Star Wars: The Acolyte’s Newest Character Has Surprising Legends Roots

Star Wars: The Acolyte introduced a new character that’s taking social media by storm this week. In the latest chapter of the Disney+ series, viewers met Hassan Taj’s Bazil. He’s a Tynnan, and that’s a fun Easter egg for longtime fans. The alien race was introduced back in Han Solo’s Revenge, a Legends novel by Brian Daley written in 1979. So, this isn’t some new type of creature developed exclusively for Star Wars: The Acolyte. Bazil is the Jedi team’s tracker while they try to find Kelnacca and save him from whatever’s been hunting the other members of the order over the course of this series. 

“Bazil was very sensory, so he would obviously smell and hear things probably better than using his eyesight,” creature creative supervisor Scanlan told StarWars.com. “The idea of having goggles was that he would then sort of go inwardly and become the tracker.” But, the creative team worked to make sure audiences wouldn’t just see a teddy bear on-screen. “We spoke about those kinds of things,” Scanlan revealed. “We thought about how we could include some of these things that were not only, you know, cute and lovable and adorable, but also showed signs of a bigger sort of character makeup. A character like this is much more engaging,”

Scanlan would continue, “What qualities are [fans of all ages] going to see in him that they would identify with? That will only work if they feel like there’s an element that they could give him a cuddle or that he’s friendly. You know, it’s an important part of, I think, the Star Wars world.”

Making Bazil Feel Like A Real Character

Bazil might be small. But, he’s absolutely crucial for the mission the Jedi find themselves on in Episode 4. People, some Jedi included, might feel the pull to infantilize the little guy. But, the alien is all business despite that fuzzy exterior. (This isn’t the Porgs or anything of the sort. Later in the interview with StarWars.com, Scanlan talks about how showrunner Leslie Headland took a lot of inspiration from Young Frankenstein for Bazil. Specifically, how Igor functions in that film. They share a similar profile in height. However, their personality shines through and really makes them stand as equals with the other members of the cast.

“It was one of the oddly inspiring things for me when I spoke to Leslye [Headland, the series creator,] about it.” Scanlan recalled when asked about coming up with the character’s stature and presence in the story. “We just felt that this could be a really useful tool for Bazil. He’s tiny, but [in camera you] shoot him in that kind of directorial style whereby his presence was equal, if not in some ways more commanding than those around him.”

So, of the creative team of The Acolyte, finding that balance between otherworldly and overly friendly was such a key part of development. Bazil is proudly in tradition with other Star Wars fan-favorite creatures in that regard. “A really effective design is one that you somehow feel you wouldn’t be so surprised if you were to open your garage door and the droid was there,” Scanlan mused. “You wouldn’t wake up one morning screaming if you saw a bird in a tree that was from Star Wars. You wouldn’t run a mile.”

Is Bazil one of your favorite Star Wars aliens in recent memory? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!