'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Featurette Shows Rejected Porg Designs

Star Wars fans caught their first glimpses of The Last Jedi's porgs last summer at the D23 Expo in a behind-the-scenes reel, immediately igniting interest in the adorable creatures. In the months that followed, fans seemingly couldn't get enough of these residents of Ahch-To, with the critters dominating much of the social media chatter about the film. A new featurette coming to The Last Jedi's Blu-ray release depicts how the porgs came to exist, which also includes a look at the early incarnations of the animals.

"The design phase lasted two or three weeks where we just generated a multitude of different looks," designer Jake Lunt Davies detailed of the process.

He continued, "It's just an egg. With wings. And eyes at the very top. And it's got this little curve here and this sad, little mouth. The one that [writer/director] Rian [Johnson] took to was something very, very simple."

While the porgs are cute and cuddly, designer Neal Scanlan recently admitted that bringing them to life was much more intimidating than he had expected.

"Doing the porgs, actually, was terrifying, because you have a fear that if you get it wrong, all the fans are going to hate you forever, quite frankly," Scanlan revealed to Entertainment Tonight. "It was great...as soon as we heard that there was a warm reaction to them. It's great. They are incredibly lovable. I don't mean that because it has anything to do with me, they just come across in the film [that way]."

Despite the love the creatures have received in the months since their debut, Scanlan has warmer feelings for another one of the film's creatures.

"I still like, what I call, the 'sea sow' [thala-sirens]. I like that scene just because I think it's a great moment in the film," Scanlan confessed. "With Luke and with Rey and the whole thing. We shot that in Ireland, we shot that in a real location. I have lots of fond memories of shooting that sequence so when I see it in the film, somehow, I don't know...it brings back all those memories."

You can learn more about how the film came to life when The Last Jedi lands on Blu-ray on March 27th.

Which was your favorite creature in The Last Jedi? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T YouTube, Entertainment Tonight]