25. Jar Jar Binks
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Yes, yes, let’s get this over with – we all knew Jar Jar would be on this list. The mush-mouthed Gungan was conceived by George Lucas to be more of the comedic relief we had never seen in Star Wars before. Maybe it was the years between movies, but Star Wars always had plenty of humor in the dry wit of Han Solo or the frantic banter between R2-D2 and C-3PO. It never needed “humorous” moments, necessarily. Simply put, this infamous character just did not work – and his stain on the Star Wars saga will be felt as long as there are fans to both remember him and discover him.
24. Mas Amedda
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Characters, like the actors that portray them, should never be just props – everyone has a purpose, a necessity that drives the story forward. Mas Amedda is in all the prequel films, almost exclusively standing next to Chancellor Palpatine the entire time… and that’s about all he does. What sinister secrets of Palpatine’s does he know? Does he realize that man is the greatest threat to the galaxy? Or worse, does he know and is happy to go along with it? We sadly will never know because they simply stand together. For the rich lore we could have explored, his constant blue presence needed deeper exploration of complete abandonment.
23. Enfys Nest
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Throughout Star Wars unfortunate examples abound of characters that look fantastic, but narratively fail to deliver. Solo: A Star Wars Story was promised to be a showcase of the criminal underbelly that has been glimpsed at many a time across the movies with our favorite smuggler leading the way. Nests’ gang of pirates seemed a worthy adversary initially, only to be revealed as seeds that would help form the Rebel Alliance. It’s a scene that forces the audience to say, “Enough.” Not only are characters allowed to stay ambivalent, but their motivations shouldn’t exist just so the film can wink at the camera as young Solo says he will never join this cause.
22. Taun We/Lama Su
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Attack of the Clones first introduces us to the concept of, well, cloning in the Star Wars universe. The Kaminoans are notoriously private, but did two of their top engineers – Lama Su and Taun We – really think that their creation of a massive army was just a simple experiment? Su and We seem radically ambivalent to the idea of the Grand Army of the Republic, so much so that we must question both their credibility and intelligence as cloners. These undoubtedly visually stunning characters add little humanity to the narrative that they are so central in.
21. D-0
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Almost all the heroic droids in Star Wars are loveable, and D-O certainly has his moments – but this skittish uniwheel droid just couldn’t deliver. D-O fits in that odd intersection of Star Wars characters who have JUST enough screen time to familiarize audiences so a toy can be made, but not enough to justify their purported importance. Whereas R2-D2’s mechanical psyche has been hotly discussed – after all, the poor guy saw his master Anakin slaughter innocents and was later abandoned by Luke – D-O was sidekick to a Sith assassin, and it never comes up again… and receipts for toy sales probably made his creators think they did a job well done.
20. Tallissan Lintra
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For lack of a better phrase, a lot of background or one-line Star Wars characters end up being cannon fodder – expendable and ready to be destroyed to show us the stakes that our names heroes are up against. If Tallissan’s death was an effort to feel the direness of the situation, we already know it from the end of The Force Awakens – even with Starkiller Base destroyed, the machinations of the Dark Side are obviously far more powerful than any technical monstrosity. The introduction and investment quickly followed by a band-aid rip removal from the plot resulted in ends that didn’t justify the means.
19. Ochi of Bestoon
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Admittedly, Ochi is a far more subjective placement on this list simply for the fact that his story is so cool, but just needed more screen time to be fleshed out. Tasked with disposing of Rey’s parents by the Emperor and with knowledge of the Sith base on Exegol, Ochi could have been a fantastic antagonist in the Sequel trilogy – especially when Lando Calrissian reveals that he and Luke Skywalker had several adventures trying to track the assassin down. To see two of our favorite heroes connecting the dots of the larger Sith plot could have tied the Sequels into the Original Trilogy far more, and given us a brand new type of villain with deliciously macabre intentions.
18. Zam Wesell
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A shapeshifting bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe? Honestly, fewer cooler phrases have ever been uttered – and the promise of it so sorely delivered upon. Zam Wesell is contacted by Jango Fett to help with the assassination of Padme Amidala, and though she is part of a fantastic chase through the upper and lower levels of Coruscant, she is taken out of the game as soon as she is put in. Star Wars is always changing and adding to its myth and legends, but to rarely if ever touch on Changelings again is a crime against the infinite setups and payoffs we could be enjoying.
