Guest Post: The Alien Issue in the Star Wars Sequels
There are many many alien species we have come to associate with Star Wars. In the original trilogy we had Rodians, Twi’Leks, Duros, Bith, Aqualish, Ithorians – the list goes on and on. Hardcore fans can name even the most obscure. These were the aliens we as an audience and a fandom came to know and love. The prequels (love ‘em or hate ‘em) brought back many of the familiar species of the original trilogy and introduced us to new ones such as the Neimoidians, Toydarians, Gungans, Dugs, Zabraks, Kel Dors (who doesn’t love Plo Koon?), Togrutas, Pauans, Kaminoans, and others. The Clone Wars and Rebels series added a few more. The galaxy far, far away was growing, but where are all the familiar species now? Now, it feels like a different galaxy altogether (sort of).
When the news came that Star Wars was coming back and the sequels were upon us I was excited to be introduced to new aliens and re-familiarize myself with aliens we knew from previous films. When the first photos of Maz’s Castle were released I was blown away, until I realized there wasn’t one single familiar alien in the photo aside from an old guy that resembled someone from the Mos Eisley Cantina. To me, that seemed strange. Surely there would be a Twi’lek or Rodian somewhere in this seemingly shady place on the outskirts of civilized space. Sadly, when the film came out and we saw more, I was disappointed by the lack of species we knew from the past. Aside from Admiral Ackbar, a few of his fellow Mon Calamari, and Nien Nunb, we really had nothing else.
In The Last Jedi we got even more new alien faces at Canto Bight and as members of The Resistance, but once again no aliens from the George Lucas years. This really started to bother me, and I’ve spoken to a few people who feel the same. Aside from a few legacy alien side-characters we had no others to help ground us to the galaxy set up by Lucas, which was one populated by many different, already established species. They should pop up in the background, but we have yet to see this done in the sequels. Rogue One, while not a sequel, just barely gave us enough to wet our whistles. The argument that different regions of space would have different species is somewhat valid, but that wouldn’t limit other species from also visiting these regions of space given most of them have the luxury of hyperspace travel.
George Lucas was quite adept at world-building. When he made the prequels he knew that he had to blend new and old to maintain the world he set up previously. Although one might argue that much of the technology in the prequels appeared fresh and sleek in comparison to the original’s more “lived in” look, that can easily be explained by the state of the galaxy in those respective eras. The aliens however were balanced perfectly and that balance is currently lacking in the new films.
We know that the Story Group is very involved in maintaining the overall canon so one can assume that they have some input towards things of this nature in the new films. It surprises me that the production of the sequels cast aside more familiar aliens in settings such as Maz’s Castle and Canto Bight. There is concept art of Canto Bight that involve original and prequel species, so where are they in the film? Speaking of Canto Bight, I found the designs for these aliens very beige and non “Star Wars”. To me they all look like they stepped off the set of Doctor Who, which only further disconnects us from the Star Wars galaxy.
The numerous new canon stories in books, comics, and more recently the Battlefront 2 video game, feature many familiar alien species which are often main characters in these stories. In fact there are species from both the previous eras at Maz’s castle during the events of the game. There is even a portrait of my favorite space pirate Hondo Ohnaka hung up on the wall in one of the rooms. Shriv Surgaav, a Duros, has some of the best lines in Battlefront 2. His sarcasm and wit are endless. Having an alien character like this would do so much for the films. In fact they should put Shriv in Episode IX. Please do it!
In addition to bringing back some more familiar established species, instead of limiting them to the background, it’d be cool if they had small but important action and speaking roles. This is something George Lucas did that I think the new regime can learn from. Maz Kanata and Snoke are arguably the only two aliens that really have dialogue of any importance. Give more time to the aliens of The Resistance for example. Larger roles for our favorite aliens should not be reserved for non-film canon. Many actors would gladly get under the prosthetics and or animatronic creature masks to play a non-human character (Silas Carson as Nute Gunray and Ki Adi Mundi for example). The motion capture route is also always an option too. The technology has advanced greatly since Lucas made the prequels and he managed just fine with what was available then.
With Solo: A Star Wars Story coming soon, we can only hope that we get back to the basics of Star Wars aliens and not just because of the timeline in which the film takes place. It appears we may see the Pyke Syndicate involved in that film. Even still, we need more examples of this in the sequels. These species do not only exist in the past! Without them, the films lack balance and the galaxy starts to feel out of place from what we’ve already come to know. I am not sure what Lucasfilm’s reasoning for this is but I would love to find out. The lack of discussion I have seen on this particular criticism is surprising. Maybe myself and the other passionate Star Wars alien fans are being nitpicky, but I really think it should be addressed. I hope what I have said here today inspires more of you to think and talk about this issue. Do you think that we will/should see more classic Star Wars species? What do you think Lucasfilm’s reasoning is for their under-utilization?
Author: Austin D. (Dark-Porkins)
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
who cares
Many of us, we are legion.
Less legion than those who don’t care.
