'Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker' Deleted Scene Featured An Alien Spider On A Giant Baby's Head
Based on various reports – and the official novelization – it's clear that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker underwent some big changes before it ever hit the big screen. One such change was the removal of a sequence where Kylo Ren visits a creature to learn the location of Darth Vader's Sith wayfinder. According to Star Wars creature designer Neal Scanlan, the creature – dubbed The Eye of Webbish Bog – was actually built, and the scene was shot.
In The Rise of Skywalker novelization, Kylo Ren visits an oracle-type character called The Eye of Webbish Bog – which is certainly a mouthful of a character name – to gather some info. The spider-like being was actually built, and can be seen in this behind-the-scenes pic:
While interviewing Star Wars creature designer Neal Scanlan for /Film, Adam Frazier inquired about the creature, and learned that the scene in question was indeed shot.
"We did exactly that," said Scanlan. "It was concept designer Jake Lunt Davies who conceived the character. In many ways, The Eye of Webbish Bog was similar in J.J.'s mind, I think, to Babu Frik in that they had important information that would guide the characters on their journey. Jake did this drawing and J.J. latched onto it, loved it, and said, 'Well, we have to make this happen.' So we did. We built this full-size sort of giant baby head that sits in water, and built an animatronic spider-like character that sits on top, which was performed through slots in the giant baby's head."
A spider-like creature that sits on top of a giant baby head sounds wild, and I really wish it had made it into the movie. At the very least it would've been memorable. At the very least it would've been nice to include the deleted scene on the Blu-ray release, since Scanlan does say that "the whole sequence was shot. Absolutely. It does exist as footage but, unfortunately, there just wasn't enough time in the movie." Sadly, it's not included anywhere.
"It was a very fun sequence to do, and one of those ones that I would say, had it been in the film, I would have said that it was one of the things that stuck out to me from all of the films," Scanlan added.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now available on digital, and arrives on Blu-ray March 31.