Star Wars followers have been blessed with some really nice TV collection, Andor rising above all with its complicated political storylines and extremely developed characters. However animation gave us simply as a lot drama and heartache, with The Clone Wars increasing the story between Assault of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
Since then, we have seen a number of beloved characters reappear in different live-action collection like Ahsoka, The Ebook of Boba Fett, and The Mandalorian.
The expansive universe presents so many characters to like and hate. Heck, I’ve my very own roster of Glup Shittos, just like the Ithorian Jedi youngling Byph (he is so cute I may explode) or Jabba’s band chief Max Rebo (“Lapti Nek” is my jam).
However immediately, we need to take a look at among the most iconic roles in Star Wars tv.
One observe. The Star Wars: The Clone Wars film was initially a pilot movie composed of 4 episodes stitched collectively, launched in theaters in 2008. It serves because the introduction to the collection and Anakin Skywalker’s new padawan, Ahsoka Tano.
The four-episode arc on which the film was primarily based was meant to be the beginning of the present’s first season, per Wookieepedia.
So are we fudging a bit after we embody two key characters who had been launched there? Possibly. Technically. However they’re so iconic, we hope you may forgive us.
Listed here are our favs.
The Clone Wars Credit score: Disney
Hondo Ohnaka
I met Hondo just a little late, first in animatronic kind, on Disneyland’s Smugglers Run experience. Who was this snarky man who did not appear to care about park-goers’ welfare? However then I lastly acquired into The Clone Wars (additionally embarrassingly late) and noticed his origin story as a salty pirate chief.
Jim Cummings voiced this Weequay. After his introduction, Hondo shortly grew to become some of the entertaining characters within the franchise. He is a rough-around-the-edges scoundrel who’s solely loyal to wealth, however he is acquired simply sufficient coronary heart to make you root for him anyway. Even his betrayals really feel affectionate.
Hondo confirmed up once more in Rebels. His sort of chaos works throughout totally different eras and crews and is all the time enjoyable.
The Unhealthy Batch Credit score: Disney
Echo
This is a clone who deserves his personal highlight. Echo first appeared in The Clone Wars collection (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker). He was initially a member of the ragtag Domino Squad however labored along with his brothers to defend Kamino towards an assault. Later, throughout an enormous mission on the Citadel, he appeared to die in an explosion however was really captured by the Separatists and changed into a cyborg. He would later be rescued by Rex and Anakin.
He makes his reappearance in The Unhealthy Batch and joins the misfit Clone Drive 99. Baker gave him a definite, earnest persona that separated him from Rex and the opposite clones.
Rebels Credit score: Disney
Noticed Gerrera
We first meet a younger Noticed on Onderon in The Clone Wars, serving to lead a insurgent band towards the occupying Separatists. Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex secretly practice Noticed and his resistance fighters, who had been led on the time by his sister. She tragically dies simply earlier than they’re in a position to liberate the planet.
Years of combating and the eventual rise of the Empire make him increasingly more excessive by means of Rebels and eventually in Andor and Rogue One.
He is sophisticated, and by the top, just a little unhinged, however it’s simple to see how a battle like Noticed’s would result in psychological instability. However he is additionally one of many franchise’s most pragmatic and galvanizing characters, and it is unimaginable to witness his character arc all through his varied appearances.
The Mandalorian Credit score: Disney
Din Djarin
Pedro Pascal grew to become the face of The Mandalorian when the present premiered in 2019, and the warrior Din Djarin captured audiences instantly. The bounty hunter grew to become a reluctant father determine to Grogu, and someway Pascal conveys a lot emotion by means of physique language and vocal efficiency, even when his face is hidden behind a helmet.
Din’s journey from lone wolf to somebody keen to sacrifice every little thing for his adopted son is the center of the collection. Pascal sells each second of it. We’re so wanting ahead to The Mandalorian and Grogu. That is the way in which.
Andor Credit score: Disney
Kleya Marki
Kleya Marki runs the Riot communications hub within the collection Andor with a chilly effectivity and dedication to the trigger. Elizabeth Dulau makes each scene rely, however shines particularly throughout her Season 2 backstory episode when she’s tasked with singlehandedly invading a Coruscant hospital and humanely ending Luthen’s life, all earlier than escaping to get details about the Loss of life Star to Yavin.
As Luthen’s assistant, adopted daughter, and fellow insurgent operative, Kleya is stern and calculating and never above utilizing her female wiles as a spy. She’s the one who makes the exhausting calls that Luthen generally hesitates on. Dulau performs her with zero sentimentality—till she has to say goodbye to her father determine. What a queen.