Less legion than those who don’t care.
From my experience, for the uninitiated, more Star Wars is just more Star Wars. On the watch for familiar aliens, they are not.
Kinda how I feel, too
This was a necessary post! I’d like that the univers expands yet we can see familiar species as the prequels did. It looks a deliberate choice but I just don’t understand it. I’d like the creature shop and the art department answers why this is happening.
Toy sales
I don’t think it ONLY has to do with toys, but I am sure it does a little bit. You don’t see as many Alien figures as you use to.
I haven’t seen any. Poe, Rose, Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren… Apart from Chewbacca and BB-8, I haven’t found a single Alien figure in the toy store, really.
Why do you care
Well, I absolutely don’t, I am not interested in the slightest in action figures. It was just for the sake of the discussion: I strongly don’t think that the fact that the ST is inclined to forget the previously established alien species has anything to do with toy sales.
Why do you care about what I do care?
I agree with this article 100%.
I’d even go one step farther: why aren’t there more aliens doing important things? For example, an alien as one of the Rogue One main cast members would have been cool to see.
I touched on that a little bit near the end of the article, but yes this sort of thing needs to happen!
I can see that in the new order, like if they are some kind of human supremacy, but in the resistance and the republic?! there are almost only humans too, looks like if other species have only permission to be in cantinas and casinos.
From the looks of early Rogue One books and promo material, it’s possible that the big-mouthed alien and chimp dude might have had bigger roles before the film was re-shot (they looked like major players in the original ensemble pic). They could have attempted it, and it simply didn’t work for whatever reason, & got cut — perhaps cautious fear of unintentionally creating another Jar Jar.
Watch again. You can clearly see who is doing the important things….there´s no room even for Chewie and the droids, much less for unknown aliens….
If you start with “watch again”, you implicitly admit that the aliens are not doing anything of striking importance in the movie.
if solo doesn’t have rodians and hutts I’m gonna be incredibly disappointed. but yeah, overall it feels like they’re going out of their way to avoid any recognizable aliens, which seems like a very silly and unnecessary way of distancing themselves from the “star wars feel”.
I hope Greedo works with Han. They knew each other for a long time, maybe before either of them worked for Jabba.
“They knew each other for a long time,…”
I don’t think there’s anything in the canon that supports this. I always saw Greedo as one of Jabba’s lower-level lackeys – local muscle and little more.
Greedo said he was looking forward to that moment for a long time. By the parlance exchanged, they knew each other for a long time and were very familiar with each other.
Why would they distance themselves from the Star Wars feel when TFA was marketed specifically for that feeling?
New aliens, new toys, ka-ching
From an other point of view, if you throw off a major alien character, then it will be much more iconic and recognizable outside of the movie context and will make a better toy.
If you see figurines and they are all guys and girls, it could be any movie. If you Chewbacca, you know from the first glance in the toy store that this is Star Wars. So, from a ka-ching perspective, it doesn’t seem a great move to have so few alien characters playing the important roles.
(Not the same issue, I agree.)
Got to agree – while its great for new aliens to be introduced, they should throw in some from the PT or OT to keep that same universe look.
R1 I felt had the correct mixture of old and new ships and aliens, with cameos from alien characters in ANH as a bonus!
“We know that the Story Group is very involved in maintaining the overall canon so one can assume that they have some input towards things of this nature in the new films.”
Pablo has said a few times that this is up to the director. Most directors are going to want to put their own stamp on things so this makes sense. it’s a big galaxy. I don’t get why this bothers people so much.
“The lack of discussion I have seen on this particular criticism is surprising.”
I have seen this complaint numerous times since TFA came out. It’s a non-issue for me. Give me new. I’ve seen Twi’leks and Duros before.
When you’re working in a pre-established universe, this seems like a silly way of going about things. But thats just me. I know not everyone cares.
A pre-established galaxy we have only seen a small corner of. It makes it feel small for the same aliens to appear over and over
I touched on this counter-argument in the article.
Right and I just disagree. It’s a non-issue for me. Not trying to argue all day long haha. I like seeing the new and I have seen plenty of the old.
Yes. And for all that we know, there is a single Resistance Base, so location within the galaxy is not an issue: activities, groups, remain centralized even if the centers are not in the same place as before.
Yet humans are everywhere.
Yet humans are everywhere.
Uncle would say – You are fousing on wrong thing! 🙂 What is not an issue for Uncle, shouldn´t be important to you…..
Because humans are a widespread species that have migrated to all corners of the galaxy. It’s in the lore.
Also, WE ARE HUMANS, THIS MOVIE IS MADE BY HUMANS AND HUMANS ARE WHO IS WATCHING IT.
SW dIrectors have to work with the canvas given, it is not a blank one, it has a lot of stuff in there, they just cant ignore them, they are keeping only what they think can secure the money making (tie-fighters, stormtroppers, x-wings, millenium falcon etc.) and forget about other important stuff, like the entablished universe.
