Yahoo News 11 classic Star Wars characters missing in action
The Force Awakens was meant to be a happy Star Wars reunion with old friends, a pure celluloid nostalgia-gasm, where we could catch up with old favourites. But not all the faces that could return did return… There are some that are still MIA.
Here are eight characters, including Lando Calrissian, that we want to see again...
1. Lando Calrissian
We last saw him, he was man-hugging Han Solo at the end of Return of the Jedi, but, since then, zilch. Despite his not featuring in the first Star Wars film, we'd come to think of Billy Dee Williams's Lando Calrissian as one of the main gang. But then The Force Awakens came along and he didn't even warrant a mention. The hopes were that he might pop up in The Last Jedi, maybe to pay some final respects to his old sparring partner Han, but it appears that ain't gonna happen.
"He's not in the film and it was never really something that came up," director Rian Johnson told Entertainment Weekly. "I mean, I loved that character. It would have been fun to see him, but it's just not something that ever really had a place in the story."
See this, Johnson? – :(((( – That's a SAD FACE!
2. Wedge Antilles
Rebel fighter Wedge Antilles can be spotted in all three original trilogy flicks and was last seen, like Lando, celebrating the end of Imperial rule by jigging with Ewoks. A well-known face on British TV, actor Denis Lawson (uncle, fact fans, to young Obi-Wan Ewan McGregor) was actually asked back by JJ Abrams for a Force Awakens cameo, but turned the gig down saying, "It just would have bored me."
3. Obi-Wan Kenobi
Alec Guinness may be long dead, but even death didn't stop Lucasfilm from resurrecting Peter Cushing, via CGI, for last year's Rogue One. Given that Obi-Wan kept popping up, even after his slaying at the hands of Darth Vader, why would he have stopped now? (Actually, maybe he and Luke just ran out of things to talk about.)
We heard a brief snatch of his disembodied voice in Rey's vision in The Force Awakens, but there's been no mention of any digital recreation of Alec Guinness for The Last Jedi. Still, we're crossing our fingers and toes. After all, as Obi-Wan only appears as a ghostly apparition, that may well paper over some of the CGI cracks, and create a more convincing effect.
4. Qui-Gon Jinn
Despite being told by Yoda at the end of Revenge of the Sith that Obi-Wan's old master Qui-Gon Jinn had "found a path to immortality", we never got to see him again, offering up sage advice to his former padawan. We imagine Qui-Gon's still out there, still floating about in the ether, so where is he in these new films?
5. Mon Mothma
A fan fave, Loyalist leader Mon Mothma appeared in Return of the Jedi, played by Caroline Blakiston, and in last year's Rogue One, played by Genevieve O'Reilly. As one of the original trilogy's few female characters, it seems only fitting to bring her back.
After all, The Force Awakens found room for several other (male!) characters introduced in that movie, like Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb, and Blakiston, though now 84, is still going strong (remember Aunt Agatha in Poldark? That was her!)
6. General Madine
As far as we can tell, General Crix Madine survived the final battle of Return of the Jedi. In fact, it was he who devised the attack on the shield generator on Endor, leading to the defeat of the Empire, so, in fact, he's really one of the great unsung heroes of Star Wars.
Which makes it doubly cruel that he was absent from General Leia's gang of old and new Resistance fighters on D'Qar in The Force Awakens. Fair play, he could have kicked it sometime in the 30 years between the two films, but actor Dermot Crowley is still with us, having most recently popped up The Death of Stalin earlier this year.
7. Yoda
We heard a sliver of him during Rey's lightsaber vision in The Force Awakens, but where is the dinky green Jedi master himself? Actor Frank Oz is still active and we know Yoda has the power to manifest himself as a Force spirit (see the end of Return of the Jedi).
8. Wicket
Apparently, one of Harrison Ford's dictates on returning to Star Wars in The Force Awakens was 'no Ewoks'. "It was in my contract," Ford said at the time (we presume he was joking). Well, Ford ain't in this one, so there's really nothing to stop Rian Johnson from giving us a Wicket update (forget about the other ones, it's all about Wicket).
We can't believe that, after those acts of heroism on Endor, he'd have just stayed there. It's a bit like Luke going back to work on the moisture farm after destroying the Death Star. We'd like to know that, somewhere out there, he's living a rich and full life and has found a Mrs Wicket.
9. B1 Battle Droids
You remember them? They were the tall, thin, and slightly duncy droids used by the Separatists whose catchphrase was a weedy 'roger roger'. They appeared in all three of the prequels, but, since then, they've been a no show. Seeing as the First Order have been plundering old Imperial designs, there's no reason why they shouldn't be going even more retro to before the Empire was formed.
10. Bren Derlin
Otherwise known as The One Played By Cliff-From-Cheers, Bren Derlin was the security chief on the Rebel base on Hoth, and was the guy who had to make the decision, when Luke and Han were lost, to close the main doors. Actor John Ratzenberger's star rose markedly after his tiny role in The Empire Strikes Back (apart from Cheers, he's Pixar's favourite go-to voice actor) so getting his character back and and actually making him a main player would be pretty neat.
11. Jar Jar Binks
No, hold on, let us finish... The klutzy, cretinous Gungan may have last been seen on screen following Queen Amidala's funeral procession a good five decades before The Last Jedi, but who's to say he's not still alive in the time of this new trilogy (he had a cameo in one of the recent, canon novels living rough, after all)?
The Force Awakens took all its cues from the original trilogy, totally cold-shouldering the prequels, but a bit of connective tissue with that group of movies might be a good thing, and who's more the poster-boy of those films than Jar Jar Binks? He's had 50 years to grow up, stop being a twat and maybe even – don't laugh now – become a wise old sage. Stranger things have happened.
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