VOTD: 'Star Wars' Explores The 42-Year Evolution Of Stormtroopers So Far

Until Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the sci-fi soldiers known as Stormtroopers were just faceless bad guys with terrible aim who loved talking about different models of ships, calling for back-up, and generally getting their ass kicked. Then FN-2187 came along and put some humanity behind the white armor and helmets. But it's been a long road to reach that point, and a new video from Lucasfilm explores the evolution of Stormtroopers in Star Wars: A New Hope, from all the way back to their origins in 1977 to the new versions appearing in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Check it out below.

J.J. Abrams kicks off this video by saying, "You cannot make a Star Wars movie without Stormtroopers." That's true for the most part, as the soldiers have constantly appeared and evolved since the beginning of Star Wars. Stormtroopers became Snowtroopers and Scout Troopers in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. But Stormtroopers haven't always been in every Star Wars movie.

When we went back to the beginning of the Skywalker saga with The Phantom Menace, battle droids replaced Stormtroopers. So I guess J.J. Abrams is wrong. Attack of the Clones fixed that problem by introducing the Republic's clone army, and thankfully this video doesn't ignore how they evolved throughout Clone Wars. In fact, I guess we're kind of wrong for saying that Finn was the first to bring humanity to Stormtroopers. Because even though the Clone Troopers are all the same, each of them develops their own personality.

Finally, when Star Wars returned with The Force Awakens, we got new iterations of the classic Stormtroopers, including new versions of Snowtroopers, and the addition of Flametroopers, and one superior trooper by the name of Captain Phasma.

Now when The Rise of Skywalker comes along, we'll be getting some of the most drastically different Stormtroopers yet. Not only are there the red Sith Troopers making their debut, but as the recent clip from the movie showed, there are Stormtroopers that fly now. They're called Jet Troopers, but we're not sure that'll make them any more deadly.