Adding new ones isn’t ignoring the old stuff. it’s a big galaxy. It’s up to the filmmaker.
Again, a balance, this is a big galaxy, species don’t just dissapear, planets in this movies are not just far from what we already know, they are in the same galaxy, it is weird that ti-fighters and stormtropers, and the republic (in TFA) still exist but all the species we know don’t (only legacy characters), ist it that are all in vaction in another galaxy? or was just a coincidence and all the people from the known species were out of camera in every shot? that’s weird, it doesnt matter any explanation for that, that’s still weird.
It’s not weird that ties and x wings and stormtroopers are there because that’s the weapons these factions use. Not all species are found in all places. that would be weird.
talking of consistency, the weird thing is that none of this new species appear in any other SW movie, and the species wich appear in 6 movies (and not talking of the species in TCW) are sundenly missing in every shot, Not all species are found in all places, I know that, I have 6 movies that show that, but in places where a conglomeration of species/people from arround the galaxy are reunited, in a public space at least, you can see a mix of lots of species known and unknown, this is what SW had teach me during 6 movies, but this doesn’t happens anymore, thats very very very weird.
Take a look at the concept art in this post from Canto Bight that looks more like SW than what we got in TLJ and TFA.
Shrug
yet humans are just on every planet because…..
An example how the story group do its job. Luke leaves behind a map to find him. Luke doesn´t want to be found and fuck all the McGuffin map… 🙂
I just have one question, where the Rodians at!!?? I hope this has nothing to do with the “Killing the past” motto at LFL, what did this green creatures ever do to deserve this?
That’s not their motto.
“In The Last Jedi we got even more new alien faces at Canto Bight and as members of The Resistance, but once again no aliens from the George Lucas years. This really started to bother me”
First world problems dude
Interesting take.
It’s all first world problems. it’s star wars
It’s all first world problems. it’s star wars
At least on Canto Bight anyways
As Kylo says in TLJ “KILL THE PAST”, I believe that’s kind of the stance with K.K. and the bunch at Lucasfilm these days or at least it feels that way to me!
Here are a few other things that you can blame on K.K. – just to mix it up a bit…
1. The sinking of the Titanic
2. Prohibition
3. The suffragette movement
4. The end of apartheid
5. The loss of the library at Alexandria
Things you can actually blame on K.K. –
1. Firing Michael Arndt, scrapping his script.
2. Hiring then firing Josh Trank, scrapping Boba Fett.
3. A Han Solo movie without Harrison Ford
4. Hiring then firing Colin Trevorrow
5. Reshoots on Rogue 1
6. Hiring then firing Phil Lord & Chris Miller
7. Giving Rian Johnson his own Star Wars trilogy
and….TLJ!!!! LOL
and….TLJ!!!! LOL
You certainly could. And that would be dumb.
1. Arndt dragged his feet and couldn’t come up with anything filmable in the schedule required.
2. Great move. Trank is garbage.
3. Were you expecting Ford to play Solo at 25?
4. Great move. Trevorrow is garbage.
5. Which is bad because…it made the film much better and well-received than it would have been?
6. Saved the movie from being a comical farce.
7. Great move. Rian Johnson just made the best SW film in decades.
Agree and disagree with a few on here. But would loved to have seen Ford play himself at 25 and kept Lord and Miller! that’s funny to just think about!
How about no Han Solo movie at all? A whole giant Star Wars galaxy to explore and they make a movie about… young Han Solo? lol yeah that’s what audiences are clamoring for!
7. lol
Better than the shitty prequels, that’s for sure.
ok, don’t go crossing that line!
shitty prequels? Crixxxx, really? You´re better than this. Leave that to those other “fanboys” Or look at me for example. Do I think TLJ is uber garbage? I do. Do I write it here? No. Do I have to do so in the next 20 years? No. I just ignore it so feel free to ignore the prequels but please, don´t poison the air here with PT hating…
Agree with pretty much all you’re points accept for 7. For me it’s a toss up between TFA & R1, depends on how I feel on the day.
1. May have been a blessing.
2. Absolutely the right move.
3. Odd one.
4. Again… likely another blessing.
5. Probably made the film as good as it is.
6. AGAIN… probably for the better.
7. Remains to be seen. Hopefully he doesn’t continue to break established lore.
So IMO since we don’t know exactly what the originals concepts, directors actually wanted to do. She could have made them infinitely better. We can’t just assume it was for the worse.
So other than Rian and a Solo movie… I can’t look at her all that negatively.
1. May have been a blessing.
2. Absolutely the right move.
3. Odd one.
4. Again… likely another blessing.
5. Probably made the film as good as it is.
6. AGAIN… probably for the better.
7. Remains to be seen. Hopefully he doesn’t continue to break established lore.
So IMO since we don’t know exactly what the originals concepts, directors actually wanted to do. She could have made them infinitely better. We can’t just assume it was for the worse.
