Star Wars Battlefront Yoda Kylo Ren Chewbacca
Star Wars heroes and villains Yoda, Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. LucasFilm

This week sees the release of EA's highly-anticipated Star Wars Battlefront, a game that casts players as the everyday soldiers fighting the war between the Empire and the Rebellion. It also casts them as the iconic heroes and villains of the original trilogy, who can offer an edge in battle.

More heroes and villains will be added to the game in upcoming expansions and updates, as EA announced while detailing the game's season pass. Sadly however, only four will be released in the near future – a paltry number despite the wealth of possible characters that could be included. Like these ones...

Chewbacca

Vanilla Battlefront has three heroes and three villains – Luke, Leia, Han, Vader, Boba Fett and the Emperor. There's a big omission there, likely born out of a desire to keep things balanced and the fact there's a distinct lack of original trilogy villains to draw from.

Chewbacca is a big miss however, so he's undoubtedly the odds-on favourite to be added to the game in the future. His trusted bowcaster is already the final unlockable weapon, in case you needed any further convincing that this will happen.

Lando Calrissian

The only man in the Star Wars universe to out-charm Han Solo, Lando is the second biggest absence from the initial release of Battlefront – and another shoe-in to turn up further down the line. Actor Billy Dee Williams, who portrayed him in the films, would likely be up for supplying the voice too, so there's really no excuse for developers DICE.

The Force Awakens crew

An expansion pack based on new movie The Force Awakens is bound to happen within the next year – it's too big a money-spinner for EA to miss out on. Should that happen, there are a lot of heroes and villains that could make it into the game.

There are heroes Finn and Rey of course, X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron and returning heroes Han Solo and Chewbacca (who looks as good as he did 30 years ago, so there wouldn't be much point in a modern version). On the villainous side of things there's broadsaber-wielding Kylo Ren and chrome-plated Stormtrooper commander Captain Phasma. Plenty of options.

Lando Calrissian Star Wars
Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian opposite Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back. LucasFilm

Grand Moff Tarkin

Tarkin is the arch-sneerer of A New Hope and the man Vader appears to take some orders from, before eventually perishing when the Death Star gets Skywalker'd. He doesn't exactly offer much to a game like this, but the prospect of playing as a video game version of Peter Cushing sounds amazing.

Obi Wan Kenobi

A video game version of Alec Guinness would be even more amazing though. As odd a sight as it would be to see the older Obi Wan bounding around Hoth or Endo, does anyone really care? Just having a blue lightsaber wrecking fools would make this a worthwhile pursuit for DICE.

Those other bounty hunters

Okay, so there aren't many villains left from the original trilogy who aren't Vader, Fett or Palpatine, but there are a handful of C-Z list characters who could be turned into playable characters if push comes to shove – and they all appear in the same scene in The Empire Strikes Back alongside Mr Fett.

I'm referring to the bounty hunters hired by the Empire to find Han Solo. They're never seen or heard of again – in the films anyway – but do certainly have their fans. There's Bossk the lizard man, IG-88 the lanky droid, 4-Lom the... whatever that is... and Dengar – who nobody wants to play as. Bossk is the most likely.

Yoda

Yoda is a tricky one. He's a fan-favourite character but only drew his tiny green lightsaber and started fighting in the prequel trilogy. While 13-year-old me remembers that moment fondly, would it sit well in the original trilogy setting of Battlefront? We suspect not. A Yoda-free game, Battlefront will remain.

Star Wars Battlefront is available to order for PS4, Xbox One and PC and will be released tomorrow (19 November).

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