It seems somewhat insane that Star Wars was just once a standalone product, something George Lucas believed in but reckoned would work best as a solo movie rather than an entire trilogy. But, a whole 42 years on from the release of A New Hope, the universe around the franchise has grown. We’ve had two new trilogies (the second will be completed later this year) and two spin-off movies in the time since.
As a result, we’ve been introduced to many great characters. However, some have been at the forefront of things more than others. We now take a look at 10 people who, up to this point at least, can be considered underused.
Grand Moff Tarkin
It’s Darth Vader who steals the spotlight as the villain of A New Hope. Fans were left fascinated by his villainous character, who had a formidable air about him. However, Peter Kushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin was similarly memorable.
Tarkin conducted himself with such pompous and wickedness that he became a top villain from the very off. Unfortunately, however, he was killed off in the first Star Wars blockbuster, robbing him of screen time in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. CGI was used to bring him back in Rogue One but there’s still a sense the original trilogy could have been even greater with him involved in more than just the one chapter.
Bossk
Thanks to plenty of expanded Star Wars media, both in canon and in legends, Bossk has become a popular character. The lizard-looking Bounty Hunter only appeared in just the one movie - 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back - but the continuation of the universe around him means his stock has risen.
Bossk does barely anything in the one movie he features in. He’s spotted in the Bounty Hunter line-up when Darth Vader looks for somebody to bring in Luke Skywalker but ultimately fails in his task. It would have been great to see him in action despite his failure and we’re hoping that, with The Mandalorian and Kenobi coming to Disney+, we may get more of his character.
Boba Fett
Isn’t it strange how popular some characters can be despite the fact they do very little? Step forward, Boba Fett. With his Mandalorian armour and job as assassin, fans loved it when he made his first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back. He serves as an ally to both Darth Vader and the Empire, successfully delivering Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt in the process.
But in the following movie, entitled Return of the Jedi, he meets his end fairly early on. In dubious circumstances, too, falling into the Sarlac Pit on Tatooine after Lando Calrissian inadvertently damaged his jet packs. The new Disney canon has never confirmed whether he’s dead or alive but we still feel that, besides featuring more in the sixth Star Wars movie, he should also have popped up in the sequels.
Darth Maul
Moving onto the Star Wars prequels now, and everybody was shaking with excitement when The Phantom Menace released in 1999, 16 years after people thought they had said their goodbyes to the saga. The movie split opinion among release, however, with many aggrieved at the premature death of villain Darth Maul.
With his red, tattooed face, devil horns and double-bladed lightsaber, Maul looked every bit a top class villain. But George Lucas never intended for him to stick around and, as a result, robbed us of more. The character has since returned to the franchise, popping up in Solo: A Star Wars Story after it was established he’d survived Obi-Wan Kenobi slicing him in half after all. And we’re hoping he’ll continue to feature moving down the line.
General Grievous
Darth Maul isn’t the only villain of the Star Wars prequel trilogy who we wished we’d seen ore of. When the character of General Grievous was shown off for the first time, fans were sent into a frenzy. A Cyborg? Who kills Jedi? And can wield four lightsabers at the same time? The consensus was take our money now!
But Grievous makes his debut and dies within the same movie, Revenge of the Sith. Every scene with him was intriguing and the Magna Guards who served under him were similarly impressive. We just wish he’d featured more than Count Dooku who, while Christopher Lee was brilliant as, just didn’t have the same magical aura.
Captain Phasma
Star Wars fans have history when it comes to becoming captivated by the appearance of a character, only for that same individual to then disappoint on the big screen. And many fans regard Captain Phasma as a waste, having previously been taken in by her chrome armour, red cape and distinctive blaster.
Phasma gets barely any screen time in The Force Awakens, despite being central to Disney’s marketing push. And it’s a similar story in The Last Jedi, when Finn finally puts the First Order lieutenant out of her misery. So poor was her involvement that many people have even dubbed her as a greater disappointment than Boba Fett. Which, quite frankly, is some achievement.
Supreme Leader Snoke
Just because Palpatine is returning for The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about Supreme Leader Snoke who, so far, has been the source of much anger when it comes to the sequel trilogy. Disney wanted to keep everything under wraps regarding Andy Serkis’ character prior to The Force Awakens and, when he made his intriguing on-screen debut, hopes for The Last Jedi soared.
Snoke starts off the movie strongly, putting Kylo Ren in his place and continuing to draw comparisons with Palpatine himself. But then...he dies. Just as fans were really getting sucked in by the villain Kylo goes and slices him in half, with no explanation to Snoke’s backstory given either before or after. Sigh. Palpatine gets us hyped but we still want to know more about the man who replaced him as head of a evil organisation.
Finn
We were seriously stoked when we found out that John Boyega would be playing a stormtrooper named Finn, who would desert the First Order and join the Resistance during The Force Awakens. The character played a key role in that movie, helping the good guys blow up Starkiller Base - albeit nearly paying the ultimate price for choosing to engage Kylo Ren in lightsaber combat.
However, he sees his screen time cut drastically for The Last Jedi. Not only that, but the scenes he is in (the Canto Bight one specifically) are regarded as one of the most unpopular of the entire franchise. We’re hoping he’s redeemed in The Rise of Skywalker because Rian Johnson’s decisions regarding the characters were simply not good enough.
Orson Krennic
Of all the Star Wars movies ever released, Rogue One is arguably the most-surprising. And we mean that in a good way with the blockbuster delivering a dramatic storyline, an array of new and interesting planets and characters who we wished had been involved the whole time. Orson Krennic is one of those.
Krennic, played by Ben Mendelson, is a slimy and oily individual - one you’d definitely expect to work for the Empire. His relationship with Grand Moff Tarkin makes for fascinating viewing and the way he defends the bad guys with such gusto, doing very bad things in the process, is exactly why we would welcome more of him further down the line. One film just wasn’t enough.
Darth Vader
Sure, we know Darth Vader gets plenty of screen time during both the original trilogy and during the prequels, when he was known as Anakin Skywalker. While his death in Return of the Jedi makes it understandable that he’s not alive in the sequel trilogy, there are still people who believe he’s been underused by both JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson to this point.
Abrams decided to have Kylo Ren speaking to his grandfather’s charred helmet during The Force Awakens but Vader was barely mentioned during The Last Jedi. Given he’s the most iconic character in Star Wars history, his presence and past should be referenced often in the sequel trilogy. That’s something, again, we hope The Rise of Skywalker fixes.