So other than Rian and a Solo movie… I can’t look at her all that negatively.
ok…You’re a little off target as usual. Drinking early today? Who’s in charge at Lucasfilm, again? That’s right…
“Drinking early today?”
I am. Fanboy tears.
ahh, why’d you edit?
I thought of something wittier.
that is definitely better than the last comment…that was terrible.
None of my comments are terrible.
OK….but that damn tea you spoke of is!
Earl Grey is nectar of the gods.
it’s the nectar of something for sure….
Fanboy tears.
Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
You’ll have bottles to fill up on after TLJ!
Don’t forget all the wars ever fought, hell, and chat sections on articles.
I’m not particularly bothered by the lack of previously-established species making their appearance in the ST. That said, I think it’s a rather odd choice and one I probably would not have made had I been at the helm.
The reasoning is solid. The events of TFA and TLJ take place in a previously unseen portion of the galaxy where different species predominate. Still, I think a little continuity work goes a long way and including a few of the more predominant races (Rodians, Bith, Twi’leks, etc) would tie things up a bit tighter.
Eh, not a big deal to me either way, really.
“Still, I think a little continuity work goes a long way and including a few of the more predominant races (Rodians, Bith, Twi’leks, etc) would tie things up a bit tighter.”
That’s all I, and people who feel the same way I do are asking for to be honest.
Totally agree, but whenever I bring it up people make fun of me for being “too critical”. I don’t think it’s some sort of huge problem, but I think having a handful of familiar aliens would be very grounding. I mean I get that it’s a big galaxy, but it seems odd that a lot of races previously very involved in the galactic civil war aren’t see outside of established characters. I won’t be overly upset if they don’t do anything familiar with 9, but throwing a Wookiee at maz’s New place or having a duros or gran pilot would just be a fun fanservice moment that wouldn’t really cost any screen time or need any setup
Especially since we know they’re around in comics and novels. Exactly.
Yeah, and they insist that all is part of the same canon, and yet it feels more disjointed than ever.
EXACTLY, this is one of my complains about the new movies, it is like if new directors only want to make their own bunch of aliens only to make the movie their own, but forgeting the old ones, and it feels like another universe, like a copy of Star Wars instead of actual Star Wars, I pointed this since the very begining, since TFA, I hope, as you say, this change in the new movies.
God forbid we see something new.
Hey let’s put Robots in Lord of the Rings while we’re at it.
Yeah, that’s a sensible response.
Nobody has an issue with new. Its the lack of old among the new that makes things seem too unfamiliar.
And you have another group of people complaining because the sequel trilogy is TOO familiar because all the old stuff they brought back.
Balance is the key, IMO.
Sarcasm?, or you don’t get it yet?
People are not bothered because of familiar stuff, George Lucas brough a lot of new stuff in I, II, and III, and still had old stuff in it, in balance.
TFA copied OT with key elements (ties, xwing, worlds, planets in general, etc) but tried to make its own species, forgeting the all others, that makes the movie feels like an imitation some times.
It is inconsistent, where are all the species we know from all arround the galaxy? where are they hiding? maybe they are on vacation in another galaxy, all the species, all of them, and just stay those that we didn’t notice before 🙂 thats weird…
Sarcasm?, or you don’t get it yet?
People are not bothered because of familiar stuff, George Lucas brough a lot of new stuff in I, II, and III, and still had old stuff in it, in balance.
TFA copied OT with key elements (ties, xwing, worlds, planets in general, etc) but tried to make its own species, forgeting the all others, that makes the movie feels like an imitation some times.
It is inconsistent, where are all the species we know from all arround the galaxy? where are they hiding? maybe they are on vacation in another galaxy, all the species, all of them, and just stay those that we didn’t notice before 🙂 thats weird…
Or maybe every single location in the sequels thus far has been an entirely new planet. You don’t go to Iowa and ask where are all the Australian Aborigines in this state, do you?
We are not talking of aborigines, we are talking of alien species in general, aliens who travel the galaxy, senators, engineers, pilots, bounty hunters, gamblers, travelers, tourists, doctors, artists, etc.
We have diversity of species in the new movies, but the problem is if there are 50 aliens in a cantina (maz’s) why is not any of them a known specie if a lot of people from all over the galaxy come to this place, the same with Canto Bight, that’s one issue, and the other, the mayority of non-human species are inside a cantina or a casino, why is no alien fighting by the side of Poe, or Finn, or with Rey or in any importat role, almost everyone is human. we have 3 aliens in the resistance and all others are human, this is another issue for me. (not talkin bout legacy characters like chewbacca, ackbar etc.)
It is know by now that humans are not the most capable species in the galaxy, or at least not the only.
I think the reason is that it is expesive for disney to have aliens as main characters or in a big number for long time during the movie :/
I guess also that the need to represent ‘human diversity’ on screen forces them to have a very wide array of human characters, to the expanse of alien characters. I am entirely fine with diversity and it’s a good thing for us peoples of Earth, but I think it is sad that it turned off the possibility for aliens to be something else than a pointless collection of elaborated flower pots in the background.
