A Since 1977, Star Wars has wowed fans with its diverse locales, deep lore, and unique alien creatures. With each new Star Wars project, more and more exotic beings are added to the vast encyclopedia of fantastical lifeforms.
Th Star Wars sequel trilogy proved no exception to this tradition, as each alien and robot design felt fresh yet familiar. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens introduced the tentacled Rathtars, which ravaged Han Solo's (Harrison Ford) freighter. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story saw the Bor Gullet, a purple-skinned Mairan, invade the mind of the Imperial pilot defector, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed). Star Wars: Episode IX - Rise of Skywalker gave fans a new favorite alien in Babu Frik, a diminutive Anzellan on the planet Kijimi.
In an interview with Inverse, special effects artist and supervising animatronic designer Gustav Hoegen explains that, when he worked on the more recent Star Wars productions, he was given quite a bit of creative freedom when deg creatures. Asked if movie designs are generally set in stone before coming to his team to create, he says different productions offer different opportunities, adding that Star Wars allowed a lot of room for creativity. Read what the Hoegen said below:
On Star Wars movies... they would just present you with a script and leave it to us what creatures would inhabit that story. You’d have a design team just pumping out design after design to plant a seed in the director’s mind. And he would pick the ones he liked and leave it to us to build it.
In general, a design team is given a description of the creature as set forth by the writer and the director of the film. The team would then create multiple designs and would have the director choose the one that matched their vision for the project. According to Hoegen, Star Wars offered a great opportunity to design characters from scratch, giving the teams complete freedom to flex their creativity.
One of the most iconic scenes in the original Star Wars film has Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi enter the rundown cantina in the city of Mos Eisley on the desert planet of Tatooine, which was filled with a wide array of inhuman beings. Since that scene, Star Wars has aimed to outdo itself in subsequent films, evidenced by such locations as Jabba's seedy throne room in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, the diverse city of Jedha in Rogue One, and the colorful celebration on the planet Pasaana in Rise of Skywalker. With Hoegen working as the supervising animatronic designer on the Andor television series, Star Wars will get another opportunity to add to its expansive library of imaginative creatures.
Source: Inverse
