LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is filled with playable characters from the Star Wars universe, many of which are famous faces. However, the game’s developers also dove deep into the depths of Star Wars lore to fill out the title’s roster of playable characters with truly strange selections that only the most diehard fans would possibly recognize.
Gamers who want to experience everything The Skywalker Saga has to offer will have to unlock over 380 characters. Most of these are key players such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, recurring side characters like C-3PO and R2-D2, and even fan favorites such as Bossk and Boba Fett. Admittedly, a sizable chunk of the game roster consists of variants of the same character (e.g., players can unlock 18 different versions of Luke Skywalker), but The Skywalker Saga also includes quite a few obscure characters.
How obscure? We’re talking background characters who only appeared for one second of one movie, if ever. Honestly, you probably wouldn’t even know of these character names unless you’ve already unlocked them in The Skywalker Saga.
Mister Bones
The Star Wars expanded universe has created a galaxy’s worth of memorable characters. Some, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, got their start in novels and eventually crawled their way into official canon, but most never ventured past their source material mediums of questionable canonicity.
Mister Bones is the personal bodyguard/best friend of Rebel Alliance/Resistance pilot Temmin Wexley. Temmin built him from old B-1 Battle Droid parts that he scavenged, but Temmin also heavily modified Mister Bones with non-standard parts and multiple combat droid programs. This amalgamation resulted in a loyal, if ironically sadistic, bodyguard. Mister Bones might look like a regular Battle Droid (albeit with a custom paint job) but his personality and combat efficiency are more in line with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’s HK-47.
Since Mister Bones was tied to Temmin Wexley, he first showed up in the Aftermath series of Star Wars novels along with his creator. However, unlike Temmin, Mister Bones never appeared in the movies. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is Mister Bones’ first outing in half a decade, which is a lifetime for Battle Droids.
Roger
While Mister Bones looks like a B1-Battle Droid, he technically isn’t one because his programming is radically different. In truth, few bona fide Battle Droids survived the Clone Wars. R0-GR, better known as Roger, might as well be the last Battle Droid in Star Wars canon.
Unlike most Battle Droids, Roger was built incorrectly. His arm and back are lighter in color than the rest of his body. However, that was his only run of bad luck since Roger survived countless skirmishes throughout the Clone Wars. Eventually, he found himself in the care of a family of scavengers known as the Freemakers.
If you are scratching your head wondering why you never saw such a unique-looking droid, that’s because he originated from the non-canon LEGO Star Wars: All-Stars and LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures shows. Then he was retconned into canon with the book Star Wars: Droidography, and now he returns to his brick-based roots with LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
FN-2199
Stormtroopers are designed to be faceless, disposable villains. Almost every member looks identical and wields the same weapons with the same unerring inaccuracy. The only Stormtroopers who rise above the rest are those who receive a scant five minutes of fame, such as FN-2199.
FN-2199 never stood out from the rest of his squad until the day FN-218 (aka. Finn) deserted the First Order. FN-2199 took it personally and swore revenge. In other words, FN-2199 is the Stormtrooper who yells “Traitor!” in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and proceeds to wail on Finn with a riot baton, only to be unceremoniously blasted in the back.
While most audiences only know of FN-2199 from his fight scene in The Force Awakens, he was introduced in the novel Before the Awakening. FN-2199 also went on to cameo in film novelizations, such as The Force Awakens: Finn’s Story. However, these don’t expand on his character all that much. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the most action he’s ever gotten.
FN-2199 demonstrates how a single line of dialogue can elevate an otherwise unexceptional character into the pop culture zeitgeist. Although, most audiences thought his name was “TR-8R” because, well, it phonetically sounds like his only line in the movie
Jubnuk
While the Empire is Star Wars‘ most famous antagonistic force, some of the franchise’s greatest villains are a little more independent. For instance, Jabba the Hutt is a notable crime lord with access to an army of disposable, identical enforcers known as the Gamorreans. These brutish, pig-like aliens littered Jabba’s palace, and the only one who stood out was Jubnuk, but not for the reasons you think.
