The Rise of Skywalker was the end of an era for Star Wars, but it doesn’t have to be the end for these five characters who need a show on Disney+
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker packed a trilogy’s worth of characters and action into 142 minutes, but even J.J. Abrams can only do so much. For most movies, even movie franchises, the on-screen story comes to an end for their characters more quickly than fans would like. Disney offers a unique solution to this problem, in the form of their Disney+ streaming service.
Disney Plus (Disney+) offers a heretofore unknown level of collaboration between filmmaker and streaming service. What Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have dabbled in Disney can dive into headfirst. With Marvel and with Star Wars, stories that cannot be told on the big screen can be developed into television shows with the high production quality fans will expect.
This strategy of continuation is already being used for Star Wars. K-2SO and Cassian Andor will be back in their own Disney+ show, as will Obi-Wan Kenobi. In The Rise of Skywalker the “Skywalker saga” comes to a close, but the possibilities for spin-off shows are seemingly endless.
We won’t touch on the obvious choices here; if Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac are interested in reprising their roles for a show, a la Ewan McGregor, they will be welcomed with open arms by Disney, Lucasfilm and fans.
What about characters who aren’t the face of the franchise? The Rise of Skywalker introduces us to some fascinating new characters, and continues the story for others. Which of these characters deserve their own show, a platform to be the centerpiece of a new chapter in the Star Wars tale? Here are five characters who need a show on Disney+.
5. The Knights of Ren
When the name “Knights of Ren” was first made known to Star Wars fans, it was a whisper of something dark and epic, a group of Force-wielding soldiers who were going to provide a terrifying counter to the forces of good. Surely subsequent movies were going to feature these dark side warriors and explain the name of their leader, Kylo Ren.
Instead the Knights are nowhere to be seen in The Last Jedi, replaced by Supreme Leader Snoke’s Preatorian Guard. In The Rise of Skywalker we at last get more than a flash of an image, but even there the group is given short shrift. They are never explained, never introduced, never featured. They are barely there until Ben Solo fights and kills them in an exciting battle sequence that merely whets our appetite for something more.
The Knights of Ren demand more screen time. The details provided by Pablo Hidalgo’s Visual Dictionary are too tantalizing to pass up. One of the Knights, “Ap’Lek”, wields a “Mandalorian Executioner Vibro-Ax” with a beskar blade. “Cardo” has a rapid-fire laser cannon attacked to his arm. “Trudgen” wields something called a “Vibrocleaver” and collects trophies of the enemies he defeats. Marvel is rolling out these characters in a comic series, but that’s not enough.
These guys need their own show! A Disney+ show featuring this group as gray heroes, or even as full-on evil warriors, would be visually stunning and allow the writers to engage with some interesting moral questions. We could find answers to questions about their origin, makeup and conquests in a medium more exciting than simply a short comic run. If Adam Driver is willing to reprise Kylo Ren that’s great, but a stand-in could easily be a masked Ren. This show needs to happen.
4. Rose Tico
While The Last Jedi was a controversial film, it was certainly made better by the addition of Kelly Marie Tran, who played Resistance technician Rose Tico. We first see her tucked away on the Resistance flagship crying, overcome with grief at the loss of her sister. Then minutes later we see her spunk, as she stuns one of her heroes when she catches Finn attempting to desert.
The Last Jedi unpacks many layers to her character: she is a brilliant technician, incredibly smart, compassionate yet with a backbone of steel, and has strong opinions about the universe and how it should work. We looked forward to seeing how she would be involved in The Rise of Skywalker.
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The answer, unfortunately, was not very much. J.J. Abrams and team made the decision not to involve her with the main band of adventurers. She was present on Ajan Kloss but never involved in the romping missions going on. The reasoning was provided from Tran’s own lips in the movie; General Organa wished for her to stay behind and look at old Star Destroyer schematics.
This characters is dying to see the light of day again. Her backstory has been developed in extra-cinematic sources, both in the comics and books. Her future, however, is an open canvas.
What does Rose do after the fall of The Final Order? Does she continue to work for The Resistance as it seeks to restore The New Republic? Does she leave to pursue lifting injustice across the galaxy? How awesome would a show be where Rose drops in on a planet with a ramshackle crew, a traveling Robin Hood of sorts helping the poor and liberating the oppressed?
Whatever the plot, Kelly Marie Tran and the character of Rose Tico deserve more time on screen. We will all be the better for it.
3. Jannah
One thing the most recent Star Wars films have brought us is diversity in casting, especially with women of color. From Rose Tico in The Last Jedi, to Val in Solo, and now Jannah in The Rise of Skywalker. All three are, to be eloquent, awesome.
Jannah, or “TZ-1719” as she was known to the First Order, is part of a company of stormtroopers who rebelled against orders to kill innocent civilians. They settled on the moon of Kef Bir in the Endor system, adopting a simple nomadic lifestyle. That means Jannah gets to wear leather and shoot a bow.
