10 Star Wars Characters With Most Wasted Potential
Captain Phasma could've been so much more than the Star Wars sequels' Boba Fett...
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00:00Star Wars is home to some seriously iconic and beloved characters.
00:04Darth Vader, Yoda, R2-D2, and C-3PO.
00:08And who can forget everyone's favourite Boonta Eve classic podracer, Mars Guow,
00:13who went out, may I add, like a champ, screaming,
00:16RRRRAAARRR!
00:17Oh, rest in peace, King.
00:19For every star-studded podracer who took home a podium finish,
00:22there are many, many more who were cut down before their time.
00:26You see, Star Wars has the unfortunate habit of leaving a lot of potential on the cutting
00:31room floor.
00:33As far as their film careers are concerned, they really deserved a better lot.
00:37Yes, folks, the dead speak.
00:39Somehow, Ewan has returned.
00:41This is What Culture Star Wars, and here are 10 Star Wars Characters With The Most Wasted
00:46Potential.
00:4710.
00:48General Grievous Everyone's favourite asthmatic droid officer
00:52General Grievous was first introduced in the spectacular Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars
00:57series in 2003, and boy, what an introduction it was.
01:03The General tore his way through a group of encircled Jedi in his debut episode, including
01:08the venerable Jedi Padawan Shaggy, who literally looks like Shaggy, like zoinks, before being
01:15fought off by the brilliant Captain Fordo and his ARC Troopers.
01:19Grievous continued to torment the Jedi in the second season of the series, abducting
01:23Palpatine and mercilessly cutting his way through Shaak Ti to get to him, before then
01:29appearing in Revenge of the Sith, where he was decidedly, well, less intimidating.
01:34Look, I love the cowardly Grievous as much as the next guy, but he could have been a
01:39great Darth Maul-level antagonist.
01:42This version of the character has been fleshed out nicely in the 2008 Clone Wars TV series
01:47and in comics and Legends material, but I still think Lucasfilm can do one better and
01:52tap into what made his animated debut so successful all the way back in 2003, which is 20 years
01:59ago.
02:00Dear God.
02:019.
02:02Galen Erso
02:03The father of lead character Jyn, Galen Erso is a scientist working with the Empire on
02:09the development of the first Death Star.
02:11It is he who leaks the location of the battle station's plans and who designed the flaw
02:15in the superweapon to begin with, setting in motion the events of this film and the
02:19entire original trilogy.
02:21Despite being the one responsible for this intelligence, Galen doesn't get much screen
02:25time in Rogue One.
02:26A lot more of it is devoted to his daughter, which is fine, but when compared to the rest
02:31of the cast, she's kind of, you know, a bit boring, and I can't help but feel that
02:35a lot was left on the table when it came to this act of heroic genius from Galen.
02:40Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to have more Mads Mikkelsen on our screens.
02:43I mean, come on.
02:44The dude rocks.
02:458.
02:46Biggs Darklighter
02:47Okay, so Biggs Darklighter is low-key one of the most important characters in the entire
02:53Star Wars mythos.
02:55A fellow native of Tatooine, Darklighter grew up alongside Luke Skywalker and shared in
03:00his dreams of becoming a pilot.
03:02He left the planet before Luke, graduating from the Imperial Academy, before defecting
03:07to join the Rebel Alliance.
03:08We only see our moustached king for a handful of minutes in A New Hope, where he is reunited
03:13with Luke just before the Battle of Yavin, which is when he dies in the Assault on the
03:18Death Star.
03:19And, well, that's it.
03:20That's the last we hear of him.
03:22Biggs is set up to be a pretty big deal in the early portion of the film.
03:26He's presented as Luke's best friend, and then he just dies without any kind of
03:31big fanfare, and what's up with that?
03:33Sure, he's been in a few video games and comic books since, but as far as the first
03:37Star Wars goes, Biggs' introductory scene with Luke, that was originally intended to
03:41be on Tatooine, should have maybe been kept.
03:447.
03:45Bendu
03:46Much is made of the light and dark sides of the Force, but what about the soft, squishy
03:51middle?
