Can Aliens only be main characters in the animated series?.... You did it in Guardians of the Galaxy, Disney, and that movie was great!

Yea, yea, non-human species, I know

There are two aliens in the core group of rogue one iirc and one droid. Chewie was pretty much a major character more so in The Force Awakens.

They're disguised as humans.

To be fair, as often as we see the team in Imperial uniforms it's pretty obvious that going undercover is a major part of the plan to get the...the plans.

Wouldn't work so hot with aliens.

They're disguised as humans.

You mean like these guys?

(Subtitle: Jocrassa Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen and her brood, the most horrifying aliens in Doctor Who who would routinely kill their victims, skin them and wear the resulting skin-suits as a disguise to pass amongst the humans)

See, there they are.

It does seem like it would draw a starker contrast with the puritanical empire types (that only recruit humans) to have the rebels be more of a motley GotG-type crew. Throw in a Twi'lek if you want mostly human. Heck even Han was teamed up with Chewie, Luke and Yoda was a fun combo too

I'll add that this trailer leaves me feeling pretty meh

Fair point, imperials are humans, but It would be fun to have aliens in the crew that did other things... maybe there are. That said, I miss alien protagonists in the other movies too. No biggie, I would just like to see it.

At the back of the ship where they deserve to be!!

I enjoyed how TFA presented aliens -- while understated, they really fit their surroundings. I do miss menageries like the cantina and Jabba's court, although the late-70s-early-80s were a different time for puppetry and monster-making.

As TFA was a diplomatic communique to fans, R1 looks like a grand experiment in Star Warsesque. Like, Empire with more noir.

Re: Robus' "meh," yeah, something hit me wrong about this, whereas the first trailer had me enthralled. Music was Zimmer-y, and I'm a Williams/Elfman zealot. Timing was off on cuts, though. Still, plenty more movie where it came from.

There are plenty of aliens, it seems like every main character is Human!

...Oh, right!

What gets me is the line in ANH "Many Bothans died". Haven't seen any Bothans in the previews yet.

"Many Bothans died," was said in Return of the Jedi, and they died to inform the Rebellion that the Emperor was on the second Death Star.

There is little need for us to see any Bothans in Rogue One.

Yeah it was, zoned out for a min.

If fewer aliens in leading roles is the price for not having another CGI-fest like the prequels, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

And to be fair audiences relate better to Humans than they do to aliens. I don't think we will see many Star Wars movies with a main character as the alien protagonist. Especially if they the humans will be the villains. It may be too hard for us as an audience to relate / sympathize to the characters as they are kicking some human butt with their alien feet. The best I think we will ever see is the mentor, enemy, side-kick playing an alien role.

The movie Avatar disagrees with your assessment...

Also, acting. While animatronics and Motion capture can do amazing things, to make an actual alien, that can show can show varying emotions in a relatable way is difficult. Humans often mistake a dog wagging a tail as happiness, but it can also be anxiety. Smiling in humans with teeth showing can be happjness. Many animals showing teeth is a sign of agression. When we show a human in a film, visually, you can get clues about them and their emotion being conveyed by how the move and visually look.

The point is, that an actual alien, not a green human or human with head ridges is HARD to do. To make them believable alien, they would have to have different customs, mannerisms, and ways to show emotion and convey visual cues. This requires way more nuance than Star Wars needs. They need a cool fish guy to say "It's a trap!".

Star Trek does this as well, the alien races represent aspects of human culture the writers wish to convey on screen. Star Trek The Next Generation had a brilliant episode (Darmok) devoted to

An alien race, albeit humanoid, that communicated a different way. This was the focus for the entire episode, and they had 45 minutes devoted to this, something a movie cannot.

While the aliens are fun, to the mass market having a wookie movie with no humans, or subtitles would likely fail. Try watching the first all wookie bit of the star wars holiday special. While very bad, it shows that an alien centric cast may not work.

But, a few smatterings of alien actors does help make the background universe feel larger. But these films are human stories for a human audience. Relating to the characters is important.

So, no Monkey Guy shooting an M-60 out the side of an aircraft and then laughing about it as he shoots his target?

Aww, man — I was so looking forward to that….

