‘The Last Jedi’ Had More Creatures Than Any Other Star Wars Movie

With every new chapter of the Star Wars saga, along with it comes a variety of fantastic creatures. With The Last Jedi, audiences fell in love with its porgs, vupltices and fathiers, as they each continue the traditions of the original films’ otherworldly beings. Surprisingly, creature designer Neal Scanlan revealed this film had more creatures in it than any other Star Wars film.

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

Along with creating that many practical creatures comes the pressures of living up to an audience’s expectations, with Scanlan having been relieved that the internet became enamored with porgs early on.

“I’m so relieved that people have responded mostly positive to the porgs,” Scanlan admitted. “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.”

The designer also revealed that, despite his involvement in the project, he didn’t always know the names of the creatures he helped create.

“We work absolutely during the production process with codes for secrecy,” Scanlan admitted. “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 around these creations is so strong, in fact, that Scanlan was unaware of BB-8’s real moniker.

“BB-8, for instance, started out as Snow Girl or Globe at one time – there were four or five names for BB-8,” Scanlan pointed 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.”

You can see all these creations in The Last Jedi, in theaters now.

[H/T Endor Express]