EXACTLY. Im glad im not the only one to realize that. Indian, afro/black and chinese girls almost in one shot at the same time. With this PC/SJW pushed agenda, there is simply not much room to place an alien in the resistance (like Shriv).
Lets hope the Solo reshoots are minimizing also this Disney crap – so its not too obvious that the have to put a black women there just because shes BLACK and a WOMAN instead of any alien.
So we are getting STAR WARS instead of full with aliens, full of different color / races humans.
Totally agreee, star wars is not just about humans, chewbaca and some aliens as background, They can have diversity with humans and with aliens too, that’s one of the important thigs about SW. they forgot a bit that it is not just earth with aliens in the background, it is a galaxy far far way.
I’d like to reply something relevant but you said it all.
Thanks.
There is still plenty of old elsewhere to ease you in.
It doesn’t need to be all new, however. It’s not a killer for me but seeing some established, older or core world type races show up would be nice. It was nice in R1.
shrug
And then you have the people complaining because the vehicles don’t look different enough and the films have no originality… There’s no pleasing fans.
Two totally different things. Technology constantly changes. Barring genocide, familiar species should still be around. Same goes for planets.
Technology changes but visual aesthetics of military vehicles are not drastically different over decades. And the US Navy still uses aircraft carriers launched in the 1970s.
The change during the two decades between the PT and OT was much larger than the three decades between the OT and ST. It’s not necessarily unrealistic (as you pointed out, the changes in real life equipment and aesthetics have plateaued since the 70s, compared to the preceding decades) , but it is inconsistent with the established pace, and it does feel like a huge missed opportunity, especially since it’s sci-fi.
There was a article that claimed JJ had a load of concepts for ‘tweaked’ Tie Fighters but wanted to keep the familiar Tie look. Personally I think that was a bad call, as one idea would of brought the 3-panel Tie to the screen.
While I agree on this, I must say that, at least, they brought aliens that look similar to the estabilished ones. I’m also for seeing an alien as a major character, like being the member of a main character-trio of relevance.
They havo NO FUCKING CLUE!!!! Just come on out and admit it already. They haven’t got a single idea of what they’re doing. Everything is spur of the moment. Cash grab on top of cash grab. 10 years with EA 2 crappy games. Just all around bullocks. It’s fair to be a fan of a property, and critical at the same time. I love the the X-Men however when Fox makes a bad movie I don’t cover for them. Star Wars is broken at this point. Being in denial won’t fix it.
Bullocks is a fun word to say.
Sandra?
Couldn’t agree more.
I find that a tad extreme. I think they fumbled the new trilogy. Not sure what JJ can do to save it. That said… I liked R1 a lot. If they keep making movies like that (with a tad more developed characters) it could be quite special.
You have to look at it from my perspective. The license was basically laying there dead. The last three movies made I hated so much I refuse to accept them. So yeah TFA and R1 come along and l like them quite a bit. Do I think TLJ made a bunch of poor choices that negatively impacts the legacy? Sure… but I still don’t think it’s anywhere on par with the PT.
Luke was odd to me but not ruined. Anakin to me… was destroyed. To the point I can’t accept that is actually Vader’s origin story. Luke? Ok not the greatest journey but I can accept it.
“You have to look at it from my perspective” No I don’t, first of all. The license was NOT laying there dead. The Clone Wars was doing rather well. 1313 was in development. And George Lucas was developing a series for Netflix. Disney made the purchase because it saw there was a resurgence. Not because of a lack. Do you even fanboy?
A children’s cartoon series and a video game from a studio that had been releasing mixed levels of quality for years which was barely even out of concept stages… with NO movies in sight. As for the live action series… again something that had been supposedly in the works for years with no evidence it was actually happening.
You’d actually be better to point towards the EU for a more active scene. For clarity though I’m referring to most people’s exposure to Star Wars. Movies.
What was your view of TFA and RO?
I was not a fan of TFA, but it didn’t break continuity like TLJ. RO was pretty good. Add Vafer to the end for just the final oomph! But TFA was definitely a sign of things to come. Shit just randomly happening with no explanation, and utter lack of depth. Meanwhile dressed up as that thing you love, but not BEING that thing. How ever at least TFA was respectful. TLJ was blatantly trolling/disrespecting any hardcore fans
It is true that some of the novels and most of the comics are especially unworthy and lack a grand vision of the Star Wars universe.
I couldn’t agree more with this. Nevermind the handling of legacy characters from the OT in the ST, the lack of connective tissue in the forms of aliens really make it seem like these new movies takes place in different universes. You can add new aliens but shit, can you at least put one Rodian in the background somewhere?
I hope Episode 9 will have a mixed of old classic aliens (twi’leks, rhodians, etc) and new. The prequels had a mix, I wish the sequel would have a mix of new and classic. I’m tired of seeing Abednedo species everywhere as their go-to-alien species in the new sequel.