03:52The white stuff in the aureole of the Force is occupied by the Bendu, a mysterious being
03:56that we meet in Star Wars Rebels.
03:58Claiming to represent the centre of this mysterious aura, this gigantic creature served as a mentor
04:04to Kanan Jarrus after the Jedi lost his vision.
04:08His appearances occur solely in the third season of Rebels, turning up in the season
04:12premiere and vanishing in the finale.
04:15In this time, he is shown to be extremely powerful, extremely knowledgeable, and extremely
04:20old.
04:21Someone you probably want to keep around then.
04:23Sadly, Bendu hasn't turned up in an official capacity since 2017.
04:28With such a deep interest out there in the early days of the Force, you'd have thought
04:32this ancient character would have been used to explore that just a smidge more.
04:36Will we ever see this enormous fuzzball again?
04:38Who's to say?
04:40But at least one fascinating bit of trivia came from his time in Rebels.
04:45Because Bendu was voiced by Tom Baker, meaning that the Fourth Doctor has been in Star Wars.
04:51Nice.
04:526.
04:53Maz Kanata
04:54Look, we can't ignore the confusing mess that was Maz Kanata.
04:58A character who was part Yoda, part Jabba the Hutt, and part Minion.
05:05Cast in The Force Awakens, Maz is the proprietor of an outlaw tavern frequented by Han Solo.
05:11The smuggler asks his diminutive friend for help, which is where she first encounters
05:15Rey.
05:16She attempts to give the young woman a gift, Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber.
05:20Do we ever find out how she got ahold of the weapon that fell from Cloud City all those
05:23years ago?
05:24Do we?
05:25Heck.
05:26Maz then turns up via hologram in The Last Jedi and essentially serves as a substitute
05:31for Leia in The Rise of Skywalker.
05:33Despite being set up as an ancient, all-knowing character, she's reduced to little more
05:37than a background extra by the trilogy's end.
05:40And come on, let's face it, if you're coming up against Claude in the background
05:44extra, the sequel trilogy kind of role, well, you're losing that battle.
05:48You lose that battle every time, friend.
05:50Maz has received more development in High Republic stuff and the occasional comic, but
05:55as far as sequels go, she was frustratingly underused.
05:595.
06:01Jango Fett
06:02If, like me, you grew up with the prequels, then chances are you're a big Jango Fett
06:07guy.
06:08And for good reason.
06:09Jango looks cool as hell, was one of the key faces of Attack of the Clones, the source
06:15of the Republic's clone army, father to Boba Fett, and had a killer actor in Temura
06:20Morrison bring him to life.
06:22Sadly, like a lot of Episode II, Jango doesn't really fulfil his potential in that film.
06:28He shows up to assassinate Zam Wessel, introduces the clones, and then gets his head unceremoniously
06:34disconnected from his neck by Mace Windu in the big gladiatorial arena on Geonosis.
06:40Surely the father of Boba Fett deserved better.
06:42Now to be fair to Jango, and because Scott Telford will beat me to death with his toy
06:46lightsabers if I don't bring this up, the character did receive two really cool stories
06:51that expanded his origins in the Star Wars Bounty Hunter game, which showed how Dooku
06:56recruited him to be the genetic template of the clone army.
06:59He also got this For All Seasons comic prequel, written by Hayden Blackman, which introduced
07:05his origins as a Mandalorian and being trained by Jaster Mereel.
07:09There's still clearly loads more left to explore with that character though.
07:13That bounty hunting world is one of Star Wars' most interesting corners, and Jango should
07:17be the face of it alongside Cad Bane.
07:19Look, you put Lee Van Cleef in Star Wars and I'm a happy man.
07:23Number 4, Mace Windu.
07:25Sure, he was in all three prequels and has been a highlight in both Clone Wars TV shows,
07:30but how much do we actually know about Jedi Master Mace Windu?
07:34We know he's the second in command of the Jedi Council, junior to Yoda in terms of rank
07:39and experience, but senior to him in terms of height.
07:43We know he wields a purple lightsaber, which is objectively the coolest on-screen lightsaber
07:47and there shall be no further discussion on that, thank you very much.
07:50But all of this feels very surface level.