Jubnuk, like all the other Gamorreans in Jabba’s palace, was a bodyguard. He wasn’t addressed by name in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, so why is he even somewhat important? Well, it’s because he was later eaten by a Rancor. Seriously, that’s it. However, Jubnuk’s fate differs depending on who you ask. According to the official Star Wars lore librarian Leland Chee (via Twitter), Jubnuk is dead in the franchise’s current canon. Originally, however, Jabba’s Palace Pop-up Book (which gave the Gamorrean his name) stated he survived the Rancor’s stomach acid. Good thing, too, because in the expanded universe canon, he had a wife and children who bunked with him in Jabba’s Palace.
Even if Jubnuk didn’t get to outlive his employer in the current franchise’s canon, at least he has been immortalized in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
Willrow Hood
Every action movie worth its salt has at least one scene where extras run around in a panic to convey a sense of urgency. In most films, those extras have zero backstory, but Star Wars isn’t like most films. Just look at the strange case of Willrow Hood.
Who is Willrow Hood, you ask? Is he one of the Rebel soldiers who tried to protect Princess Leia from Darth Vader? One of the Imperial engineers in the Death Star’s firing chamber? No, he was the guy with the ice cream maker seen during the mass exodus from Bespin in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Willrow Hood wasn’t on screen for even a second (he was an extra, after all) but he left his mark and received a backstory, as well as trading cards and even action figures.
In the original Star Wars canon, Willrow was an employee of A’roFilter, which was a mining company that offered the Rebel Alliance discounted supplies, specifically Tibanna Gas. The “ice cream maker” he was holding in his sole scene was actually a computer’s memory core full of Rebel contacts. He didn’t want the Empire to get their hands on it, so during the ensuing panic, Willrow disposed of the core. Later, he helped liberate Bespin from the Empire.
Sometimes, all a character needs to acquire a fanbase is a fancy accessory, or in Willrow Hood’s case, something that looks like it was stolen from catering.
Ubbla Mollbro
Many Star Wars fans hate the Canto Bight segments in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. and claim nothing would have been lost if filmmakers cut out those scenes. However, if those disgruntled viewers got their wish, audiences would be deprived of eccentric alien designs that have never appeared before in Star Wars.
99% of the characters in Canto Bight are window dressing devoid of backstory or names (Rose Tico’s claims that most of them are war profiteers notwithstanding). The sole exception is a feminine insectoid patron with sizable lumps all over her body. While audiences never learn her name, anyone who bought Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Visual Dictionary discovered that she is actually Ubbla Mollbro: an opera singer who loves to make “grand entrances.”
According to the book, Ubbla is one of the few people on Canto Bight who earned her wealth instead of being born into it. This honorable work ethic earned her the scorn of many Canto Bight patrons. Also, if you were wondering about the rotund masses covering her body, they’re apparently egg sacs.
At least LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga finally gives her the chance to shine. Sort of.
Rothgar Deng
Cantinas are a popular meeting spot for bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe. Mercenaries of every shape, size, and species fill these locations, and they each have a story to tell. Unfortunately, there’s only so much time in the movies, so audiences never see their exploits. Unless viewers pick up a book dedicated to these background characters, that is.
In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the main characters pass through a cantina in order to visit Babu Frik. One of the last patrons audiences see before the movie cuts to Babu is a tall, unnamed cyborg whose only human feature is a barely recognizable face. The character just stands there and serves as window dressing, and if it weren’t for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, audiences wouldn’t know his name was Rothgar Deng.
According to the dictionary, Rothgar is a Corellian bounty hunter who replaced virtually every body part in order to live forever. But that’s about it. He doesn’t appear in any other pieces of Star Wars media save LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Despite that handicap, he has one fascinating claim to fame. According to several Star Wars reference and encyclopedia books, fan-favorite bounty hunter Dengar Roth underwent so many surgeries that he became completely unrecognizable. Furthermore, Dengar is also Corellian, and Rothgar Deng is a pretty obvious anagram of Dengar Roth. These similarities led many audiences to assume they are one and the same.