Don't get me wrong, Hans is definitely a better character than Jan, but the thing is like half of the kids on the team had no idea who Hans was, they knew Jan from the Jr. Goodwill Games. It just seems like having Jan be the one to pass away would have had a greater emotional impact, especially since Bombay recycled the "be that man" speech to Charlie when it was Jan who said that to Bombay not Hans.
shareI always thought the same thing when I was younger. But now I honestly the bigger mistake was bringing in the Jan character to begin with.
Joss Ackland was unavailable so they created the Jan character as a substitute character instead of recasting the role. But in essence the Jan character was basically an unofficial recast. They should have just had Jan Rubes play Han in D2, that way in D3 they could just go back to Joss Ackland, and it would have been the same character across all three films.
It's crappy either way you slice it. But me personally, I would have rather it been Han in all three films.