After helping Finn destroy the bridge of the First Order flagship, the options ahead of Jannah are immense. The path ahead seems likely to include Lando Calrissian, given his invitation to help her find out where she is from. Some comments in The Rise of Skywalker: Visual Dictionary lead us to believe that Jannah is Lando’s long-lost daughter.
Bill Dee Williams lights up the screen, and having him cameo or play a central part in a Disney+ show centered on Jannah would be fun. Would John Boyega be interested in an appearance or two? What if Jannah and her tribe served as a Resistance / New Republic strike team?
Disney, Star Wars and the entertainment industry in general would benefit from getting women of color on the screen more often, specifically on center stage. The backstory and possibilities for a character such as Jannah are numerous enough to set the table for a compelling Disney+ show.
2. Chewbacca
Chewbacca has been a mainstay in the Star Wars franchise since the very beginning, when the “Wookiees” developed from dog-like aliens to short furry creatures (later the Ewoks) to the towering force behind Han Solo’s shoulder at every turn. With both Han and Leia Organa deceased at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Chewbacca is without an obvious next step.
Still looking spry at 235 — and apparently quite adept at dejarik, or at least at cheating — he could do anything he wanted. He could of course stay and help the Resistance, but that seems to be the responsibility of the younger generation. The baton has been passed.
Could he team up with Lando Calrissian, with whom he has copiloted the Millennium Falcon at times and who is the closest living person to Han Solo? They are both likely aged out of the day-to-day bustle of galaxy-saving, but they could go in together on a business venture, or Chewbacca could help Lando and Jannah on their search for her true identity (which we probably already know).
He could also choose to stay with the Falcon, and with Rey Skywalker. We see the Falcon on Tatooine at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, and it’s possible Chewie is on board during Rey’s burying of the lightsabers. The ship is as much his as anyone else’s, after all, and Rey is an adopted member of the family he has been a part of for the past four or more decades.
Finally, Chewbacca could simply return home. How delightful would it be to see him interact with his true family, including his wife Mallatobuck and his son Lumpawaroo. In the novel Aftermath: Life Debt we see the liberation of Kashyyk and the reunion of Chewbacca with his family. Could he return home and make an impact on his homeworld? Could a show simply of Wookies be as excellent as it sounds? Regardless he deserves to be the headliner for something for once. A Disney+ show would be the perfect place.
1. Zorii Bliss and Babu Frik
With all due respect to the rest of the new characters in The Rise of Skywalker, the most exciting introductions came on Kijimi. Zorii Bliss comes onto the scene as the leader of a gang of Spice Runners, with a pair of blaster pistols, a svelte and high-tech get-up, and the ability to take out an enemy hand-to-hand or in a starfighter.
She leads our band of heroes to the legendary droidsmith Babu Frik, a tiny Anzellan who works for the pirate gang Bliss leads. Poe Dameron knows them both because he was once part of the gang himself. The two make it off the world despite the Final Order blowing Kijimi to smithereens, showing up in the final space battle above Exegol and again at the celebration on Ajan Kloss.
Both of these characters are dripping with charisma and draw the eye while on screen. That would absolutely translate to the small screen through a show on Disney+. The arc of their stories mean such a show could just as easily come before The Rise of Skywalker, after, or both.
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If in the future, we could see how Bliss and Frik move on after the destruction of Kijimi. Do they pick the pirate life back up? Or does answering the call of The Resistance for the final battle stir in them a hunger to make the galaxy a better place? The chemistry between Dameron and Bliss left us wanting more; could they come together for an adventure or two? Setting the story in a post-TROS future allows the delightful Keri Russell to reprise the role of Bliss.
The past offers plenty of opportunities as well. Bliss joined the Spice Runners as a teenagers, providing two decades of potential content. Her and Dameron pushed each other to become better and better at their craft. The Rise of Skywalker: Visual Dictionary provides us with an overview of some past Spice Runner heists, including one where the group “made off with an entire greenhouse” and another where they outran a patrol through an old podrace course.
Dameron clearly knew Babu Frik well, so following a story from before the events of The Rise of Skywalker could still involve everyone’s favorite droidsmith. He was an “honorary member” of the Spice Runners gang. Perhaps we could see C-3PO show up; Babu Frik is, after all, “one of his oldest friends.”
Out of all the show opportunities in this post, a heist-focused show tracking a young Bliss and Dameron through their time in the Spice Runners is the most exciting. Disney+ would be able to put together a show that would be worth watching if it wasn’t Star Wars; putting such a show in a galaxy far, far away will make everyone want to tune in.
Star Wars is a sea of untapped potential storylines, and Disney will surely make us of those to make movies, television shows, books and comics. With the Disney+ streaming platform now the hottest thing out there, it would be a perfect fit for a show with the best The Rise of Skywalker can offer.