Hellboy and Abe Sapien were relatable, So were Bilbo and the dwarfs, Groot and Rocket, Spock, the Ninja Turtles, Frankenstein's monster, even King Kong...

And yea, Chewie, R2 and 3pO...

Hellboy and Abe Sapien were relatable, So were Bilbo and the dwarfs, Groot and Rocket, Spock, the Ninja Turtles, Frankenstein's monster, even King Kong...

And yea, Chewie, R2 and 3pO...

And yet nearly every single one of them was humanoid.

How many aliens in Star Wars and Star Trek that characters interact with look like this:

You could say Pilot from Farscape, but that is one of the Few examples off the top of my head. All those examples also have human facial features. They are anthropomorphized. King Kong, maybe not as much, but I would like to think most people recognize apes (and all animals) as thinking feeling creatures, but what happens to Kong in the end? To most he is just an animal, a curiosity or at best a pet.

Yes, a story can focus on the relatable nature of aliens, but that is often the focus of the film. Chewbacca is a MINOR charactor. Yes, he is loved, but the movies dont tell us much about him. As much as the fiction tells us Han and Chewie are partners, what we see in the films is Chewie is more of an loyal pet - or as per the Force Awakens, a revenge bound lifemate. ;P

But we have had time and decades of books to get to know Chewie. My point is an alien charcter and I mean truly alien, will likely not be a main character, except in a hard core sci-fi story, not an action romp like the Star Wars films. This is not a bad thing, but it is something to realize. RPG's let us expand on this concept - not everyone wants to. You have to appeal to the most people for the films, and as far as I know, nearly EVERY fan of Star Wars is HUMAN.

The absolute majority of star wars aliens aren't that alien. They are like different cultures, like elfs and dwarfs in fantasy. This is science fantasy and space opera after all, not hard scifi or future realism of any kind.

Humanoids would be more than fine.

I actually like the new characters alot! They are well written and casted. Very enjoyable. .. I would just like more aliens. But no biggie.

And as I have a bachelor in animation I took courses in making inanimate objects relatable, from lamps to pillows.

I also had a lot about story and character development. And Chewie can be interpreted as one of the main protagonists, even if the story doesn't teach us very much of his backstory. Simple can be good, as long as it is clear and focused, and we absolutely got Chewie. Did we learn that much more about Han in the movies? I do not need a focus character, but a few aliens that is part of the crew would be nice. In Guardians it was awesome and I would like (not need) it in Star Wars too

As the main freak show advocate here, I can't avoid giving my 2 cts. by proclaiming that we could do with more aliens in important roles. I wouldn't do a movie with all major roles written as hutts, but a team as in Rogue One could have included Zabrak or Twi'lek easily and maybe a weirder species like a Mon Cal or something. Imho Yoda, Ackbar etc. have shown that a well designed species/model and a well written character can be relatable (if that is even a word).

And to be fair audiences relate better to Humans than they do to aliens.

Counterpoint:

(Subtitle: Daleks and Vorlons - the two most alien, non human aliens I can think of. And both are popular)

And to be fair audiences relate better to Humans than they do to aliens.

Counterpoint:

(Subtitle: Daleks and Vorlons - the two most alien, non human aliens I can think of. And both are popular)

I like both, and in certain degree agree with you, but I have to note that those are from tv series, in which more time can be used to make those aliens more relatable. In Babylon 5 most of the first season was building a face for main characters. That's around 16 hours of material just off build up. And I think Vorlons became popular later, and partially because of them being almost omnipotent. And Daleks. At total that's more than 30 years of buildup for their current status (ok, AFAIK Daleks where popular from the beginning.) But those are IMO both more supporting cast characters than main characters. Also, I think that more familiar main cast makes it easier for film watcher to concentrate on plot and what's happening, when (s)he doesn't have to concentrate on alien features of alien main cast.

Personally I'd love to see more aliens in larger roles in star wars and all scifi movies. And I mean real aliens, not just Trekkish skin condition of week aliens. One reason I think why there are not many is that I feel that it's harder to write a good alien than good human character, because good alien needs more thinking than human so that it isn't just re-skinned human.