TheStar Warssequel trilogy released by Disney split the fan base. Some fans want the sequels scrubbed from existence and retconned from theStar Warstimeline, while others believe they represent a new benchmark for the saga. But the 50% drop in worldwide box office returns betweenEpisodes VIIandIXwould suggest that most casual viewers were pretty ambivalent about the trilogy.
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Since there was no roadmap from the beginning and the creative team just made it up as they went along, theStar Warssequels don’t even really hold up as a complete three-volume work in the way that the two halves of Lucas’ saga do. And it’s a shame, as some of the characters it introduced had a lot of potential that was wasted.
10Best: Finn
John Boyega was seriously underserved in this trilogy – by the end, he was reduced to yelling Rey’s name – and the actor himselfcalled Disney out for it. As a character, Finn had so much potential that was squandered. He arguably should’ve been the hero of the sequel trilogy. A Force-sensitive ex-Stormtrooper who was orphaned and brainwashed by a ruthless dictatorship would’ve made a much more interesting protagonist for aStar Warstrilogy – and a better example of a non-Skywalker “nobody” – than Rey Palpatine.
Instead of meandering through the galaxy in search of random plot devices, the sequel trilogy could’ve charted Finn’s journey from Stormtrooper to Resistance fighter to Luke Skywalker’s padawan to Jedi warrior who takes down the First Order and defeats Kylo Ren.
9Worst: General Hux
Domhnall Gleeson is a fine actor, as seen inEx Machina,About Time, and theBlack Mirrorepisode he was in, but anyone who only knew him from theStar Warssequels would think he was a smarmy, hateable bit player. His character General Hux is resoundingly one-note and painfully unlikable.
Hux is shown to be Kylo Ren’s sniveling underling who disagrees with everything he tells Snoke, apparently just because he hates him.The Rise of Skywalkerseems to confirm this when Hux becomes a turncoat for the Resistance and says, “I don’t care if you win, I just need Kylo Ren to lose.”
8Best: Poe Dameron
Another character with a lot of potential that was wasted and an incredible actor whose talents were underused is Poe Dameron, the hotshot Resistance pilot played by Oscar Isaac.
InThe Force Awakens, Poe was introduced as a starfighter pilot with Luke Skywalker’s passion and Han Solo’s charisma. InThe Last Jedi, he staged a mutiny because his superior led everyone to believe they were going to die instead of just explaining her plan. InThe Rise of Skywalker, he’s randomly revealed to have a history as a spice runner, contrary to the backstory already laid out by a bunch of books and comics by writers struggling to explainAbrams’ incessant “mystery box” teases.
7Worst: Kylo Ren
Adam Driver is a fantastic actor who brought as much nuance and pathos as possible to the material he was given in theStar Warssequel trilogy, butthere was very little to work with. The themes of the story kept changing as the reins of the trilogy kept swapping hands.
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Kylo Ren was conceived to be a wannabe Darth Vader who isn’t as menacing. But since Snoke turned out to be useless, Hux was laughably weak, and Phasma was sidelined, if Kylo wasn’t going to be an intimidating villain, then there was no villain in this whole trilogy who seemed to pose a real threat. Ben Solo’s redemption inThe Rise of Skywalkerdoesn’t feel earned in the slightest; it just peddles a toxic romance to pander to Reylo shippers.
6Best: Captain Phasma
InThe Force Awakens, Captain Phasma was introduced as a badass First Order commander who keeps the Stormtroopers in line. Gwendoline Christie knocked her performance out of the park and Phasma quickly became a fan-favorite side villain like Boba Fett that fans looked forward to seeing more of.
Unfortunately, Phasma’s arc in the trilogy turned out exactly like Fett’s. In the next movie, she proves to be hilariously easy to defeat and goes out completely unceremoniously with Finn’s corny “chrome dome” line.
5Worst: DJ
Benicio del Toro’s hacker character inThe Last Jediis technically unnamed, but he goes by “DJ,” which stands for “Don’t Join.” The guy’s name is literally “Don’t Join” and Finn and Rose are surprised when he doesn’t join the Resistance.
DJ telegraphs from the beginning that he’s going to betray them if the First Order offers a better deal, but it’s presented as a shocking twist when exactly that happens.
4Best: Rose Tico
Although she’s only depicted briefly, Rose Tico was introduced as a lovable new addition to the roster inThe Last Jedi. Kelly Marie Tran gave a terrific performance and it was interesting to see an everywoman character join the ranks of the main ensemble.
Then, of course, Rose was reduced to a background character inThe Rise of Skywalker. J.J. Abrams said that the casting of Tran wasthe thing he was most grateful forfrom Rian Johnson’s work onThe Last Jedi, then only featured her for 76 seconds of screen time (seriously) in his two-and-a-half-hour movie.
3Worst: Supreme Leader Snoke
The motion-capture magic of Andy Serkis was wasted on the role of Supreme Leader Snoke, who can only be described as a store-brand Emperor Palpatine. Whereas the original trilogy saved the Emperor’s reveal for the third and final chapter, J.J. Abrams put Snoke on full display in the first sequel movie.
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Rian Johnson tried to just do away with the derivative, razor-thin villain inThe Last Jedi.Unfortunately, Abrams came back and created an abundance of plot holes by bringing Palpatine himself back from the dead (somehow) and revealing Snoke to be one of his diabolical creations (somehow) inThe Rise of Skywalker.
2Best: BB-8
Droids have been integral to theStar Warsuniverse since the original 1977 movie focused its entire first act on C-3PO and R2-D2. BB-8 isn’t given a huge role in the sequel trilogy, but it’s always a delight when he’s on-screen, especially when Poe Dameron is scratching his belly like a dog.
The character was brought to life brilliantly by real mechanics as opposed to CGI, with a distinctive voice created by comics Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz.
1Worst: Luke Skywalker
Every member of the original trilogy’s holy trinity was short-changed in the sequel trilogy – Han was killed off before sharing any more scenes with Luke and Leia flew through space like Peter Pan – but the most egregious was the treatment of Luke Skywalker.
After being reduced to a MacGuffin inThe Force Awakens, Luke was recharacterized as a bitter, milk-swilling grump inThe Last Jedi. In theory, Rian Johnson’s deconstruction of the Jedi myth is sharp and subversive. In execution, it falls flat. It doesn’t have anything to say about the hypocrisy of Jedi teachings beyond a couple of on-the-nose jabs at the franchise itself.
Mark Hamill, perhaps the biggest bona fideStar Warsgeek in the saga’s massive ensemble, didn’t even think of the character he played inThe Last Jedias Luke;he jokingly referred to him as “Jake Skywalker.”Fortunately, the second-season finale ofThe MandalorianofferedStar Warsfansa surprise appearance by a much more familiar Luke.
NEXT:Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy’s 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Characters
