No matter how divisive of a film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may become on audiences, there’s one aspect of the franchise that will always bring us together: its cute alien creatures. Baby Yoda continues to dominate the internet each week with every new adorable appearance in The Mandalorian. The Last Jedi’s Porgs became so popular back in 2017 that the stars got completely sick of talking about them! John Boyega throws out an f-bomb at the mention of Porgs.
It’s tough not to be jealous, I’m sure, but they can’t help stealing the Star Wars spotlight! The alien creatures in the franchise have always been especially delightful elements of the movies, and it certainly helps on with merchandising. As you can imagine, since Star Wars has been around for over 40 years, there’s a science of sorts to creating a great alien. Check out what Star Wars creative supervisor, Neal Scanlan, has to say about them:
We're hoping that you feel you could look out your window and see a Porg in your tree and not scream and think an alien arrived. Instead, it would be sort of OK that it sat in the tree.
How interesting! The way the creatives behind the viral creatures in Star Wars make them believable is to imagine if you’d be put off by seeing them in the real world. If you’d jump five feet after seeing a Porg, then it’s too strange to be in Star Wars. But since they are derived from puffins, pugs and seals, then it wouldn’t be completely strange to think up them existing somewhere in the universe.
Neal Scanlan has been overseeing the creation of Star Wars aliens since The Force Awakens. In his recent interview with CNN, he explained how implementing this rule to what they think up helps make them more engaging to an audience. He continued with this point:
It should have a touch of humor about it. This is also true in the way we perform the characters because we don't only try to make them feel totally real. If they take themselves too seriously, it doesn't work.
It’s true! Star Wars films often are filled with drama, but it’s the quick appearance of characters like these that bring down some of the tension and loosen the audience up. This effect on the audience is apparently purposeful too! I mean, if Porgs were meant to do anything other than make us smile, what is even the point?
These cute aliens in the Star Wars mythos are some of the most iconic aspects of the universe and why the franchise is so popular. They always seem to surprise though! For example, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently said that Baby Yoda’s fame ended up being “beyond my expectations by a wide margin.”
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker started off the weekend with $40 million in Thursday night preview screenings and it’s on track to cross the $100 million mark during its opening weekend.
See The Rise of Skywalker in theaters now, and if you have already, check out the biggest WTF moments in the film.
