10 Background Star Wars Characters More Important Than You Think

Wedge Antilles is certainly a lot more famous than some of the other background Star Wars characters to have carved out a role in the expanded canon, but chances are audiences are unaware of just how important Denis Lawson's character really is.

In the films, Wedge is the second most noticeable pilot in Rogue Squadron (formerly Red Squadron). He's present at the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Hoth and the Battle of Endor, where he fires one of the torpedos that destroys the second Death Star, and only has a couple of lines to his name across the Original Trilogy.

But, perhaps because of his proximity to Luke Skywalker and then Lando, Wedge quickly found himself a key character in the old Legends mythos. He had a starring role in the original X-Wing books by Michael Stackpole, as well as the beloved Rogue Squadron video games released in the late nineties and early noughties, and has continued to play a pivotal role in the galaxy far, far away in the new canon as well.

Wedge's reduced role in the sequels (he only appeared in The Rise of Skywalker) was down to a scheduling conflict with Lawson, but it's still great to see the character at the forefront of Star Wars OT-set novels and video games. Only Luke could claim to be a more legendary X-Wing pilot.