07:53Yes, he's meant to represent the stalwart dogmatism that will prove to be the downfall
07:57of the Jedi, but someone of Samuel L. Jackson's stature deserved bigger and better things.
08:03Windu's origin story has been explored greatly in written media, but he's been pretty hard
08:08done by on-screen.
08:09We only know that he's so powerful because we've been expressly told so.
08:13We've been given no reason to care about him beyond his existing name recognition.
08:18But he does have that really cool bit in Clone Wars where he beats up an entire army of battle
08:21droids with his fists.
08:22That kind of, maybe, makes up for everything else.
08:25Number 3, Captain Phasma.
08:28She was a shiny stormtrooper.
08:29A shiny stormtrooper!
08:31How cool is that?
08:32Portrayed by Game of Thrones' Gwendolyn Christie, Captain Phasma acts as the leader of the white-suited
08:38soldiers with poor aim.
08:40She is set up as the main antagonist for Finn in The Force Awakens, as she is the one who
08:45takes the most offence to him, defecting to the Resistance.
08:48If you can cast your mind back to 2015, before The Force Awakens came out, you couldn't
08:53really escape Captain Phasma.
08:55Her image was everywhere, and she played a huge role in the film's marketing.
09:00In the end, though, what did she actually do?
09:02She was established in The Force Awakens, taunted Finn a little bit in The Last Jedi,
09:07and then died.
09:08She had no real impact on either film's plot, and ended up serving as maybe the fourth
09:13or fifth most important villain.
09:15She doesn't even get the honour of being the sequel's Boba Fett, because if you look
09:18at Boba and Empire, at least he did stuff of note.
09:24For the longest time, Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles was one of the textbook examples of a Star
09:29Wars character not really ever given his flowers.
09:32He was shown quite prominently during the fighter sequences in A New Hope, and was even
09:36brought back for the attack on the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi.
09:40He had plenty of lines, and it was implied that he was a pretty vital part of the Rebel
09:44machine, but he was given no backstory whatsoever, at least in the movies.
09:49Most fans didn't even know his name.
09:50The character has turned up a few more times, though, most notably in the X-Wing novels
09:55by Michael Stackpole, and in a handful of Star Wars Rebels episodes, but it still feels
10:00like this beloved flyboy hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves.
10:04When you think that actor Dennis Lawson was actually asked to reprise his role in The
10:07Force Awakens in the position that Poe Dameron ended up filling, imagine how much more Wedge
10:11we could have gotten.
10:12Seriously, I'm living a very Wedge-deficient lifestyle right now.
10:15Gimme more Wedge.
10:17And number one, Finn.
10:19Finn, played by the brilliant John Boyega, was set to be the breakout character of the
10:24Star Wars sequel trilogy.
10:25He was given way more prominence than Rey in The Force Awakens' marketing, as everyone
10:30was led to believe that he was the force wielder and not her.
10:34And then things went differently.
10:36And then badly.
10:37In that order.
10:38Rise of Skywalker took this main character, and reduced him to little more than a background
10:43part.
10:44The fact that Colin Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script leaked at the same time,
10:47and had a way bigger role for Finn leading a rebellion against the First Order on Coruscant,
10:53made this reduced role even worse.
10:56But conceptually speaking, it sounded way more interesting than what we ended up getting
11:00from J.J.
11:01Abrams and Chris Theriot.
11:03In any case, Finn was given nothing in Episode IX.
11:07Even the big secret he had for Rey was never revealed.
11:11He was pretty much forgotten about halfway through the film.
11:13The expanded canon has a lot of making up to do.
11:16The only things really focusing on Finn at the minute are the Lego movies.
11:21That's where we are right now.
11:22Do better, Star Wars.
11:24And those were 10 Star Wars characters with the most wasted potential.
11:28Do you have any other beloved Mars-Guo level faves who feel were underserved in the films?
11:33Let me know in the comments down below, and while you're there, if you could force throw
11:36us a like and a subscribe, you'll have us all doing happy bantha noises here at War
11:40Culture Towers.
11:41Once again, I've been Ewan, and until next time boyos, may the force be with you.
11:46See ya!