Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: 12 Missed Opportunities We'll NEVER Get Over

4. Snoke, Palpatine & The Lack Of A Decent Villain

Another "JJ mystery box" was whatever the hell Snoke was going to be.

Voiced by the legendary Andy Serkis and appearing as a giant, teleported-in figure, Snoke was clearly this new trilogy's "main bad guy"; the person we'd learn about across each film, and someone who backed up the First Order's overblown nature with calm, calculated horror.

Then he got cut in half by Johnson, and Abrams had to figure something out as a replacement.

He eventually landed on Palpatine, but him being the master string-puller in the final film does VERY little to establish a sense of threat in the other movies, even in hindsight.

Palpatine is not mentioned whatsoever across anything from the films to the comics or even TFA or TLJ's Visual Dictionary accompaniments, making him every bit as forced on-screen as the script feels in real life.

The originals had the presence of Grand Moff Tarkin, the unleashed power of Darth Vader and the cackling menace of The Emperor. The prequels gave us Darth Maul's incredible visual design and the coolest spin-off lightsaber of them all, Count Dooku was Christopher freakin' Lee, and Anakin's descent was at least engaging.

Force Awakens, Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker? They allude to a villain, dodge his motivations, kill him, then resurrect a character we watched die in 1983, who gets the combined screentime of about 10 minutes.

Pathetic.