The Star Wars sequel trilogy was far from perfect, but one of the biggest problems was how it squandered the potential of some of its cast. Star Wars: The Force Awakens introduced several new characters to the franchise, and it did a fairly good job at beginning the arcs for some of them. Comparatively, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker drastically changed and concluded many of the main characters' stories. In some cases, the directors have been blamed for their poor choices, whereas in others Lucasfilm Disney have taken heat for taking away the directors' creative freedoms.
This doesn't necessarily mean the characters have been permanently wasted, of course. Lucasfilm has confirmed Daisy Ridley's Rey will be returning in a movie set 15 years after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, likely meaning other sequel era characters will return. Still, sadly some characters have been killed, meaning their story has really come to an end.e ended up suffering.
8 Finn 
John Boyega’s character is easily the most notable example of a wasted sequel character. Ever since The Force Awakens teased Finn wielding Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, many expected him to take a central role in the franchise. Later on, The Rise of Skywalker teased Finn’s Force-sensitivity, but ended up not exploring it any further. Finn was given one of the most interesting and compelling backstories of any sequel character, made more interesting when he chose to desert the First Order because of the darkness he saw. But for whatever reason, Finn’s potential as a Jedi was snubbed in favor of focusing on Rey and Kylo’s dyad in the Force.
In addition to never truly delivering on Finn’s Force potential, Disney also seemed to forget about following up on his character arc from the first film. Finn headlined most of the marketing material for The Force Awakens—yet he turned out to be a red herring to distract from Rey’s Force sensitivity. Then Star Wars: The Last Jedi gave Finn a good story by delving further into his character's struggles. To follow it up, The Rise of Skywalker didn't add anything to Finn’s character. Instead, the film demoted him to the role of a jester by giving him comical lines like “They fly now!” Hopefully Boyega will return alongside Ridley, giving Lucasfilm a chance to correct this mistake.