17. Sifo-Dyas
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Former Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas has the distinction of being the one character on this list that was never actually seen in live action – yet his actions and impact are felt throughout the saga, for better or worse. Disillusioned with the wayward Republic, it is Sifo-Dyas who acted against his fellow Jedi and commissioned the creation of a Clone Army. This task would require years of planning, cost billions of credits, and result in the Jedi’s death at the hands of Count Dooku. It is a fascinating story when read on the page, but loses its luster when other characters use his name only to add to the exposition dump — it lacks the gut-punch of a twist when this named character of prominent actions never graces the screen.
16. Captain Phasma
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This chrome-clad warrior strode through the halls of the First Order, inspiring fear from both her own troops and the Resistance alike – or so we are supposed to believe. Left nearly anonymous under her helmet, the fantastic Gwendolyn Christie (Brienne from Game of Thrones) had frighteningly little to work with, and seemingly no road map of a planned character arc. Though The Last Jedi attempted to add more conflict to and with the character, there was simply too much slack to pick up from The Force Awakens. Before Boba Fett was expanded upon, he stood as a similar example — one must admit that cool armor does not make a fantastic character.
15. General Enric Pryde
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A late addition to the Sequel Trilogy, the fantastic Richard E. Grant was wasted in a role that essentially served no purpose other than to be a temporary foil to General Hux. Here at the end of the Sequel Trilogy, we want to enjoy the remaining time with characters we have grown to love, not need to feel the inner conflicts of the First Order through a character we have never met – especially when his hologram communication with the Emperor implies a longer relationship between the two, one that could have been fascinating to explore if it wasn’t just invented for this movie.
14. Captain Typho
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Imagine you are the head of security for a former queen and current senator who was been the target of multiple assassination attempts – you would think that every situation would be handled with extra caution and safety sweeps would be an hourly occurrence. Whether in ignorance or bravado, Typho doesn’t even know when a bomb has been planted on a starship or that a droid is depositing poisonous insects through a window. Padme’s safety should be in constant question under this captain’s supervision – and to no one’s surprise, a pair of Jedi must be assigned to finally stop these threats.
13. General Hux
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Ah, the whimsy of what could have been. A fanatical general, operating in the shadows of the Outer Rim portrayed by the talented Domhnall Gleeson? It sounds like a match made in Star Wars heaven, but Hux never quite made the splash he was intended to. As a rival to Kylo Ren / Ben Solo for control over the First Order, it was a coaxium mine worth of character development to work with — and Hux was relegated to shouting, scouting, and suddenly becoming a spy to spite Ren despite having dedicated his entire life to the resurrection of the Empire.
12. Colonel Tuttle
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While the members of the former Rebel Alliance turned New Republic would be sick of fighting after years of war and hiding in the Outer Rim, their pure ignorance towards the looming threats of the dark side lands them on this list. Perhaps unfairly, these characters do a lot of heavy lifting to create context for the conflict we see explode in The Force Awakens – and take a heavy hit to represent the less than purely altruistic side of the Rebellion that films like Rogue One only gave us a small glimpse of. This Officer represents a larger problem within the New Republic but is singled out here due to being played by Tim Meadows – a fantastic “that guy” but far more suited to comedies than a galaxy far far away.
11. Nute Gunray
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The head of the Trade Federation plays a fairly major role in the Prequels – he is present in all three films, a constant third-tier antagonist under Palpatine and his Sith pupils. As someone who ends up having so much power over the events of the Clone Wars and even the years that preceded it, he is a waste of space, a simple sniveling coward whose cowardice itself does little to make a fun character. Far more could have been done to show the corporate greed and political machinations that the Prequel Trilogy wanted to portray through the eyes of this corrupt character — but he is relegated to being an antagonist for our patience rather than the heroes on screen.
10. Sith Eternal Army
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Another case of simply needing more context. We see a massive catacomb filled to the brim with chanting, black-robed spectators as Rey confronts the Emperor – who are these people? What is their story? So many things can be explained quickly through visuals and J.J. Abrams is a talented enough director to do it – so why didn’t he? The Rise of Skywalker is tasked with not only wrapping up the Sequel Trilogy, but the entire Skywalker Saga – and while continuing to make Emperor Palpatine the overarching villain and mastermind makes plenty of narrative sense, his newfound army (from the audience’s perspective) feels more like a cop-out than a decades-long plan coming into fruition.
9. Grand Inquisitor
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The Dark Side has created a host of vicious, sinister characters, but it didn’t extend far enough to reach Vader’s inquisitors – and the Grand Inquisitor one above all. Featured prominently in the animated Rebels, the Grand Inquisitor and his lack of screentime makes him woefully superfluous to the presence of Darth Vader himself in this series. The choice to include characters from separate shows must make sense and continue the narrative tradition of setup and payoff – their inclusion alone does not count as a payoff, and the Grand Inquisitor is a stark example of this idea gone awry.
