Plus, creature & droid FX creative supervisor Neal Scanlan shares his insights on the making of a Wookiee Jedi and the creation of Osha’s droid pal, Pip.
Since the moment The Acolyte took us inside the Ueda noodle shop in the very first scene, the work of the series’ creature shop has been on full display. Panning over the chattering diners, you may glimpse a diminutive alien slurping at a bowl of noodles and other species that would feel just as at-home in the Mos Eisley cantina. Soon, the otherworldly denizens of the galaxy will take a more prominent role when the story returns to Khofar. Here, the Jedi must employ the Tynnan tracker Bazil in their search for the Wookiee Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) deep in the jungle.
Behind the scenes, both tracker and target are the work of creature & droid FX creative supervisor Neal Scanlan and his team, a talented crew of designers, modelers, and fabricators who bring fantastical aliens, creatures, and droids to life in the Star Wars galaxy. The key, however, is creating something that’s just on the verge of our own reality. “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,” says Scanlan, whose crew was behind such designs as BB-8 and the porgs. “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.”