Andor Credit score: Disney
Syril Karn
There are sufficient tragedies in Star Wars to interrupt your coronary heart a dozen occasions over. Kyle Soller’s efficiency in Andor created some of the unsettling and sympathetic villains in Star Wars.
Syril throws his weight behind the Empire as a result of it provides his life order and objective, not as a result of he is nefarious or desires the subjugation of others. In his story, he thinks he is the hero. Soller performs him with awkward depth, and you’re keen on him as a result of he by no means had an opportunity beneath that domineering mom of his. He actually simply thinks that if he performs by the principles, he’ll succeed, which might be why the rebels frustrate him a lot and why he turns into obsessive about catching Cassian Andor.
By the top, each his mom and his accomplice, ISB chief Dedra Meero, use him up and go away him dry, and he begins to see through the Ghorman Bloodbath that he won’t be on the appropriate aspect. Dan Gilroy himself informed me that Syril would have joined the Riot if he’d lived only a bit longer.
Like I mentioned, a heartbreaker.
The Clone Wars Credit score: Disney
Cad Bane
One of many coolest bounty hunters within the galaxy confirmed up in The Clone Wars when Corey Burton gave life to this Duros gunslinger dressed like an area cowboy. Cad Bane grew to become an instantaneous fan favourite with some of the iconic hats in media (truthfully, on par with Indy’s fedora), twin blaster pistols, rocket boots, and that gravelly voice.
He goes toe-to-toe with Jedi and walks away on a number of events. He is all enterprise, however he is additionally a man with rules who will often battle honest.
Burton returned to voice him in live-action later in The Ebook of Boba Fett, utilizing efficiency seize know-how, a deal with for longtime followers. Though I’ve to say the hat wasn’t fairly as spectacular on this iteration.
The Clone Wars Credit score: Disney
Captain Rex
Is there a clone cooler than Rex? We do not suppose so. For a lot of followers, the “Carnage of Krell” arc, during which Rex brazenly defied his Jedi commander Normal Pong Krell, made him an icon among the many clone commanders. He’s Anakin’s right-hand man all through the Clone Wars and an in depth pal to Ahsoka Tano.
Rex technically first confirmed up in The Clone Wars film in 2008, voiced by Baker like the remainder of the clones. Rex is loyal, courageous, and questioning in ways in which make him really feel absolutely human. He is an efficient soldier, however is aware of how you can get inventive and when to face up for his males.
Baker continued voicing him all through The Clone Wars and later performed an aged model of the character in Rebels, making Rex some of the enduring characters in Star Wars animation. Watching him grapple with Order 66 after which battle alongside the Ghost crew years later gave us unimaginable character improvement throughout two totally different collection.
Andor Credit score: Disney
Luthen Rael
Luthen is that man. He’s every little thing to the Riot. Nothing would have gotten carried out in Andor (or, later, Rogue One and A New Hope) with out him.
This vintage supplier who’s secretly orchestrating a insurgent spy community may be some of the morally complicated characters Star Wars has ever produced. Stellan Skarsgård’s efficiency is unimaginable and deserved extra awards consideration. No, I am not bitter about that.
He isn’t a hero within the conventional sense. He is keen to sacrifice anybody and something for the trigger, together with his personal soul. If somebody must die to guard a secret, then that individual dies, often by Luthen’s hand. His monologue in “One Method Out” about what he is given up for the Riot continues to be devastating. Skarsgård swings the character from simple appeal to grim calculation with a quiet depth that no different Star Wars character has ever matched.
Rebels Credit score: Disney
Ahsoka Tano
There is not any different character fairly like Ahsoka, whom many followers grew up with over the course of a number of seasons of various Star Wars reveals.
Ashley Eckstein voiced the character when she first appeared in The Clone Wars film in 2008, and she or he advanced from Anakin’s snippy padawan into some of the beloved figures in Star Wars. We see her mature, go away the Jedi Order, survive Order 66, and endure the betrayal of the grasp she liked.
Rosario Dawson later introduced her to live-action in The Mandalorian and her personal collection. When followers heard she was searching Grand Admiral Thrawn throughout these early live-action appearances, it made everybody positively giddy. Thrawn, together with Ezra Bridger, disappeared into the Unknown Areas on the finish of Star Wars Rebels, during which Ahsoka was additionally central.
Nobody else, past the unique trilogy characters, has been so key for thus lengthy to the core Star Wars story. Ahsoka Season 2 simply wrapped filming final month, so we will not wait to see the place the character goes subsequent.
