While working on my early drafts of the prequel films, I've been thinking about how exactly to work in original characters, both in personality and exactly the role they play in the story. Its been hard because you need interesting figures who don't feel too reminiscent of those in the original trilogy and aren't so big that it makes no sense that they're not brought after the prequels.

I've had the idea for two major original non-human characters who round out the major cast (Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mother Skywalker, Bail Organa). One an alien, the other a droid. The first is still in the early planning stages. Thinking maybe female, maybe similar to Lucas' early concept for Han Solo (green scaled alien with gills), still debating.

The droid is a big more developed; he's not R2 or 3PO in terms of design or personality. Much more cynical, with a bit more noticeable bitterness. Its tricky because I don't want him to be Han Solo: Droid version, but neither do I want the main characters essentially paling around with Marvin the Paranoid Android. So I'm still trying to round them out.

I'd be interested to hear some of the concepts for your original characters; heroes, villains and everything in between.