding in the Ghorman memorial plaza, Cassian alerts the hotel bellhop he met in Episode 5 that he is leaving and probably won't be back.

Learning that the rebellion-sympathetic bellhop, named Thela and played by Lupin's Stefan Crepon, craftily never checked in "Varian Skye" to begin with, Cassian tells the young man, "I hope things work out for you."

Thela responds, "Rebellions are built on hope."

That mantra clearly stuck with Cassian, because he parroted it early on in Rogue One, as he and Jyn arrived on Imperial-occupied Jedha to somehow score face time with rebel extremist Saw Gerrera.

"We'll give them your name and hope that gets us a meeting with Saw," Cassian said.

"Hope?" asked Jyn.

"Yeah. Rebellions are built on hope," Cassian replied.

Later on in Rogue One, Jyn would argue to Mon Mothma (Genevieve O'Reilly) and other leaders that they needed to deploy their "best troops, the Rebel fleet if you have to," to Scariff, as a vital step in neutering the Empire's new super weapon.

"You need to capture the Death Star plans if there's any hope of destroying it," Jyn asserted.

"You're asking us to invade an Imperial installation based on nothing but hope?" asked Senator Pamlo (Sharon Duncan-Brewster).

"Rebellions are built on hope," Jyn replied, using the same words said years earlier by a mild-mannered bellhop.

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