Poe's was originally supposed to die early on in Star Wars: The Force Awakensbut his part was rewritten to keep him alive, causing massive repercussions to his overall arc in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The original casting of Oscar Isaac and Poe Dameron's character description sounded like the Resistance had a new hotshot pilot to be the sequel trilogy's Han Solo.  Like Harrison Ford's character, he was suave and cocky, with great flying skills. He wasn't supposed to be a key character in the series, however, as he was initially going to die at the beginning of the 2015 J.J. Abrams movie.

When Abrams approached Isaac for the part he told him the character was going to die his scenes with John Boyega where Poe and Finn crash a TIE Fighter on Jakku. As the actor recalled, the director, alongside Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan pitched the role to him as "a badass fighter pilot battling against the remnants of the Empire" who opens the film and then immediately dies after. This understandably disappointed Isaac who is a life-long Star Wars fan.

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So while Isaac was excited at the prospect of joining Star Wars, he was skeptical about playing someone who just sets up the story, explaining he's played that role several times. Abrams and Kennedy saw things from the his perspective, and from there, Poe's role was expanded as he became a major player in the whole sequel trilogy, leading to appearances in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. While Isaac was a great addition to the cast, this change from the original plan resulted in a character that was never fully utilized.

This drastic change in Poe's arc was further made obvious by the fact that The Force Awakens stuck to the original opening of the movie where the character would've died. Framed as some sort of plot twist, the reveal of Poe's survival was poorly executed as he suddenly came out of nowhere to rescue Han Solo, Finn, Rey, and Chewbacca at Maz Kanata's castle in Takodana from the First Order. It didn't help that there's no proper explanation of how he survived the crash or got back to the Resistance before Rey and Finn.

With a shaky introduction, depriving him of a proper character arc in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Poe's role in the franchise became convoluted. He was positioned to be a Resistance leader as Leia's right-hand man, but by Star Wars: The Last Jedi, even his standing in the organization was unclear with General Holdo taking over while Leia was injured. This forced Poe to back an ill-conceived plan that caused the Resistance many lives. A brief talk with Leia absolved him of his mistakes - as if his blunder was nothing more than a learning step to becoming the Resistance leader he's supposed to be. Things became more problematic for Poe in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It essentially stagnated the character's progress, hindering any pay off from his experience in The Last Jedi by positioning him as nothing more than a skilled Resistance operative rather than a leader. The movie also backtracked his origin story, revealing that before joining the Resistance, he's was a criminal spice runner. This came as a shock to many as non-movie canon had established his parents were Rebel pilots and he had a history as a New Republic before joining Leia's resistance.

While Poe is fun character with some cool moments, he ultimately doesn't have a personal arc. He was simply there in the service of other characters or a bigger story. While this would be fine for supporting Star Wars characters, it's disappointing for someone who's supposedly one of the main three players of the sequel trilogy. Perhaps his character would've had more impact if they pushed through with his death in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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