I hope Episode 9 will have a mixed of old classic aliens (twi’leks, rhodians, etc) and new. The prequels had a mix, I wish the sequel would have a mix of new and classic. I’m tired of seeing Abednedo species everywhere as their go-to-alien species in the new sequel.
I wouldn’t worry about lX.
Yeah. I don’t get the hardon for Abednedo. I don’t consider them that special a design.
They’re basically cannon-fodder
Yes, and I don’t quite get why there is one on Poe Dameron’s squadron, it’s redundant with the tech from the comics series.
Yes, and I don’t quite get why there is one on Poe Dameron’s squadron, it’s redundant with the tech from the comics series.
I do miss the older aliens. I don’t mind them presenting the idea that the galaxy is so vast we couldn’t possibly catalog them all. Think about it. One second we are yelling at them for lack of diversity among worlds and then we yell at them for too many different aliens.
I wouldn’t mind some more OT aliens visible. I’d argue they must have been some of the larger populated species to have spread so far and wide. What would be cool is if they stopped here and started reusing the aliens they have created so far. Then before you know it we may start to recognize them!
It would be nice if there were some core, older…whatever races that we see more of. There are certainly plenty of humans around. Even just a flash of a Twi’lek was nice to see in Rogue 1.
Yep, it was nice to see that.
There were actually 3 twileks:
– hologram dancer in Saws lair
– old skinny sitting in Saws lair
– Hera mentioned in the speakers in Yavin 4 base, Hera piloting the Ghost in Scarif battle -> pity there was no short scene with her in the Ghost cockpit 🙁 (please please an extended version of R1) Could be maybe played by Vanessa
Then there were 4, because in the pan down on the Ring of Kafrene, there’s a red one talking to someone in the street.
This is especially true for TLJ, but I’ve felt like though Lucasfilm created a beautiful universe, it didn’t really feel like Star Wars, but I wasn’t sure why.
I think this post hits the nail right on the head. The small details are important to me, and while I definitely appreciate the introduction of new species, I really appreciate the reintroduction of old.
Throw in a Twi’lek resistance pilot, or show a Hutt on Canto Bight. Maybe a Toydarian at Maz Kanada’s. I don’t know, but I definitely agree with mixing the old and the new.
Twi’leks are so damn popular and cool-looking, I really can’t understand why we haven’t gotten a Hera-like character in the films.
Like Earth, the galaxy is diverse.
Yes, but there are many species that have a strong presence in the galaxy (rodians, twileks, duros…) and it is incoherent that not even one has appeared in the sequels.
Well, technically you could argue that the immense size of the galaxy shuts down any notion of seeing similar faces. Then there’s familarity tying into nostalgia merely for fan service. And then there’s just the feeling of familiarity across all films
that tells us “this is SW, you know this place.” All valid points.
You argue is such that you could say, why do we see so many humans on every planet then?
Because Humans tell the story.
Twi’Leks have proven to be extremely widespread in most older Canon sources.
Although, it would be great to see some old alien species, I can definitely live without them. I actually like how much effort they put into the new creatures, most of them feel very star wars-ish. Seeing some old designs in the background always feels good, but the new desingns really make star wars feel fresh.
The problem on my opinion is that no aliens have big roles, it seem every important thing must happen only to humans in the galaxy. R1 definitely needed an alien in the team, and I feel the sequel trilogy would have benefited from some alien characters with major, speaking role.
Yes, there are two problems with aliens: the lack of continuity with the existing species in presence, and the lack of prominence as they are relegated to background and could as well be erased without touching the story.
In TFA when two bandit groups attack Han Solo and Rey it’s quite surprising that not even one of the two is alien.
Absolutely! I remember being amazed at that the first time I saw it.
I agree. Really good post!
I agree. Really good post!
Shriv was the best thing in BF2 SP. Would love to see more of him!
If we could get him with Lando somehow, all the better!
Really good article. I loved TFA but the lack of some of the original species did irritate me. At the time I put it down to the size of the galaxy. However, with the release of TLJ and still no inclusion of any aliens from the other trilogies, this irritation has increased. This was a small part of why I was disappointed with TLJ.
It does stink that there aren’t any old alien species. Bring back the Hammerheads, Twi’leks, Cerean, all the Cantina stuff!
Agreed. I love seeing new species but please sprinkle in a few classics as well!
That’s my view as well. I don’t mind the Abednebos, but some other, well know aliens would be a good addition.
I’ve had this discussion with a friend several times before, and it’s one of my only major complaints about the Sequel Trilogy. Including just a couple of OT and prequel species would go such a long way in grounding the new movies in George’s universe.
I agree. But that’s the problem when you employ popular directors who have no idea about the Star Wars Universe and they only watched a few times the episode IV, V and VI when they were child.
Yeah, and we have all watched ’em 500 times
And they always talk about what an honor it is to be a part of the galaxy George created and how making a Star Wars movie is “like playing with all my old Star Wars toys”…obviously they didn’t have a very extensive collection.
