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. Darth Vader, Yoda, R2D2,
00:07and C-3PO. And who could forget everyone's favourite Boonta Eve classic podracer,
00:12Mars Guo, who went out, may I add, like a champ, screaming,
00:17Rest in peace, King. For every star-to-date 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 room
00:32floor. As far as their film careers are concerned, they really deserved a better one.
00:36Yes folks, the dead speak. Somehow, Ewan has returned. This is WhatCultureStarWars,
00:42and here are 10 Star Wars characters with the most wasted potential.
00:46Number 10 – General Grievous
00:50Everyone's favourite asthmatic droid officer General Grievous was first introduced in the
00:54spectacular Genndy Tadakovsky Clone Wars series 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,
01:07including the memorable Jedi Padawan Shaggy, who literally looks like Shaggy, like Zoinks,
01:14before being fought off by the brilliant Captain Fordow and his ARC troopers. Grievous continued to
01:20torment the Jedi in the second season of the series, abducting Palpatine and mercilessly cutting his
01:26way through Shaak T to get to him, before then appearing in Revenge of the Sith, where he was
01:32decidedly, well, less intimidating. Look, I love the cowardly Grievous as much as the next guy,
01:38but he could have been a great Darth Maul-level antagonist. This version of the character has been
01:43fleshed out nicely in the 2008 Clone Wars TV series and in comics and Legends material, but I still
01:50think Lucasfilm can do one better and tap into what made his animated debut so successful all the way
01:56back in 2003, which is 20 years ago. Dear God.
02:01Number 9 – Galen Erso
02:03The father of lead character Jyn, Galen Erso is a scientist working with the Empire on the development
02:09of the first Death Star. It is he who leaks the location of the battle station's plans and who
02:14designed the flaw in the superweapon to begin with, setting in motion the events of this film
02:18and the entire original trilogy. Despite being the one responsible for this intelligence,
02:23Galen doesn't get much screen time in Rogue One. A lot more of it is devoted to his daughter,
02:28which is fine, but when compared to the rest of the cast she's a bit boring and I can't help but
02:34feel that a lot was left on the table when it came to this act of heroic genius from Galen.
02:39Or maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to have more Mads Mikkelsen on our screens.
02:43I mean, come on, the dude rocks.
02:45Number 8 – Biggs Darklighter
02:47Okay, so Biggs Darklighter is low-key one of the most important characters
02:52in the entire Star Wars mythos. A fellow native of Tatooine,
02:56Darklighter grew up alongside Luke Skywalker and shared in his dreams of becoming a pilot. He left
03:02the planet before Luke, graduating from the Imperial Academy before defecting to join the Rebel Alliance.
03:08We only see our moustached king for a handful of minutes in A New Hope, where he is reunited with
03:13Luke just before the Battle of Yavin, which is when he dies in the Assault on the Death Star.
03:18And well, that's it. That'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. He's presented as Luke's
03:27best friend and then he just dies without any kind of big 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 Star Wars goes,
03:38Biggs's introductory scene with Luke that was originally intended to be on Tatooine should have
03:42maybe been kept.
03:43Number 7 – Bendu
03:45Much is made of the light and dark sides of the Force, but what about the soft, squishy middle?
03:51The white stuff in the Oreo of the Force is occupied by the Bendu, a mysterious being that we meet in
03:57Star Wars Rebels. Claiming to represent the center of this mysterious aura, this gigantic creature
04:03served as a mentor to Kanan Jarrus after the Jedi lost his vision. His appearances occur solely in
04:09the third season of Rebels, turning up in the season premiere and vanishing in the finale. In this time,
04:15he is shown to be extremely powerful, extremely knowledgeable and extremely old. Someone you'd
04:21probably want to keep around then. Sadly, Bendu hasn't turned up in an official capacity since 2017.
04:27With such a deep interest out there in the early days of the Force, you'd have thought this ancient
04:32character would have been used to explore that just a smidge more. Will we ever see this enormous
04:37fuzzball again? Who's to say? But at least one fascinating bit of trivia came from his time in
04:44Rebels. Because Bendu was voiced by Tom Baker, meaning that the fourth Doctor has been in Star Wars.
04:50Nice. 6. Maz Kanada
04:54Look, we can't ignore the confusing mess that was Maz Kanada. A character who was part Yoda,
05:00part Jabba the Hutt and part Minion. Introduced in The Force Awakens, Maz is the proprietor of an
05:08outlawed tavern frequented by Han Solo. The smuggler asks his diminutive friend for help,
05:13which is where she first encounters Rey. She attempts to give the young woman a gift,
05:17Luke Skywalker's old lightsaber. Do we ever find out how she got to hold the weapon that fell from
05:23Cloud City all those years ago? Do we heck. Maz then turns up via hologram in The Last Jedi and
05:29essentially serves as a substitute for Leia in The Rise of Skywalker. Despite being set up as an ancient,
05:35all-knowing character, she's reduced to little more than 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 extra,
05:44the sequel trilogy kind of role, well, you're losing that battle. You lose that battle every time,
05:49friend. Maz has received more development in High Republic stuff and the occasional comic,
05:54but as far as sequels go, she was frustratingly underused.
