Other Star Wars Characters Who Need Origin Movies
When it comes to Star Wars, we know prequel films don't really work out so well. While no one ever really asked to see the Muppet Babies version of Star Wars, it's happening again anyhow. But with any luck and without George Lucas to crash the ship, this new slate of movies might not be half bad. Both Han Solo and fan-favorite Boba Fett are getting cinematic origin stories in the next few years, and both movies will rewrite everything that the Expanded Universe once held true. Now that nearly every character's backstory has been wiped out, there are a lot more gaps to fill in. Here are a few more Star Wars folks who deserve a little more history.
Jabba the Hutt
It's easy to hate the slimy, obese, slave-owning space-slug, but Jabba Desilijic Tiure seems to have a pretty interesting story hidden in all of those greasy rolls. While we mostly know him for kidnapping girls, putting them in metal bikinis, and feeding them to his pet Rancor for fun, he's also a guy who has a son who he cares for deeply, and he seems to have had an eventful rise to power. Even the mighty Empire doesn't mess with the Hutts, choosing to negotiate with them over trade routes and resources instead of just killing them and taking what they want. Jabba is like the Walter White of the ugliest part of space, and we want to know why.
Emperor Palpatine
By the time we catch up with Palpatine, he's already a senior citizen and a high-roller in Naboo politics. As a master manipulator who controls everyone around him whether they know it or not, Palpatine not only rules over galactic politics, but eventually, all of the Sith. Palpatine does all of this, and the movies never even reveal his first name...which is Sheev, by the way. There are at least 50 years worth of Palpatine's history we don't really know, and most of it involves his training with Darth Plagueis and ancient Sith knowledge. What made Palpatine such a rotten raisin-face? We'd love to know.
Lando Calrissian
If Han Solo's origin film is worth the price of admission, Lando Calrissian will make a cameo somewhere. Han and Lando have some serious history together, and based on their interactions when Han arrives at Cloud City, it's not all good. Marvel Comics published a five-issue, in-canon miniseries in 2015 about one of Lando's pre-Rebellion capers, but aside from that, and an appearance on an episode of Star Wars: Rebels, there's a lot about Lando that we don't really know anymore, especially when it comes to the whole Han Solo frenemy thing. He may be a (temporary) dirty traitor to the Rebellion, but it would be nice to know why.
Yoda
George Lucas has always treated Yoda as a sacred, mysterious creature, refusing to elaborate on where the little green man actually came from. No one knows his planet, his race, who trained him, and for a while, no one even really knew how many toes he had when it came time to make an action figure. Yoda's unknowable past was once a great part of Star Wars non-lore, but when Lucas introduced the horrible Yaddle to the Jedi Council, all bets were off. Now that we have an official lady Yoda, the allure of Yoda's uniqueness has been shattered, and whoever now runs Star Wars may as well just give us a full history of Yoda, from tadpole to Force ghost, because screw you, George.
Chewbacca
You can bet right now that Chewy will make an appearance in Han Solo's solo outing, but it's very unlikely that Solo finds him as a pup and raises him as his own. In the old canon, Han is employed by the evil Empire and rescues Chewy from another officer, obligating Chewy to a life debt. But we're all very curious about how the revisionist Star Wars will now treat their meeting—and if they're going to acknowledge Chewy's terrible family waiting back on Kashyyyk, waiting decades for him to come home and celebrate another Life Day.
Dr. Evazan
He has death sentences stretching across the galaxy, he doesn't like Luke, and his friend doesn't like Luke either...but why? The ugly doctor is a lot more than an unruly bar patron who gets his friend's arm chopped off, and according to legend, he's infamous for unusual and non-traditional surgeries performed on unsuspecting victims all over the known universe. Either this guy is the Star Wars equivalent of the Human Centipede guy or he just talks big, but the true history of Evazan, and his smuggler pal Ponda Baba, sounds like it would be pretty exciting and gory.
The Millennium Falcon
Sure, the ol' Falcon isn't really a Star Wars character, but it got more applause than C-3PO when it appeared in The Force Awakens. It's obvious that the ship has been through a lot and has had a lot of scummy owners, and also that she's nigh indestructible—so where was the old girl before Lando owned her? It's the most modded-out hotrod in the galaxy, even though it was designed to be a clunky freighter, and we know that it's been flying around since Revenge of the Sith, if not earlier. So, just how many buckets of bolts did it take to make the Falcon? The world wants to know.
Luke Skywalker
Think Freaks and Geeks meets Galaxy High. There are roughly 19 years between Luke's birth and when we catch up with him in A New Hope, and when you live on a desolate desert planet with nothing but sand and villainous scum, you have a pretty good recipe for a coming-of-age TV series. While we're not really interested in another baby Anakin story, Luke's school years stuck on Tatooine and dreaming of the stars might be a subtle, entertaining entry into Star Wars canon. Heck, it's working pretty well for Gotham, and little Bruce Wayne is barely bearable.
Max Rebo
When it comes to cuteness, no one beats Max Rebo. Compared to Max, Wicket the Ewok is a pile of cold roadkill guts. The blue elephant had a complete backstory before Disney's cleansing of all Star Wars legends; he was the runt of his litter, he played keyboards for food, and eventually started a chain of restaurants after his lifelong contract with Jabba abruptly ended. Now, he's not much more than a wandering weirdo. It doesn't matter if it's a film, an animated series, or an official flip book; we just want to see that sweet Max Rebo merchandise blitz.