TV Discussion Which On-Screen Character is Most Well-Known?

I'm curious which of the listed characters people here would consider to be most "famous" overall, or how you would rank their real-world notoriety. Discussing Star Wars tends to be quite insular, and one forgets that most people might not know who Admiral Ackbar is, or have well and truly forgotten Nute Gunray's name by the time they're watching Revenge of the Sith.

The list is off the top of my head, and therefore a bit random, so if anyone else has some better comparisons please share.

To me, what determines "well-known" is that you could show a random person an image of them, and they would likely know the character's name. I almost put Grogu on the list, but I feel like he'd almost certainly "win".

 

The vast majority of the audience would not even know his name, got mentioned only once as far as I know.

You're vastly overestimating the depth of SW knowledge of anyone outside of places such as this. Countless TV quiz shows and discussions with work colleagues, friends and family show that most would struggle to name more than five of the big characters.

 

Mod EDIT: No baiting

 

I'm betting everything on Sebulba

 

Definitely. I could probably have phrased that part better.

I imagine it in the form of tiers. The top being Darth Vader, Han Solo, Yoda, etc., names you'd know without ever seeing any Star Wars. Then there's probably a huge drop off in recognition for Lando, Boba Fett, Darth Maul. Then you have another drop off for Padmé, Dooku, and other major characters who haven't really made the same cultural impact. And so on.

Somewhere between those characters and this poll, I would place Greedo, Ackbar, and Grogu, I think. The main sequel characters (Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo) I would place on the Padmé and Dooku tier, not due to any dislike, that's just the (probably wrong) impression I have.

Spoiler: For example

(Keep in mind, this is who I think is most famous, not a list of favourites)
Tier One
Darth Vader
Han Solo
Luke Skywalker
Princess Leia
Chewbacca
C-3PO
R2-D2
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Yoda

Tier Two
Lando Calrissian
Emperor Palpatine
Boba Fett
Darth Maul

Tier Three
Padmé Amidala
Count Dooku
Qui-Gon Jinn
Rey
Kylo Ren

...

Tier Nineteen or something
Elan Sleazebaggano

 

Isn't this whole thread argumentative enough for baiting? You know as well as I do that there's a preference in characters in the franchise; especially among those that aren't among the garden variety names like Luke, Vader, Leia, Han, and Yoda.

 

I thought it'd be an interesting point of discussion. The whole point is to step away from our usual focus on favourites and think about the perception most people have.

Is Sebulba more famous than Admiral Ackbar is an interesting question to me, and I wondered if it would make for an interesting discussion. It seems perfectly civil so far.

 

But you put in Ahsoka there. If you want my opinion, she's leaps and bounds above EVERYONE in this list.

You're suggesting "most famous" in terms of walking up to the average person on the street, showing them a picture, and asking them to identify who the character is? IMO it wouldn't even be close.

 

probably one of the OT characters, I went with Lobot

I suppose most random people also would know Sebulba

 

Darth vader is the most famous of all characters, Ahsoka Tano is famous of all the named characters here.

 

Can you explain to me how that remark alone isn't baiting, Todd? It's like every time I make a comment about Ahsoka I get held under the microscope.

 

it’s not bait because not everyone secretly hates Ahsoka or something

 

But why does it have to be put like, "every member here and their mothers knows you think Ahsoka is the greatest thing ever"? Is that something you'd say to a Fett fan with that in their name?

"Just because you like Ahsoka doesn't mean that everyone thinks she's the most popular character". See? That was nice.

 

Very interesting poll. Anyone who has watched Clone Wars and Rebels and a lot of the those who have watched the second season of the Mandalorian will be able to name Ahsoka. The issue is that I don't know how this number compares to people who have watched the movies (do we have any reliable stats?). If the number of movie viewers is much bigger that the first category, then perhaps Sebulba, Cassian Andor, Qi'ra and Maz Kanata would be also strong contenders. Once the Ahsoka series debuts, the answer will be clear.

Please note that the OP specifically asked for name recognition. This automatically rules out characters such as Bib Fortuna, Lobot or Yaddle, who are never named in film (Bib Fortuna is named on screen only in TBoBF).

 

Even the special editions of the OT didn't name Lobot and Bib Fortuna?

 

I think they have been named only in the credits, but I might be wrong.

 

Outside of Ahsoka Tano, there is Qira and Andor. Andor will quite popular once his very own show starts. Thrawn is quite popular.

 

Oh I thought that's what you were referring to being named in the film. I mean no one actually calls out to them by their names, but I'd assume they're still listed.

 

If we're thinking about which characters are most recognizable in general, then, very hard to say, it's an interesting slate. A few years ago I'd say Bib Fortuna, because he was one of the more memorable creatures from the OT. But nowadays I think it's possible that Ahsoka might be more recognizable to a random sample group.

Maz and Phasma were fairly high-profile as well, but if feels like the ST has faded from public memory pretty fast, at least much faster than OT or PT.

 

Yes, sorry for the misunderstanding. I meant that they are not named in any actual scenes, because only in-story naming would lead to widespread name recognition. For instance, Sebulba, while a minor character, should be quite recognizable as his name was pronounced multiple times during the Tatooine sequences (at least twice by each of Anakin and Watto and several times by the announcer).

 

The name recognition aspect gets complicated once you start thinking about characters like Din Djarin, who is hugely recognisable but has a relatively obscure name.

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I chose not to include characters like Ackbar or Greedo because they seemed like they'd be obvious frontrunners, despite being quite minor film characters in comparison to say, Cassian. Being a minor player in a classic film scene counts for a lot.

 

Jyn as the lead character in a feature film, especially among the most popular ones of the Disney era, should definitely be placed very high. Ackbar and Greedo are known essentially because of memes and the who shot first debate, respectively.