05:59Number 5 – Jango Fett
06:02If, like me, you grew up with the prequels, then chances are you're a big Jango Fett guy,
06:07and for good reason. Jango looks cool as hell, was one of the key faces of Attack of the Clones,
06:14the source of the Republic's clone army, father to Boba Fett, and had a killer actor in Tamura
06:20Morrison bringing him to life. Sadly, like a lot of Episode 2, Jango doesn't really fulfil his potential
06:27in that film. He shows up to assassinate Zam Wessel, introduces the Clones, and then gets his head
06:33unceremoniously disconnected from his neck by Mace Windu in the big gladiatorial arena on Geonosis.
06:39Surely the father of Boba Fett deserved better.
06:42Now, to be fair to Jango, and because Scott Tailford 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 that expanded his
06:52origins in the Star Wars bounty hunter game, which showed how Dooku recruited him to be the genetic
06:57template of the clone army. He also got this For All Seasons comic prequel, written by Hayden
07:03Blackman, which introduced his origins as a Mandalorian and being trained by Jasta Muriel.
07:09There's still clearly loads more left to explore with that character though. That bounty hunting
07:13world is one of Star Wars' most interesting corners, and Jango should be the face of it alongside
07:19Cad Bane. Look, you put Lee Van Cleef in Star Wars and I'm a happy man.
07:224. 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? We know he's the second in command of
07:36the Jedi Council, junior to Yoda in terms of rank and experience, but senior to him in terms of height.
07:42We know he wields a purple lightsaber, which is objectively the coolest on-screen lightsaber and
07:47there shall be no further discussion on that, thank you very much. But all of this feels very
07:52surface level. Yes, he's meant to represent a stalwart dogmatism that will prove to be the
07:57downfall of 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 done by
08:08on-screen. We only know that he's so powerful because we've been expressly told so. We've been given
08:14no reason to care about him beyond his existing name recognition. But he does have that really
08:18cool bit in Clone Wars where he beats up an entire army of battle droids with his fists.
08:22That kind of maybe makes up for everything else.
08:253. Captain Phasma
08:27She was a shiny stormtrooper. A SHINY stormtrooper! How cool is that?
08:32Portrayed by Game of Thrones' Gwendoline Christie, Captain Phasma acts as the leader of the white-suited
08:38soldiers with poor aim. She is set up as the main antagonist for Finn in The Force Awakens,
08:44as she is the one who takes the most offense to him, defecting to the resistance.
08:48If you can cast your mind back to 2015, before The Force Awakens came out,
08:52you couldn't really escape Captain Phasma. Her image was everywhere and she played a huge role
08:58in the film's marketing. In the end though, what did she actually do? She was established in The Force
09:04Awakens, taunted Finn a little bit in The Last Jedi, and then died. She had no real impact on
09:10either film's plot and ended up serving as maybe the fourth or fifth most important villain. She
09:15doesn't even get the honor of being the sequel's Boba Fett, because if you look at Boba and Empire,
09:19at least he did stuff of note. 2. Wedge Antilles
09:24For the longest time, Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles was one of the textbook examples of a Star Wars
09:29character, not really ever given his flowers. He was shown quite prominently during the fighter
09:34sequences in A New Hope, and was even brought back for the attack on the second Death Star
09:38in Return of the Jedi. He had plenty of lines, and it was implied that he was a pretty vital part of
09:44the Rebel machine, but he was given no backstory whatsoever, at least in the movies. Most fans
09:49didn't even know his name. The character has turned up a few more times though, most notably in the
09:54X-Wing novels by 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. When you think that
10:04actor Dennis Lawson was actually asked to reprise his role in The Force Awakens and the position that
10:08Poe Dameron ended up filling, imagine how much more Wedge we could have gotten. Seriously,
10:12I'm living a very Wedge-deficient lifestyle right now. Give me more Wedge.
10:161. Finn Finn, played by the brilliant
10:21Jon Boyega, was set to be the breakout character of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He was given
10:26way more prominence than Rey in The Force Awakens' marketing as everyone was led to believe that he
10:31was the Force wielder and not her. And then things went differently. And then badly. In that order.
10:38The Rise of Skywalker took this main character and reduced him to little more than a background
10:43part. The fact that Colin Trevorrow's Duel of Fates script leaked at the same time and had a
10:48way bigger role for Finn leading a rebellion against the First Order on Coruscant made this
10:53reduced role even worse. But conceptually speaking, it sounded way more interesting than what we ended
11:00up getting from JJ Abrams and Chris Therrio. In any case, Finn was given nothing in Episode 9.
11:07Even the big secret he had for Rey was never revealed. He was pretty much forgotten about halfway
11:12through the film. The expanded canon has a lot of making up to do. The only things really focusing
11:18on Finn at the minute are the Lego movies. That's where we are right now. Do better, Star Wars.
11:24And those were 10 Star Wars characters with the most wasted potential. Do you have any other
11:29beloved Mars Guo-level faves you feel were underserved in the films? Let me know in the
11:33comments down below. And while you're there, if you could force throw us a like and a subscribe,
11:37you'll have us all doing happy bantha noises here at War Culture Towers. Once again, I've been Ewan,
11:43and until next time boyos, may the force be with you. See ya!