It’s boarderline disrespectful.
This been an issue for me for a while now. It makes the movies seem so disconnected and it makes it seem like humans outnumber every other species by a far margin. Why couldn’t Rose or Haldo been a Togruta or Pantoran, why couldn’t DJ have been a Nikto?
I’ll go you one further – why couldn’t DJ have been Hondo? I mean Del Toro is half Nikto anyways, so….
I could have gotten behind that but i dont think Nikto live that long. Hondo is already likely in his late 50s or older during Rebels.
Good point.
just a small correction, Hondo is a weequay
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hondo_Ohnaka
But would love to see this character in a live action form. Some cameo in Solo maybe ? But i like more his CW look, instead of the Rebels look.
Still waiting for an improved (non-CW style) Hondo in Lego and 3.75″ action figure to buy
Yes, I knew that but got caught up in the guys post lol. FORGIVE ME HONDO!!!!!
I guess Togrutas are a bit too marked with Ahsoka, so they couldn’t; but sure, Rose being an alien species would have added depth to an otherwise quite likeable but not very noticeable character.
A Mirialan would have been fitting and easy I think.
One of the behind the scenes photos from Solo showed they were reusing the ‘nipple’ creature from Canto Bight….but I too wish they would use some of the older creatures
Even the Planets are too Earth like now. I like location filming but Lucas was always able to make these Planets look a little different & not like Earth. For instance the Palm Trees in Rogue One. Lucas would have added more Palms or something to make the Earth Palm Trees look unearthly. Or added a few weird little creatures running around in background. Just to show it wasn’t Earth.
Yes, I totally agree with that.
And I should not voice again my concern with Ach-To which is just Skellig Island from Ireland; when I saw TFA, I was immediately carried across sea to Ireland instead of being in a far away universe…
I hope the figure it out. The Porgs came about because they didn’t want to digitally remove the local birds.
Excelent post! And I 100% agree.
l liked the racoon lookin’ guy that worked the 50 cal. in the Rogue One trailers, but they cut most his time. I guess he got upstaged by Guardians’ Racoon Guy. I hate to say it, but Guardians of the Galaxy has really eclipsed the new Star Wars films in the world building and alien department. Should make for an interesting debate when the new Avatar movies roll out.
Great article. It’s one of the few complaints I’ve had for every Disney Wars movie so far.
The new aliens are great, but within a few familiar faces the sense of disconnection still haunts the alien scenes.
It’s interesting to see how many below agree with the article, because when I said this after TFA and Rogue One I was mercilessly trolled as a “hater”….by the very same people who were in love with these movies for their elements of nostalgia!
I think the interesting thing about aliens is trying to spot the different creatures in the background of the movie some of which you might not notice until you’ve seen the movie a bunch of times. It’s also pretty cool with the new movies when you spot a familiar alien, but it’s equally nice to see new ones.
I like all the star wars movies, but one of the few things I felt a tiny bit let down by with the latest movie was no monster! We glimpsed a serpent thing in the sea, but you usually get some hero vs monster scene which is always one of my favourite parts. I want two monsters in the next movie!
Yeah. The film was a little too “humany” for me for that reason among others. It seems strange that the attitude in the ST so far seems to be to create only new background aliens and shove 99% of them into a bar area (Maz’s Castle, Canto Bight) in order to satisfy the need for other world building/alien stuff.
While I think the ST is better than the PT, one argument I have always made is that the Disney films really lack the creativity that the PT had when it comes to world building. Lucas didn’t always get it right (Gungans, cartoon podracers, etc) but at least he put a lot of effort into trying to great new worlds while also melding it all into the existing worlds. That’s one area where he beat he ST by a country mile and you can’t take that criticism away from him in my opinion…and while I understand many reasons for wanting to move away from the prequels, I think moving say for away from an alien environment Wwasn’t necessary. I think it’s telling that some of the alien space environments in movies like ether Guardians of the Galaxy films and Thor Ragnorak have felt more creative and Star Warsy then the Disney Warts films.
I don’t agree with this notion at all! I think the creature shop should be 100% encouraged to create as many new and imaginative aliens as they want, without having to toss in the customary Rodians, Twi’Leks and everything else we’ve seen a thousand times for the last 40 years. Familiar aliens is a demand for less creativity which I find to be a VERY poor attitude. One of the great delights of a new Star Wars film is seeing the bizarre new faces and odd creatures we encounter across the galaxy. Having an obligatory line-up of aliens only suggests that the universe is smaller too, and more stiff and rule bound, like Star Trek. This is a fairy tale adventure after all… And when you go through uncharted waters you meet strange new things.
One or two familiar species isnt going to stifle anyone’s creativity. I imagine that these familiar creatures may be what inspired many concept artists and designers and makeup fx artists to pursue these careers in the first place and they wpuld be happy to updste rhe design slightly. I dont think anyone with my opinion has anything against the inclusion of new species. And to counter your point if they were that concerned with not stifling creativity would they not have all new ships and costumes as well? They are very similar to what we have seen before. The fact remains this is a galaxy. Yes, a large one. But these aliens from any corner of it can travel throughout it openly. Limiting the old while allowing the galaxy to grow with the new only in turn creates a galaxy that isnt cohesive. Just my take.
