The Star Wars saga enjoys such a depth of additional canon media such as books, TV shows, video games, and comics that it includes many extremely important characters who never appeared in a Star Wars movie. Let’s look at 10 people who never made it to the big screen, but nonetheless played pivotal roles in the ongoing war between the Light and Dark Sides of the Force.
#10: Norra & Temmin Wexley
The Aftermath book trilogy details the events that took place after the Battle of Endor, leading into the Empire’s final defeat at the Battle of Jakku. While the Empire’s diminished military capability meant that the tables had now effectively turned and left them to regroup in secret, Norra Wexley and her son Temmin were two of the key players in tracking the Imperial remnants, figuring out their plans, and stopping them before they could wipe out the Republic and all its citizens. Temmin trianed as an X-Wing pilot during this time, and remained in the New Republic’s forces until joining Leia’s Reistance when the First Order emerged years later.
#9: Kanan Jarrus & Ezra Bridger
The days of the Empire were gloomy ones for the galaxy, and the Star Wars: Rebels TV series takes place during this period, and stars two young Jedi trying to put the pieces in place to stage a massive Rebellion against the Emperor. The leader, Kanan Jarrus, was a padawan who survived the Jedi Purge and, while he never attained the full rank of Jedi Knight, drew on what skills and knowledge he did attain to try and lead the first stirrings of what became the Rebellion.
At the same time, Kanan does what he can to train Ezra Bridger, a young Force-sensitive orphan from the planet Lothal, though without the same knowledge and experience a full Jedi Knight would have been able to draw on. Their story is unique in that, rather than the traditional Jedi-Padawan relationship, theirs is one of uncertainty as they are forced to ad lib their way through many situations they wouldn’t have had to during the height of the Jedi Order.
#8: The Inquisitors
Frequently serving as antagonists to Kanan and Ezra are the Inquisitors, a group of ex-Jedi who became disillusioned with the Order and became Darth Vader’s personal Jedi hunters. Though they aren’t Sith themselves, they all fell to the Dark Side and became completely loyal to Vader and the Emperor. The Grand Inquisitor was the main antagonist of the first season of Rebels, while other members would pop up at later points in the series to cause trouble for the fledgling Rebel movement.
#7: Asajj Ventress
Along the same lines as the Inquisitors, Count Dooku once had an apprentice of his own who, while not a Sith, was trained in the Dark Side of the Force and used as an assassin. Asajj Ventress first appeared in the animated Clone Wars movie, and became a recurring antagonist in the TV series of the same name. She was eventually abandoned by Dooku and, after trying in vain to kill him, went into hiding and reappeared later as a bounty hunter.
#6: Savage Opress
After turning his back on Ventress, Dooku sought a new Dark Side apprentice who could serve his purposes. He ended up selecting Savage Opress, the huge and brutal brother of Darth Maul, and taught him as he had Ventress. Unfortunately for Dooku, Savage lived up to his name and proved impossible to control, going haywire and running off to find his brother.
Opress did eventually find Maul, helped him recover from the injuries he suffered at the hands of Obi-Wan, and joined him in a crusade against the Jedi. The brothers were finally tracked down by Maul’s former master Darth Sidious, also known as Palpatine, and Opress was killed in the resulting battle while his brother was captured and forced back into service to his former master.
#5: Mother Talzin
Ventress, Maul, and Opress were all powerful warriors, but other than sharing a home planet, the thing they all had in common was that they were the children of the mysterious Mother Talzin. Not much is known about her except that she had an incredible amount of power, mastering Dark Side powers even the Sith hadn’t. Palpatine spent years steering clear of her, but finally forced the issue after Talzin spent years trying to undermine him. Talzin was killed in the ensuing confrontation, eliminating a powerful rival and putting the future of her people in question in the process.
#4: Grand Admiral Rae Sloane
The highest-ranking officer left in the Imperial Navy following the Battle of Endor was Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, and she had every intention of taking control of the Empire after the deaths of Palpatine and Vader. The Aftermath series opens with her convening a meeting of surviving Imperial leaders, and follows her through her efforts to navigate the viper pit to avoid letting the Empire break down into a feudal system where each of the leaders would only control a portion of what was left. She did end up leading the remnants of the Empire into the Unknown Regions outside the galaxy where they were reborn as the First Order, but not before being branded a traitor to the Empire thanks to the machionations of…
#3: Gallius Rax
Not much was known about Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, not even to the other senior Imperial officers, but what we did know was that he was the man Palpatine personally selected to take control of the Empire in the event of his death. Rae Sloane spent much of the Aftermath trilogy uncovering his true history as an orphan from Jakku who made friends with the Emperor thanks to a chance meeting, and used that relationship to work his way into a special commission where he bypassed the entire Imperial hierarchy to report directly to the Emperor himself.
He showed every bit of the political moxy his mentor had by eliminating all his competition for control of the Empire, and set about following Palpatine’s orders to literally destroy the galaxy with a powerful weapon that had been buried in a secret facility below the surface of Jakku. Before that happened, however, his triumphant escape was ruined at the last minute when he was killed by Sloane just as he was about to make his escape to the Unknown Regions.
#2: Ahsoka Tano
The Clone Wars TV series covered the ongoing adventures of the Jedi between Episodes II and III, and introduced us to Ahsoka Tano, the padawan of Anakin Skywalker. Ahsoka was brave, never afraid to take on even their most powerful enemies like Ventress or General Grievous, and often served as a moral compass for Anakin and his often brash, emotional actions.
Ahsoka ended up being expelled from the Jedi Order after being framed for something she didn’t do, but reappeared many years later in the Rebels TV series and joined Kanan and Ezra in many of their adventures. She eventually came to the realization that Anakin had become Darth Vader, and was last seen confronting her former master in a Sith temple, after which her fate was unknown.
#1: Darth Plagueis
Despite never appearing on screen, the legendary Sith Lord Darth Plagueis is perhaps the most important character in Star Wars history. He recruited Palpatine and trained him as a Sith Lord, designed the Grand Plan that resulted in the long-awaited Sith triumph over the Jedi and conquest of the galaxy, and very well may have been personally responsible for the creation of Anakin Skywalker. He was murdered by Palpatine the night before his apprentice’s election as Supreme Chancellor, but the ripple effects of his handiwork are still being felt in the Star Wars universe today.