Check out our 10 favorite series alien characters who have graced the screen, big and small, in the Star Wars universe!
If you’re looking for a right hand furry man, seek no further than Chewbacca. Chewie, like all Wookiees, is big, brash, loyal, and highly emotive through his famous throaty “Nnnrrrggg” wails and calls. Look for Chewie back in action together with Han Solo in The Force Awakens.
Yoda‘s species name and homeworld have yet to be revealed (if ever), but for sure these guys have been dispensing Force-friendly advice in galaxies far, far away for a long time. At least, we presume so; it’s tough finding more of Yoda’s kind beyond him (there’s Yaddle from Phantom Menace but she had no speaking lines) .
Admiral Ackbar led the rebel alliance offense against the Death Star II in Return of the Jedi and uttered the infamous “It’s a trap!” line that’s become a pop culture staple and internet meme. Ackbar also highlights the progressiveness of Star Wars: if you got the chops, you got the job, even if you are a hideous fish monster.
The Star Wars universe is a positive and hopeful place, but it also looks like a lot of work. There’s
the Force that always needs repairing, trade routes to be negotiated, and pod races to attend. Jabba the Hutt
represents the sloth in us, playing up our guiltiest pleasures: hedonism, scheming, and a desire to be extinguished by
a woman in a gold bikini. That’s not all: his employment of gamorreans and rancors pumps vital credits into the local
economy.
Cute, cuddly, and seriously decent at welcoming AT-ATs to their doom, the Ewoks aided Luke, Han, and Leia in the Battle of Endor. Afterwards, they threw a kick-ass party and then ABC gave them their own Saturday morning cartoon.
As the Star Wars hype unfolded in 1999, we were promised a cool new insta-villain with Darth Maul. If only he had lived beyond Phantom Menace‘s credits… Maul’s brethren, the Zabrak, continued showing up though, appearing in all the prequels and the Clone Wars show.
Ahsoka Tano is a Togruta (distinguished by their head-tails and pigmented camouflage skin) and Anakin Skywalker’s Jedi Padawan during the Clone Wars. At this point, Ahsoka’s made plenty of appearances in the canon, such as The Clone Wars feature and showing up in half of the Clone Wars TV show episodes and some in the follow-up series Star Wars Rebels.
Like the Togrutas, the Twi’lek are a species with tail-heads (though these become tentacles) and pigmented skin. Among the most famous Twi’lek is Aayla Secura, a Jedi in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
The Max Rebo Band are the house band at Jabba the Hutt’s palace, featuring three aliens called Max Rebo, Sy Snootles, and Droopy McCool. In Return of the Jedi, they’re joined by a Twi’lek dancer for their extended musical number. Having the band around really allows the filmmakers to flaunt some Star Wars alien weirdness.
Greedo: Not a good guy but a good point of contention in Star Wars lore, one that has inspired countless nerd ruminations for
decades. This Rodian was an inept bounty hunter who gets suckered into trying to execute a bounty on Han Solo, someone way over his league. Greedo’s swiftly executed by Han at a cantina up until subsequent re-releases of A New Hope alters that to Greedo shooting first. The change will always be controversial, but it’s things like this that kept Star Wars in the conversation even during the decades between new movie releases.
