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‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ had More Creatures Than any ‘Star Wars’ Movie

Perhaps it is the former Vet Tech in me, but if there is one thing I look forward to in every single movie that I watch it is the mystery of what animals I am going to see in the film. Then, I start praying to the Gods of film that said creatures will actually make it through the movie and live happily ever after just like the couples do.

One movie saga that brings us new and fantastic creatures with every chapter, is Star Wars. Some of the creatures they come up with are just brilliant, and The Last Jedi was no exception. We fell in love with the fathiers, vupltices and the porgs as we continued to find ourselves fascinated with these other wordly beings.

A fun fact for everyone, creature designer Neal Scanlan revealed that The Last Jedi had more creatures in it than any other  Star Wars film in a recent interview with Endor Express:

“I do know is that there are more aliens, creatures, and droids produced for this movie than in any other Star Wars film. We topped nearly 180 to 200 individual things.”

One creature that Scanlan was particularly pleased about, was the porgs. The feathery creatures found themselves burrowing deep into our hearts before the movie was even released:

“I’m so relieved that people have responded mostly positive to the porgs. People have seemed to engage with the crystal fox. The fathiers, you know, there are all the characters on Canto Bight, which is essentially, you know, the Monte Carlo of this world, and there is a lot more you haven’t seen yet. There are favorites that I cannot tell you about yet.”

Image result for star wars crystal fox

Although he was the designer and the man behind the magic in bringing these creatures to life, he didn’t always know what the creatures he was creating were going to be called:

“We work absolutely during the production process with codes for secrecy. We then often have a retrospective phone call with [Lucasfilm Story Group member] Pablo [Hidalgo] and the guys and he’ll ask, ‘What were you thinking about when you designed this character?’ and I’ll maybe say that this one is kind of like the actor John Candy, he’s sweet at heart but he’s this, this, and that, and we have a bit of fun playing with ideas and that’s when we get to hear what their real names are.”

The secrecy was so real, he didn’t even know what BB-8 was going to be called at first, one of the biggest and most impactful creatures in the movie:

“BB-8, for instance, started out as Snow Girl or Globe at one time – there were four or five names for BB-8 out. BB-8 didn’t come until VERY, very late, and that’s probably for very good reasons as he’s such an important character.”

 

Which creatures were your favorite?

 

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