Updated! Did Darth Vader #11 Just Give Us Our First Glimpse of a Bothan in the Official Star Wars Canon?
They’ve been a staple alien species in the Legends continuity and have been mentioned multiple times in canon stories, but we have never actually seen a legitimate image of a Bothan in the official Star Wars canon. Comic book artist Giuseppe Camuncoli (The Amazing Spider-Man) may have just given us our first look at a Bothan (one of those guys best known for their many deaths in bringing important information to the Rebel Alliance) in Darth Vader #11 yesterday, and I completely missed it in my review.
I’ve been reading Star Wars comics for a long time now (since the Dark Horse days), so sometimes things like this pass me by. I remembered seeing the character in the comic and thinking “Oh look, a Bothan…” but it didn’t dawn on me that this was the first appearance of the species in a visual medium in the Star Wars canon. Special thanks to Steve McMahan from “The Alliance of Star Wars Fanatics” Facebook group for bringing this to our attention.
Here’s an enlarged view…
We are still waiting for official confirmation that the character in question here is indeed a Bothan (but, c’mon – that’s obviously a Bothan), and we will update you on that when we hear something. While there’s nothing really groundbreaking about this image, as this guy looks pretty much exactly how Bothans have always looked in the Star Wars expanded universe (now Legends), it’s certainly a notable first. Maybe one day we’ll finally get our first official glimpse of the ever elusive Mara Jade as well…Pipe dream? Maybe, but I can’t wait to see what old EU characters will show up next.
Update!
We just received a response via Twitter about this alien, and apparently, it’s not a Bothan (or at least they are just not ready to commit to the official look yet)…
Nah. Just he’s a Dogfacealienmanian.
— Matt Martin (@missingwords) February 15, 2018
Take Matt’s words however you wish. To me, it sounds like the folks at LFL are just not ready yet to commit to this appearance as the official representation of the Bothan species. It seems that Camuncoli just took some liberties with what type of aliens he wanted to draw (though he clearly chose to depict an EU Bothan even if it’s not the official canon version). So, I guess we’ll have to wait for Rogue One: The Second Chapter to come out. Then, maybe we’ll finally get to see the Bothans in all their Death Star plan-stealing glory. 😉
Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.
Woooah!!! I always wanted to see them represented!! I even suggested sometimes to Lucasfilm the idea of a novel, or comic, or other media centered on the Bothan Spynet. We got some quotes about them, but they are never seen. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25787bbd6bc8908e88325064f0573237f23196e542a22a0bffacff20cfd999b7.png
I’ve seen them presented like this image over the years in other Star Wars media. I don’t see how this is a big revelation.
Yeah. I always thought from my years of playing ‘Star Wars Galaxies’ (RIP) that they were depicted accurately in that. SWG is by the way the only computer game I ever really (admit to having) enjoyed.
Dude, trigger warning before bringing up Galaxies!!! I miss that game.
Well there are at least 2 decent emulators- a pre CU one (but it has no space and not many players) and a NGE emulator which is basically what the game looked like on close down in 2011. I tried to get into them both but starting over is a big time sinkhole and if you don’t know people who are already on it, it’s kinda dull. Still nice to load up every now and then and zoom over Tatooine trying to find a spot to put a house down. Damn that place got crowded after sky walker left…
You never played The Witcher 3, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask, Half-Life 2, or Far Cry 3 then.
I’m not a big video gamer, but I’m working through Breath of the Wild with my 12-year old. Holy hell, it’s amazing.
No none of them. Not really a games type person in the last 5+ years.
I was talking about the New Canon. I know the Legends imagery.
How is this supposed to be news? Bothans have been represented like this previously in other SW media. In fact, I remember going all the way back to TPM era (maybe even earlier) Bothans looking like this.
There’s never been, even in Legends canon, one single Bothan anatomy. They’ve been represented in various ways, such as with a long snout, human-looking with fur, fur faced, and somewhere in between all of those. If Lucasfilm is looking to get the Bothans into new canon then we’re going to have a single unified look, rather than multiple artistic interpretations of what the race would look like.
All I’ve ever seen Bothans represented was as this way, and at several times over the years. I’ve never known them to look any other way. Then again, I haven’t seen everything out there, so it could very well be the case, as you say, that Bothans have been represented differently by different sources.
I did say it wasn’t groundbreaking. 🙂 But it seemed to be the first representation in a canon story. But alas, just another dog-faced alien. Remember this guy?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25dfa22cacb1c2b6c2361c3a2ef08d19a5ec94deb84a243ea2af5313a01ee777.jpg
I absolutely loved TLJ, but the art direction for the aliens in that film was just… not Star Wars.
In my mind-canon Bothan’s never looked like that, I think werewolf man is a little too scary.
How many Bothans died to bring us that drawing?
Just two. It was an easy mission.
Actually, this just makes me look for forward to Rogue Two, the sequel to the best Disney Star Wars film so far.
Tagline: This is Rogue Two. I found them. Repeat, I found them.
Hahahahaha!!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2252c36116bf02de0d1190e001080c05635fc228bebd28ad29072ec6c3d113e1.jpg
Something like this would be cool. Not all of them would necessarily have such a prominent jawline and you would have to add fur an beards. But the overall shape is pretty cool I think
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69bcd8ba5673444f4a384eb2077ba2665250dde5b8235076b0f7e19a833c025b.jpg
Easy! Next. I don’t know why the guys at ILM act like this is so hard! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13efb3807fea0b12081f6a5e5dc644f850d9e43559bfab93080833d8e69fd9f9.jpg
Damn you’re good. The concept art department will contact you shortly 🙂
It was really just one guy who died to bring information about the second Death Star. His name was Manny Bothans, full name Emmanuel Hernando Bothans.
In case you don’t already have children I’m pretty sure your wife just got pregnant when you wrote this comment. It’s a universal law that nobody can tell a dad joke like this who isn’t a father.
hahaha
I thought we all agreed that Bothans wasn’t a species. Its a man. Manny Bothans.
Lol
General Manny Bothans, hero of the Battle of Taanab, sacrificed himself in order to secure the (second) Death Star plans.
R.I.P Manny Bothans. We will never forget you.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ca92951115bbb7bd0f5baec7f25cf4f0742c83cce4cf3c25e7b9de6222c2a9e.jpg
They need to give us a Bothan. That is almost exactly what an EU Bothan looked like. Just say it’s a Bothan. Nobody would be mad.
It’s hard to pretend to be excited to see a Bothan when we have seen them before in Legends.
One of the many things wrong with the Sequel films is that they did not give Luke a family…. and I don’t mean Rey. I always thought Luke’s victory in RotJ showed the importance of family, love and children. Even after the prequels came out I thought Luke would go a different way than the Old Jedi. I was bitterly disappointed they didn’t give Luke a wife (Mara Jade!) and a child in the Sequels… even if it ended tragically. And again I don’t mean Rey.
It should have been Rey.
Possibly the name Bothan is just the name of a organisation in the new material, like a special forces group. Many Bothans died on that mission…
They remain a race. In the Bloodline novel Leia sights some of them in the Senate.