11 Star Wars Characters Disney Wasted, From Captain Phasma to Luke Skywalker

Some of these characters survived the Empire, the Clone Wars, and even a trip into a Sarlacc pit, only to be undone by Disney's writing. These are 11 Star Wars characters who deserved better. Loving the actor does not mean the character was handled well.

Captain Phasma was marketed as the next Boba Fett but became a toy design with dialogue

Disney marketed Captain Phasma like the next Boba Fett. She had distinctive armor, an intimidating presence, and Gwendoline Christie under the helmet. Then she lowered Starkiller Base's shields after receiving a single threat, fell into a trash compactor, returned without explanation, and died in another short fight.

Phasma was not a character. She was a toy design with dialogue. That is the truth.

General Hux went from a terrifying fanatic to a punchline thrown across rooms

The Force Awakens introduced General Hux as a terrifying fanatic capable of commanding the destruction of entire planets. The Last Jedi turned him into a punchline of a telephone joke and repeatedly threw him across rooms. By The Rise of Skywalker, he had become a spy because he suddenly cared more about embarrassing Kylo Ren than the First Order winning.

Disney transformed a space fascist into a joke without even realizing it. Or maybe they did realize it and just didn't care.

Sabine Wren's Rebels arc was undone once Ahsoka made her journey about becoming a Jedi

Rebels made Sabine Wren a Mandalorian artist, a weapons expert, a former Imperial cadet, and the wielder of the Darksaber. She didn't need the Force to be special because she already had more character development than most of the Jedi. Ahsoka then made her entire journey revolve around becoming a Jedi and eventually let her use the Force when the plot required it.

Sabine was more interesting when her limitations mattered, and that's because that's when good writing was involved.

Moff Gideon's three seasons of buildup ended with an Imperial barbecue

Moff Gideon originally felt calculating and dangerous. He knew who Mando was, he possessed the Darksaber, and he appeared connected to a much larger Imperial conspiracy. But by season 3 he had created an army of flying Beskar stormtroopers and Force-sensitive clones before ever explaining his plan, like a cartoon villain.

Every clone was destroyed in seconds, and Gideon stood directly beneath an exploding spaceship. Three seasons of building up this character ended with an Imperial barbecue.

Reva had a revenge tragedy in her but Obi-Wan Kenobi gave her four arcs in six episodes

Reva had the ingredients for a really good character: a survivor of Order 66 who infiltrated the Inquisitors and dedicated her life to getting close enough to try to kill Darth Vader. Obi-Wan Kenobi revealed her motivation way too early, repeatedly allowed her to survive impossible injuries, and ended her story by having her threaten Luke for reasons that barely made sense.

Moses Ingram deserved a focused revenge tragedy. Instead Reva had four different character arcs fighting for control of six episodes. That's messy.

Din Djarin's emotional growth in The Mandalorian was reversed almost immediately

The Mandalorian began as a lonely bounty hunter slowly learning to place a child above his creed. By the end of season 2 he removed his helmet to say goodbye to Grogu, completing a beautiful emotional transformation. Then another show reunited them almost immediately, and season 3 pushed him into the side of his own story and restored the status quo.

Disney found a character audiences loved and became too scared to let him permanently change.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's series made him look helpless and created continuity problems the original film never needed

Ewan McGregor was excellent as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the final confrontation with Vader contained raw, real emotion. But the series built around him made Obi-Wan look strangely helpless, allowed Leia to be kidnapped repeatedly, and forced him into another enormous battle with Vader that created continuity problems the original film never needed.

Obi-Wan deserved a quiet, character-driven story about guilt and faith. Instead Disney gave him people hiding under trench coats and lightsabers bouncing harmlessly off stormtroopers. They did him dirty.

Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc only to become the manager of a struggling community center

Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc, somehow conquered Jabba's throne, and finally received his own series. Yet he spent that series walking around without his helmet, repeatedly explaining that he intended to rule with respect, and getting overshadowed by Mando. The galaxy's most feared bounty hunter for decades needed permission to schedule an appointment with the mayor.

Disney did not turn Boba Fett into a crime lord, which they should have. They turned him into the manager of a struggling community center. It's really sad looking back at The Book of Boba Fett. They mishandled this one in a big way.

Han Solo's completed arc was reversed by The Force Awakens for nostalgia

Return of the Jedi completed Han Solo's transformation from selfish smuggler to committed leader and loyal friend. The Force Awakens reversed that development and made him a smuggler again after his marriage collapsed and his son turned evil. Harrison Ford gave Han a powerful final performance, but the character died having lost his family, lost his ship, and lost the life he had spent three movies building.

Disney reset Han because nostalgia is easier than sitting down and creatively writing who he could become next.

Emperor Palpatine's surprise return in The Rise of Skywalker undercut Anakin's sacrifice

Palpatine's death completed Anakin Skywalker's redemption and fulfilled the central arc of the original six films, something that should have been locked up and left alone. Then The Rise of Skywalker announced that he had somehow returned, forcing other stories to explain secret cloning facilities and thousands of ships afterward. I always wondered how those ships were manned, how many troopers were on them. Thousands of ships means millions of soldiers.

Ian McDiarmid remains fantastic, but bringing Palpatine back turned Anakin's sacrifice into a temporary inconvenience. It exposed how little planning existed behind the sequel trilogy, or really how scared they got after the second movie when they had no idea what to do next.

Luke Skywalker went from refusing to kill his father to almost murdering his sleeping nephew

Luke ended Return of the Jedi as the man who refused to kill his father because he believed there was good in him. The Last Jedi asked us to believe that same man considered murdering his sleeping nephew after sensing darkness inside him. Failure could have made Luke fascinating, but the movie skipped the journey and presented the broken result instead.

Mark Hamill gave an incredible performance. He wasn't happy with the writing in the script. Disney took the galaxy's greatest symbol of hope and turned him into a warning against drinking alien milk alone on an island, into a whiny Jedi.

None of these actors were necessarily the problem. Most of them were doing everything possible with what they received. These characters were ruined by stories that misunderstood why audiences loved them, or that never bothered discovering why we fell in love with them in the first place, or that were written by people who weren't actually true fans of the Star Wars franchise. That's how I feel about it.

Did I get this list right, or is there a character I missed?