Star Wars: Go Behind the Scenes of the Battle of Crait in New ‘The Last Jedi’ Featurette

The latest film in the Star Wars saga was packed with amazing visual sequences that blended the CG of the prequels with the practical effects of the original trilogy. Now Lucasfilm is starting to show fans how it all came together.

A new clip from the special features for Star Wars: The Last Jedi reveals how the crew brought the planet Crait to life. Check it out in the video above!

The video, called “Showdown on Crait,” features visual effects supervisor Chris Corbould revealing how they achieved the practical effects of the epic final battle’s explosions, where the crimson-colored salts would explode through the white surface. Corbould says they made many different attempts before director Rian Johnson was finally satisfied with how they appeared.

“And then, of course, came the challenge of ‘What’s that red stuff? What’s it going to look like and how are we going to do it?’” said producer Ram Bergman.

The team said they tried red rubber, red ice, and red snow, but finally settled on finely shredded paper died red.

They then built the set at Pinewood Studios in London where many of the shots from the Battle of Crait were filmed, with the skyline and distant shots being filled in with computer generated imagery.

Johnson himself has spoken about his reason for employing such distinct imagery while appearing on the /Filmcast.

“I wanted to do a big battle and communicate the violence of it, but you don’t show blood in Star Wars movies, these are PG-13 movies,” said Johnson. “So the initial thing was to have a movie where the landscape itself could graphically communicate the violence of this battle.

“Also the notion that the landscape could evolve during the course of the battle, the idea at the beginning it’s white and pristine and it gets scarred and increasingly red. And when the cannon goes, it blows it all away so it just becomes a red hellscape. And as Luke comes back to the legend he needs to be and [starts] healing the world, the salt starts snowing down so it’s back to being pristine.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be available on Digital HD on Tuesday, March 13th, followed by its release to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 27th.