When Disney first acquired Lucasfilm and announced that they would be making a the sequels have introduced us to a bunch of new characters, too. In fact, the story has become increasingly focused on them and their journeys. There are some great new characters and some weak ones.
Worst: Supreme Leader Snoke
Andy Serkis’ motion-capture character Supreme Leader Snoke started off pretty well. During his brief appearances in pretty easily killed – more easily killed than his guards, even. So, that was pretty disappointing.
Best: Poe Dameron
As both a hotshot pilot and a charming rogue, Poe Dameron is The conflict between Luke and Han exists entirely within Poe’s character, and he’s just one guy. The endlessly likable Oscar Isaac is perfect for the part, playing Poe as basically the nicest, coolest guy ever. Everyone would want to be Poe Dameron’s friend.
Worst: Maz Kanata
Lupita Nyong’o is a terrific actor – The Rise of Skywalker, too.
Best: Rose Tico
Because Star Wars fans felt threatened by a woman of color in a significant role in the story, or some other equally asinine reason, Rose Tico is strong, good-hearted, and lovable – and she’s filled with the wisdom that can bring us together: “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate; saving what we love.”
Rose will be back in The Rise of Skywalker, since Finn managed to recover her unconscious body and get her onto the Millennium Falcon at the end of The Last Jedi, and hopefully the sexist and racist trolls can finally learn to accept her as Tran stands defiantly in the face of their hate speech. It’s long overdue.
Worst: General Hux
Domhnall Gleeson is a brilliant actor who has given fantastic performances in recent movies like Robot Chicken episode, not an actual Star Wars movie – and certainly not in the opening scene.
Best: Captain Phasma
Rian Johnson may have given Captain Phasma already played a badass warrior in one nerdy franchise. There was very little doubt that she could do it again. We couldn’t see Christie’s face under the shiny helmet, so all she had to convey the character was her body language, hand gestures, and line delivery – and she still nailed it. It’s no wonder that Captain Phasma was The Force Awakens’ best-selling action figure.
Worst: Vice iral Holdo
Laura Dern gave a great performance, as she always does, in the role of Vice iral Holdo in The Last Jedi. Plus, Holdo was involved in the awesome sequence where she guns the Resistance’s ship into light-speed and uses it to plow through the First Order’s fleet. However, that’s all she has going for her. Aside from that cool scene, she was characterized as a generic authority figure to advance Poe Dameron’s development by having him rebel against her orders. The role could’ve been filled by anyone with a higher rank in the Resistance than Poe – she didn’t really have an identity of her own.
Best: Kylo Ren
Usually, Star Wars villains are rigidly evil. They’re set in their ways on the Dark Side of the Force and they’ll stop at nothing to dominate the galaxy. Only Darth Vader has found redemption, and even then, it was right at the end. He was a wholly bad dude throughout the entire original trilogy before seeing the error in his ways.
But Kylo Ren is questioning his own actions on the job. The brilliant Adam Driver has brought some real nuance to the role of Kylo Ren – the kind of nuance that is rarely seen in the Star Wars saga.
Worst: DJ
Benicio del Toro’s mysterious role in The Last Jedi showed some promise in the months leading up to the film’s release. Rian Johnson announced that the character was called “DJ” in the script and on the call sheets for the sake of ease, but not slated to return in The Rise of Skywalker, so he’ll probably just be forgotten forever.
Best: Rey
While the title The Rise of Skywalker whose journey we’ve been following the most closely, and while we don’t know the specifics of her backstory, we know that she does have a tragic past and she’s amassed a ton of strength to move on from that and become a hero.
