New Star Wars Alien is Based on Winston Churchill

If you come away from seeing Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story thinking that some of [...]

By Jay Jayson

If you come away from seeing Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story thinking that some of the alien creatures in the background resembled Bela Lugosi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, and Peter Lorre, there's a good reason for that. The creature designers like to use famous people as reference in order to ground their aliens and ideas.

An example of this can be found in the "Story" featurette (video above) that was released on Thursday. It included snippet of behind-the-scenes footage with Diego Luna (who portrays Captain Cassian Andor) smiling and laughing next to a new Mon Calamari named Admiral Raddus. Though he is from the same alien race as Admiral "It's a trap!" Ackbar, you'll notice Raddus has deeper jowles and droopier side-mounted eyes. His look was inspired by Winston Churchill (a.k.a. The British Bulldog), the legendary Prime Minster of the United Kingdom during World War II.

"We always tried to find a real world example of who these creatures may be, and in this case we used Churchill," Neal Scanlan, creature effects supervisor for the Star Wars franchise, told EW. "Admiral Raddus is a very strong figure. We would use [Churchill] not only as visual reference for his physical features, but also when it came to performing him and expressing him through the actor."

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From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Forest Whitaker. Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur and Simon Emanuel are producing, with John Knoll and Jason McGatlin serving as executive producers.

READ MORE: Does Jyn Erso Have a Major Star Wars Artifact in Rogue One? | Alan Tudyk Warns New Star Wars Droid K-2SO Could Be A Danger | Before K-2SO: A History of Star Wars' Most Killer Droids| Review: Incredible Star Wars Fan Film Hoshino Explores Nature of the Force with Innovation | It Was Donnie Yen's Idea for his Rogue One Character to Be Blind | Star Wars Rebels: Thrawn Returns in Iron Squadron Preview

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in U.S. theaters on December 16, 2016.

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