Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Yoda, Princess Leia, Rey and Luke Skywalker are the most loved Star Wars characters on this list. Watto, young Boba Fett, the Ewoks, Anakin Skywalker, Jar Jar Binks, Kylo Ren and Vice Admiral Holdo are the most loathed. The order alternates between the two camps.
Updated October 11, 2026.
I stuck to the nine main saga films, Episodes I through IX. So no Solo, no Rogue One and no The Mandalorian. And yes, the opinions are all mine.
I have rewatched this saga more times than I can count, and I keep a running split between the characters I love and the ones I argue with. Most of the arguing happens in the prequels. The originals earn their loyalty slowly, and the new films earn their fights.
Most loathed: Watto
Andy Secombe voiced Watto in The Phantom Menace (1999) and Attack of the Clones. Critics did not take to the design. J. Hoberman of The Village Voice called him “the most blatant ethnic stereotype,” and Bruce Gottlieb of Slate compared him to an antisemitic idea about the slave trade. Secombe has said Watto is not Jewish, that the accent he used is Italian, and that Michael Ripper’s performances in Hammer films inspired it.
My complaint is simpler. Watto is a pathetic excuse for a villain, and the stereotype debate follows him everywhere.
Most loved Star Wars character: Han Solo
Han is the reckless smuggler who ends up leading a rebellion’s charge, and nobody did it with more swagger than Harrison Ford. George Lucas first resisted casting him because they had already worked together on American Graffiti. Ford had been reading lines opposite other actors at auditions when Lucas gave in. Published lists back the fans up: the American Film Institute ranked Han the 14th greatest film hero, and Empire magazine put him fourth among all film characters.
Most loathed: Young Boba Fett
Boba Fett made his name with almost no screen time. He debuted in the animated segment of the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special and reached theaters in The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Jeremy Bulloch, who wore the armor in Empire and Return of the Jedi, said, “the less you do with Boba Fett, the stronger he becomes.”
Then Attack of the Clones (2002) explained him. Daniel Logan played a preteen Boba, revealed as an unaltered clone of Jango Fett. Fans wanted a bounty hunter’s origin and got a plot detail with little bearing on anything later in the prequels. Bulloch was right.
Most loved Star Wars character: Chewbacca
Peter Mayhew played Chewbacca in the first film, released May 25, 1977. The role nearly went to someone else: David Prowse, the bodybuilder who ended up inside the Darth Vader suit, was offered Chewbacca and turned it down because he wanted to play the villain. The Wookiee is a loyal friend with a quick temper, and a language only his closest companions understand. He never needs a subtitle.
Most loathed: The Ewoks
The Ewoks arrived in Return of the Jedi (1983). Lucas has said he wanted a tribe of primitive creatures to bring down the technological Empire, partly modeled on Viet Cong guerrillas, and make-up artist Stuart Freeborn based the design on Lucas’s own Griffon Bruxellois dog. Warwick Davis was 11 when he played the scout Wicket.
MTV News’s Tami Katzoff described a popular theory that the Ewoks were meant to sell plush toys, and Wikipedia notes that some consider them the weakest part of the original trilogy. Return of the Jedi holds 83 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. The two Ewok TV films that followed, The Ewok Adventure (1984) and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, both won Emmys for special visual effects.
Most loved Star Wars character: Darth Vader
Vader is a two-person job. David Prowse, a 6-foot-6 bodybuilder, wore the suit in the original trilogy, and James Earl Jones supplied the voice. Lucas had first considered Orson Welles but passed because the voice would be too recognizable. Jones felt his role was too small to be credited, so he went uncredited in the first two films and appeared in the credits for Return of the Jedi.
Fans love to hate him. Once a Jedi, he fell to the dark side, and the reveal that he is Luke and Leia’s father is still the best twist in the saga.
Most loathed: Anakin Skywalker
Hundreds of actors auditioned before Jake Lloyd played young Anakin in The Phantom Menace (1999). About 1,500 candidates were reviewed for the older Anakin in Attack of the Clones (2002), and Hayden Christensen got the part after Lucas first considered Leonardo DiCaprio. Christensen later earned a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actor for Revenge of the Sith (2005).
The trouble is the writing. Fans wanted an origin worthy of Vader and got a whiny child, then a sulking teenager. His fall to the dark side is the most disappointing in the saga. The Phantom Menace still grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and the reviews on release were mixed.
Most loved Star Wars character: Yoda
Yoda first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Frank Oz both puppeteered and voiced him. Lucas asked Jim Henson to perform the character, and Henson recommended Oz because he was busy. Stuart Freeborn and Wendy Froud built the puppet, and Freeborn based the face partly on Albert Einstein.
