Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is finally out in theatres across the globe, bringing an end to a story that has spanned 42 years and more than 10 movies so far. Despite it being the final installment of the Skywalker Saga, it also serves up new characters for main protagonists Kylo Ren, Rey, Finn and, Poe Dameron to interact with.
We’re now going to rank the characters who made their debuts during the blockbuster, starting with who we liked the least.
Klaud
Klaud had been on a leaked poster for The Rise of Skywalker many months ago - and that immediately sparked a backlash surrounding the character. Unfortunate comparisons with…erm…the male anatomy were made and it appears that, with the giant space slug barely featuring in the movie, Disney decided to drastically reduce its role.
Klaud has only a couple of lines of dialogue and another leaked image, of him and Snap Wexley wasn’t seen in the final cut. Given he’s more of a background decoration than anything elss, it’s why he comes last on this list.
Boolio
Boolio pops up at the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker, feeding heroes Poe Dameron, Finn and Rey information about the First Order that - as the audience would later find out - is actually leaked from within the villainous organization by General Hux.
He delivers a great line in the form of “go and win the war,” but soon afterward, his head is on Kylo Ren’s table. Given how resourceful he was, it would have been great to have seen more of him. Alas, Ren’s bloodthirsty nature robbed us of that opportunity.
Rey’s Parents
We’d been waiting over two movies - and four and a half hours - to get the bottom of who Rey is and who her parents were. And it appears her parents really were just normal folk, despite her grandfather being the vile and back-from-the-dead Palpatine.
Played by Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer and Dunkirk’s Billy Howle, the duo only appear in flashbacks. That’s a shame because we would have loved to have known more about them, yet it’s still established that they hid Rey on Jakku to stop Palpatine from getting to her. So, in that sense, they’re rather significant - if a tad underwhelming.
Ochi
Now, this is a character we feel had real potential. Ochi is an old Sith Assassin - the first we’ve ever seen in Star Wars on the big screen at least - and he murders Rey’s parents with an old Sith dagger when they refuse to disclose the whereabouts of their daughter.
He’s quite cool looking and the fact he’s an assassin adds more intrigue. However, he dies stuck in a cave unable to get out and, in his death, sees another good opportunity pass by.
Jannah
Another character we feel could have been better utilized, not least because of Naomi Ackie’s brilliant portrayal in the limited screen time she received. Jannah meets Finn and our other heroes at the wreckage of the Death Star and reveals that she was, like Finn himself, forced into the First Order before abandoning them for a better life elsewhere.
Yet while she’s got an intriguing backstory, and fights alongside Finn on the Star Destroyers at the end of the blockbuster, she doesn’t do a whole lot else. Rumors have suggested she was initially meant to be Lando Calrissian’s daughter and their interaction at the end of the movie certainly supports that theory.
D-O
We were a tad skeptical when it was announced that The Rise of Skywalker would be introducing us to another cute droid in the form of D-O, who is voiced by director JJ Abrams. After all, with C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8 already in the mix, was it really needed?
But hey, he’s adorable. The way he politely says “no thank you” when Rey tries to touch him had audiences cooing and it also shows just how mistreated droids are within the Star Wars universe. The cute little thing also brings some much-needed comic relief in an otherwise dark and broody blockbuster.
Babu Frik
Babu Frik is rather cute himself, even if his face looks like chewing gum that’s been on the bottom of a chair for the last 42 years. It’s he who helps them get into C3-PO’s mind to read the writing on the old Sith dagger, which leads them to Endor where Palpatine’s wayfinder device is sat in the ruins on his throne room.
It’s hilarious when C3-PO introduces him as his oldest friend and the way he says, “I Babu Frik” to the protocol droid had audiences laughing. He’s also genuinely important to the plot as well, unlike many of the characters who made their debuts during the movie.
Zori Bliss
We meet the cool-looking Zori Bliss fairly early into The Rise of Skywalker, where she decides to help Poe Dameron out of a sticky spot on the planet of Kijimi. It’s she who leads Poe and the other heroes to Babu Frik, who does a number on C3-PO, and it’s also revealed that she and the Resistance hero would run spice together back in the day.
Zori is excellently voiced by Keri Russell and our only complaint is that she isn’t in the movie nearly as much as her slick look and intriguing backstory deserves. It’s brilliant to see her among the ships coming to the Resistance’s aid for the final showdown against the Final Order at the end of the film, however.
Allegiant General Pryde
Disney clearly felt they needed to wipe the slate clean when it came to the First Order, with the regressing of General Hux’s character during The Last Jedi seeing him lose his fear factor. So, determined to give Kylo Ren a strong ally to work alongside, Allegiant General Pryde is introduced.
Portrayed by Richard. E Grant, he’s easily the best of the new characters. He’s a proper villain, one more akin to Grand Moff Tarkin than Hux, and he unflinchingly obeys the commands of both Kylo Ren and then Palpatine, who he worked alongside during the Clone Wars. We can’t help but feel that, had Pryde been around from the very beginning, the First Order would have felt like a much bigger threat.
