[2] In January 2015, The Hollywood Reporter stated that numerous actresses, including Tatiana Maslany, Rooney Mara, and Felicity Jones were being tested for the lead role in Rogue One, the first stand-alone Star Wars film.

[9] Chris Barsanti of PopMatters added that Jyn's childhood tragedy leaves her "just cynical and bereft enough to make her hold out a respectable length of time before agreeing to assist the Rebel Alliance".

[10] Writing for Vanity Fair, Hilary Busis suggested that with Jyn's backstory, the film was drawing on "the Star Wars franchise's greatest natural resource: daddy issues".

[11] The Daily Telegraph described Jyn as "a roguish, Han Solo-style heroine",[12] and Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called the character "a female warrior driven by destiny to take on the mightiest power in the galaxy".

In the novel, Republic Lieutenant Commander Orson Krennic saves his old friend Galen Erso and his family from a coup, and enlists the scientist to develop energy technology using kyber crystals that would ostensibly be applied to altruistic purposes.

Accompanied by Rebel intelligence operative Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), Jyn travels to the desert moon Jedha and reconnects with Saw, who shows her a holographic message that Galen recorded for her.

Jyn and her comrades, joined by the defecting Imperial pilot who brought the message, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), and a pair of local warriors, flee as the Empire's Death Star, an armored battle station the size of a small moon, destroys Jedha City.

Chris Barsanti of PopMatters noted that "Jyn's backstory also helps answer a question that's plagued fans ever since 1977: why did the Empire spend all that time and all those resources building a moon-sized space station only to leave one rather glaring and easily exploited vulnerability?

[21] Jyn is a playable character in the 2015 action shooter video game Star Wars Battlefront, as part of the 2016 downloadable content (DLC) Rogue One: Scarif expansion pack.

"[8] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian noted that "Jones is in the tousled-yet-game tradition of Star Wars female leads, like Carrie Fisher or Daisy Ridley: well-born but determined, with a sense of purpose befitting an heiress, if not a princess.

[7] IndieWire's David Ehrlich compared Jyn to Rey (Ridley) from The Force Awakens, and described her as "indistinguishable from the bland and plucky heroine of Episode VII save for her privileged disillusionment".

[26] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly called Jyn "the kind role model any moviegoing parent would want to expose their daughters (and sons) to", adding that "Jones plays her with a fiery warmth that turns her into more than just a pawn piece going through the larger storytelling paces.

"[14] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Jones presents a convincing, if monotonously self-serious, heroine", noting the actress' physical resemblance to Ridley and speculating that their characters could be related.