New York Times critic Vincent Canby called Yoda “delightful,” and Gene Siskel called him the highlight of the film. A character who is five minutes of wisdom in a swamp should not work. He works.
Most loathed: Jar Jar Binks
Ahmed Best played Jar Jar through motion capture in The Phantom Menace (1999) and the other prequels. Legal scholar Patricia J. Williams argued that parts of the character resembled blackface archetypes from minstrel shows, and critic Joe Morgenstern called him a “Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs.” Lucasfilm denied any racist intention, and Best said, “Jar Jar has nothing to do with the Caribbean.”
I find the clumsy comedy flat, and I put Jar Jar near the bottom of the saga. He has had a partial reappraisal, though: in April 2019 Lucas named him his favorite Star Wars character, and Best credits fans who saw the prequels as children, now adults, for part of the shift.
Most loved Star Wars character: Princess Leia
Carrie Fisher played Leia in the first film, which won six Academy Awards. Leia is a battlefield leader first and a princess second. Her snarky comebacks and her blaster challenge the idea that a princess should look pretty and wait for rescue.
Most loathed: Kylo Ren
Adam Driver played Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). J.J. Abrams has said the mask is a nod to Vader’s, and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that the attempt to clone Vader is obvious, though Driver gives the character “hypnotic and haunting contours.”
This one is split. Driver won the 2016 Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first Star Wars actor to do so since Alec Guinness, and Empire readers voted Kylo the seventh-greatest movie villain in January 2018. I still read him as a poor copy of Vader, in costume and in plot, and that keeps him on the loathed side.
Most loved Star Wars character: Rey
Let’s get the complaints out first. Screenwriter Max Landis called Rey a “Mary Sue” for her natural skill as a mechanic, fighter, pilot and Force user, and Vox’s Caroline Framke called his posts a “Twitter war.” Several writers, and Daisy Ridley herself, answered that male heroes of the original trilogy got no such criticism. The Rise of Skywalker later revealed her as Palpatine’s granddaughter and half of a Force dyad with Ren.
Ridley auditioned four or five times over seven months, and Richard Roeper called her work “a breakout performance.” I side with the performance. She nails the role.
Most loathed: Vice Admiral Holdo
Laura Dern played Holdo in The Last Jedi, released December 15, 2017. The film grossed about $1.334 billion worldwide and holds 91 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 84 on Metacritic. Rotten Tomatoes has also said a review-bombing campaign targeted the film, so the audience score is not a clean read.
My problem is the character. The best thing about Holdo is her death, when she sends her ship through Snoke’s flagship at lightspeed to buy the fleet time. Until then she keeps her plan from Poe Dameron, who leads a mutiny, and Leia has to stun him. A leader who explains nothing gets a mutiny.
Most loved Star Wars character: Luke Skywalker
Sorry it took so long to get to Luke. Mark Hamill played him in the 1977 film that earned $775.4 million worldwide across its releases. Despite many criticisms of the character, Luke is the focal point of the original trilogy. He destroys the Death Star and is the influence behind Vader’s redemption and the defeat of the Empire. Good job, Luke.
Star Wars characters: common questions
Who is the most loved Star Wars character?
It depends who you ask, but published lists favor Han Solo. The American Film Institute ranked him the 14th greatest film hero, and Empire magazine ranked him the fourth greatest film character. Entertainment Weekly ranked him the seventh coolest hero in popular culture. My own list puts Yoda and Vader in the same top tier.
Why do fans dislike Jar Jar Binks?
Critics found the comedy grating, and some, including legal scholar Patricia J. Williams, argued the character drew on racial stereotypes. Lucasfilm denied any racist intention. The reaction cooled later: in April 2019 George Lucas named Jar Jar his favorite Star Wars character, and Ahmed Best, who played him, credits fans who saw the prequels as children for part of the shift.
Who played Darth Vader in the original trilogy?
Two people did. David Prowse, a 6-foot-6 bodybuilder, wore the suit, and James Earl Jones provided the voice. Lucas replaced Prowse’s voice because his West Country English accent did not suit the character. Sebastian Shaw played the unmasked Anakin in Return of the Jedi.
Who played young Boba Fett?
Daniel Logan played the preteen Boba Fett in Attack of the Clones (2002), where the character is revealed as an unaltered clone of Jango Fett. Logan had not seen any Star Wars films before he was cast, and at Lucas’s request he watched the original trilogy. Jeremy Bulloch wore the armor in the original films.