"Star Wars" is filled with memorable side characters, weird little guys who populate the galaxy and make it feel like a massive, lived-in place, where everyone has a story to tell.

Take the fan-favorite pirate Hondo Ohnaka. He was first introduced in "The Clone Wars," and named after "Godzilla" director Ishiro Honda and actor Seiji Onaka. Hondo was something the movies had alluded to but not actually shown — a pirate scoundrel. Sure, we'd seen parts of that lifestyle, like with Lando and Boba Fett, but the latter had barely any lines or anything to do and the former didn't do much piracy. Hondo, on the other hand, was introduced as a resourceful scum, a guy willing to work with anyone on any side as long as there was profit. At one point he kidnapped Count Dooku (which not even the Republic managed to do), as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker,...