8. Battle Droids
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With irritating nasal voices, the mechanical armies of the Trade Federation and Separatists don’t come off as the threat that they should, filled with one-liners that are meant to elicit laughs as opposed to bionic threats. Despite Star Wars being soaked in fantasy, we know the frightening side of AI in this universe — think how terrifying the Dark Troopers were in Mandalorian Season 2. If they at all resembled their future counterparts, the Prequel Battle Droids could give us a situation where we could believe that hundreds of fully trained Jedi lost their lives against these whiny creations.
7. Ahsoka Tano
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Despite being the fan favorite she is today, Ahsoka’s introduction to the galaxy was not without its flaws. She had all the swagger and confidence of Anakin, without the raw talent to back it up. When she finds success in her debut mission, she acts as if this attitude is an asset as opposed to a hindrance – immediately stifling a character arc. Though she challenges Anakin to grow and rise to the occasion in the face of the Clone Wars, his resentment towards authority and the Jedi Order is still the central conflict of Revenge of the Sith. But as Star Wars always reminds us, redemption is always possible – and Ahsoka is now one of the central figures in the future of this saga.
6. Boss Nass
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Yes, there is a Gungan worse than Jar Jar. The blubbering, barrell-voiced leader of the underwater peoples does nothing to represent a foil to his spindly counterpart – he is further evidence all Gungans are half-wit fools. He eventually agrees to have his people join forces with the land-dwelling Naboo, but the shift in politics is too quick to be anything other than for the sake of the narrative. His main trait? Violently shaking his head, dispelling his bloated cheeks of excess saliva – surprise, surprise, nothing is charming in that.
5. Toro Calican
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Plenty of The Mandalorian series plays like a video game – – the lead character has a mission, needs to complete another sidequest to get further in his main story, and gains cool new armor and weapons gradually along the way. And like most video games, someone eventually joins him in this quest. Calican has nothing impressive about him, instead being used as a narrative tool for obvious tropes including betrayal and greed. His cockiness gets knocked down a peg a time or two, but he isn’t villainous enough for us to truly enjoy it – our ambivalence grows into irritation, one of the greatest crimes a character could commit.
4. The Mods
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When Boba Fett became the daimyo of Mos Espa, we knew he would need reinforcements – he assembled a crack team with assassins, bounty hunters, and mercenaries, but clearly, the talent pool didn’t extend to his biker gang. With the slowest speeder bikes you could imagine, their whole style – which their characters entirely rely on – clashes with what we know about Star Wars. Little of it is flashy, where usually every piece of design has a minimal amount of carbon scoring at best, the clunky neon speeders the mod gang uses are a garish reminder of these underdeveloped and out-of-place characters.
3. Unnamed Twi’lek Majordomo
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Sniveling and cowardly are traits one would find in Mos Espa’s criminal community, but this character just takes it a touch too far. A far too self-aware performance made this character appear they were aware they are acting in Star Wars as opposed to being wrapped up in the goings on of the galaxy – as audiences, we could sense this actor either didn’t know how or didn’t care to act as an alien rather than human. Jester-like, perfunctory, and with far too many flourishes, this character is perhaps best left unnamed and forgotten in the sands of Tatooine.
2. Ziro the Hutt
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When Jabba the Hutt first graced our screens, we were seeing the Godfather version of Star Wars, a gruesome, gluttonous gangster – and Ziro the Hutt quickly took the worst of those traits, but not for the obvious reasons you would expect. Uncle of Jabba, Ziro is a stand-in for outdated tropes and jokes aimed at the LGBT community. At a time when a gay character had yet to be featured in the saga, it seemed an especially painful jab to hint at it with such a grotesque-looking and acting character – Ziro’s plot revolves around him kidnapping a child, putting him in a light that reeked of ignorance.
1. Sy Snootles
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You are forgiven if you don’t immediately recognize this name – but the scene she features will always be seared into your memory once viewed. In the special edition of Return of the Jedi, the stage is set for Han Solo’s rescue from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt. As an audience, we take in the flurry of visual cues to understand how the dastardly underbelly of alien gangsters operate — and as part of setting the scene, Jabba has a band perform, led by singer Sy Snootles. The bizarre body shape – even by Star Wars standards – combined with below-grade CGI and an eardrum-shattering voice turns the appropriately bizarre atmosphere of Jabba’s palace into one of absolute buffoonery.