'Last Jedi' Creature Details Reveal The Porgs Are Related To Another 'Star Wars' Alien
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is getting closer and closer, kids. And with it comes a whole new bestiary of alien creatures for fans to obsess over. First and foremost: PORGS! The adorable bird-like creatures that shriek their heads off have already become iconic and the dang movie isn't even out yet. In a new interview, Star Wars creature effects creator Neal Scanlan reveals some The Last Jedi creature details, including new info on porgs.
Be it the rancor or Sy Snootles, everyone has their own favorite Star Wars creature. And when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters in December, even more special effects beasts will find their way into the hearts of fans. Of course, the film's main new creature attractions are the porgs, puffin-like creatures who became social media darlings after their reveal in the latest trailer. In fact, porgs have become so prematurely popular that many might already be sick of them. Not me, though! More porgs, I say!
In a new interview with Empire (via Jedi News), Star Wars creature effects creator Neal Scanlan dished on porgs and more creations, including BB-8, those intriguing crystal foxes we saw in the last trailer, and BB-8's evil twin BB-9E. In the interview, Scanlan reveals that the Porgs are related in some way to the creatures known as the Caretakers – those nun-like aliens that live on Ahch-To and look like this:
"With Ahch-To, it felt like the only creatures that would ever exist on this island were those indigenous to it, where very few other species and DNA would have reached them," Scanlan says. "So they're an extrapolation from the porgs and have bird-like feet, but they're a further developed race." I honestly don't know how I feel about this – it kind of dilutes the Porg Brand, if you ask me. Let porgs just be porgs!
Speaking of porgs, Scanlan also confirmed that the now-famous trailer porg – the one we see in the Millennium Flacon cockpit roaring alongside Chewbacca – is indeed Chewie's new best friend, and that "that porg in particular shows some very Wookiee traits in the way he's colored; his patterning is very similar to Chewie's." I demand a Star Wars anthology spin-off buddy comedy about Chewie and this porg, immediately. And I swear, if The Last Jedi injures or kills that porg in some way, there will be hell to pay.
Later in the interview, Scanlan gives us details on those mysterious ice foxes glimpsed in the most recent Last Jedi trailer. Turns out they're not ice at all, but rather made of crystals. "The theory is they've fed off this planet for so long that their fur has become crystalline. They've taken on the very surface of the planet they live on," says Scanlan. Makes sense, because I've eaten so much pizza in my life I, too, am now more pizza than human.
The best tidbit Scanlan reveals is that at one point, everyone's favorite new droid BB-8 actually puts on a disguise to hide from the devil BB-8 clone, BB-9E:
"There was this one scene in particular where BB-8 is in disguise and has to try and make his way without being recognized...It just seemed so threatening that his doppelgänger would be the very one that may or may not discover him."
Admit it: you can't wait to see the aforementioned scene where BB-8 is in disguise. I really hope this means he puts on a fake mustache, because that would be amazing.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens December 15, 2017.