Photo: Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983).. .. © Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Star Wars has a ridiculous amount of alien races, some of which rarely even tickle the outer rim. Here are ten races that need a hero from their midst.
If you’re like me, and have an encyclopedic—and therefore pretty worthless—knowledge of the alien species that appear (and don’t appear) in Star Wars, then you’ve also fantasized about what a hero would look like coming from some of the more obscure alien races in the galaxy.
Or, if only I have these daily thought journeys (frankly, I’m not surprised), then maybe exploring these fringe alien races and exploring their ability to produce a hero will spark those same thought journeys in you.
So let’s talk aliens. Which ones have enough of a presence to deserve a hero, and which ones have such a killer back story that it’s amazing they don’t already.
First of all, some housekeeping. Personally, I’ve gotten enough Dugs, Toidarians and Gungans. They didn’t make my list. If I had to watch a movie about a Toidarian hero, I’d lose my damn mind. We’ve also seen plenty of Wookiees, so I opted not to include them. Then there Snivvians, who are a bit too fun-house for me, but if we wanted to go a Pee-Wee Herman route, then Snivvians are the way to go. I also wouldn’t be judging this completely fairly if I said Ewoks just because we could always use more Ewoks.
All that out of the way, let me talk about what led to my decision making process. Of course, there was a certain amount of “do they look cool?” that factored into it. There was also a lot of “is there already a presence in the cinematic universe?” like with Wookiees. I also did not factor in languages, though maybe I should have. I just assume that they can all speak English for the sake of the argument. Most can anyway.
Housekeeping aside, I want to talk about aliens, and what aliens need a pinnacle character, or hero. Kind of like what Mandalorians are getting with… The Mandalorian. These are aliens that find particular resonance when Bonnie Taylor belts “I need a hero.”
Let’s start with No. 10.
10. Gran
The Gran have a pretty big presence in the Galaxy as background characters. We can see their representatives from Malastare in the Senate proceedings. But they don’t have that Gran. Who is the Chewbacca of the Gran? I’m ready for that. And no, it isn’t just because they share a planet with the devious Dugs and I just really need a champion to combat them.
This moreso comes down to the simple fact that there feels like there’s a lot to unpack with a race of aliens who don’t just look compelling and root-for-able, but who have the breadth of race to cover respectable senators and lowlife Hutt gangsters. It sounds awfully… human? Yeah, that’s the word I’m looking for.