13 Beloved Background Characters in the Original STAR WARS Trilogy
It’s MAY THE FOURTH: Calling Coruscant Central Casting! By JIM BEARD One of my favorite lines from a 1977 review of the first Star Wars movie said something like, “Lucas populates every frame with throwaway background characters that other filmmakers would make an entire film about.” That’s stuck in my mind all this time not only because it was speaking my love language, but because there’s something really cool in that assessment that I think speaks to the beauty of the property. Star Wars is not just about its characters; it’s about a galaxy. And that stretch of space is populated with the best background denizens of any science fiction production ever. I’m going to take this reasoning one step further and lay out my favorite 13 such background beings from the entire OG trilogy. I hope you’ll find a few of your favorites in this list, too. After all, there’s literally a Star Wars character for everyone. — Silver Threepio (A New Hope, 1977). There are two ballsy things in the very first character scene in A New Hope. One is that there are no humans, and another one is that C-3PO is not unique. Right from the get-go, Lucas tells us that this galaxy is full of robots and some of them have been stamped from the same mold, just colored differently. And, as we soon learn a few seconds later, it’s what’s inside these protocol droids that counts. — He Owns Utini (A New Hope, 1977). Did he know? Did he think about it? Did he ever suspect that one little Jawa would go down in film history just from one simple little word? And here’s another important question to ponder: Did he still get royalties every time someone else screams, “Utini”? — Cantina Sideburns (A New Hope, 1977). My fandom for the guy with the sideburns and spacesuit chatting with Chewbacca really grew out of Decipher’s Star Wars Customizable Card Game (where I learned he’s named “BoShek”). Why? Because he seems like a cool cat who might’ve looked right at home in Arnold’s Drive-In, dipping his fries in a shake and eyeing the chicks. BoShek was cool, Daddy-o… — Simple Scanners (A New Hope, 1977). Pity the poor Imperial duo who got the orders to haul their scanning equipment onboard the Millenium Falcon only to…...
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