The point is alien species are not just ornamentation. They have cultures, ways of life, all sorts of things, and it would be great that all this deep world-building stuff surfaces somehow in the movies.
People will throw pebbles at me, but that’s what I think was great with Gungans… The same would be true of Geonosians, Kaminoans, Ewoks, Wookiees, etc. The prequels were dealing with the discovery of new alien cultures, and that was really fun.
Finally!
Finally a great article her on SWNN. I agree 100%.
I dont like the story of Battlefront 2 but Shriv was perfect.
Really hope we will see established aliens in Solo. Im totally tired of only new aliens with each movie.
Existing + new aliens is the right way and reading through the comments i see only few people to think the opposite.
BTW since #Di$ney WARS started we have 3 new female main characters (Ray, Jyn, Iden) + tons of side female characters.
When do we get ALIEN leading roles ?
I agree. This article elevates SWNN from worshippers to healthy fanboys who dare to criticize (carefully, needed to say) some of the aspects they feel are not handle proportionally…
Agreed. I was talking about this with Pomojema the other day, they really need to broaden their spectrum of articles, we all know their unconditional love for SW, but it is good to see well researched pieces like this, where the site can comment on what the movies are lacking. It motivates healthy discussion, just look at the replies, this looks like another site altogether 😉
Very little research, mainly just what I knew based on my viewings/my personal opinion/feelings.
Exactly. It also elevates the credibility of my favourite SW site to mention even the less pleasant moment of our beloved franchize…
I just want to say that SWNN has been and will continue to be a great source of compelling commentary and news articles. All of the writers are talented and they were all kind enough to let me share this with you.
..
??
Yes! An alien in the leading role! That would be more daring!
Star Wars has developed some weird inter-species racism, it would seem.
Let the past die……blah blah blah bad writing blah blah….there is my answer….Disney would probably say: It´s not their story anymore… 🙂
It´s easy, you like the answer or not. The SW galaxy is above all a Human galaxy. Aliens are background species.
Yes, that´s something strange: only humans and one or two aliens worry about the empire. The empire / New order must be not so bad for the rest of (hundreds) of species. I REALLY liked to see more aliens doing something
Yes, that´s something strange: only humans and one or two aliens worry about the empire. The empire / New order must be not so bad for the rest of (hundreds) of species. I REALLY liked to see more aliens doing something
The only “Alien” fuck-ups I’ve noticed in cinema recently were both committed by Ridley Scott.
Nice one 😀
The primary issue isn’t too many new species. The problem is that the new aliens are unrealistic in appearance. Case in point, the caretakers on Luke’s island. They looked like they were wearing marked down Halloween costumes.
Yes they did. And they didn’t look “Star Wars” quite frankly.
Watch A New Hope again…
Have you even watched Star Wars before? “They don’t look realistic” ehm…. hm??
They looked somewhat Star Wars, but it is a valid point to say that they look a little Doctor Who or whatever. As for the ‘unrealistic’ point, I agree with @bartosscharmach:disqus : ehm…. hm??
Couldn’t agree more
Couldn’t agree more
Totally agree… I love all the new aliens.. and the films.. but want old aliens!!!!!
Totally agree. This issue was discussed in the Cantina quote a bit after TFA released. I couldn’t believe at the time that Max’s castle didn’t con rain one single returning species. The closest thing was the wolf man from Ralph Macquarie concepts. The only reason that I can think of is that there was some kind of pride on the directors’ part, wanting to prove something. Misguided. It’s a huge little mistake. How do you include characters, actors, music, and ships from the originals and prequels and not have a single returning alien species?
Totally agree. This issue was discussed in the Cantina quote a bit after TFA released. I couldn’t believe at the time that Max’s castle didn’t con rain one single returning species. The closest thing was the wolf man from Ralph Macquarie concepts. The only reason that I can think of is that there was some kind of pride on the directors’ part, wanting to prove something. Misguided. It’s a huge little mistake. How do you include characters, actors, music, and ships from the originals and prequels and not have a single returning alien species?
Completely agree. And it isn’t just the fact that we don’t see any “old” alien species; what feels off to me is the number of aliens. We mostly seem to see humans, with an occasional token alien thrown in. This too feels off to me.
So…just like EMPIRE, then?
Seriously! I’m so glad someone finally realizes this. Do people forget that empire only had like 4 alien species seen? Not counting creatures (Wampa, Taun Taun, Mynock and space slug) the only species seen in the whole movie are Yoda’s, two bounty hunters and ugnaughts.
Yes.
Canto Bight = When Rian rips off Hunger Games
I am so glad that this issue is finally addressed properly! Although I really enjoyed The Last Jedi, this point was in the top 3 of my own personal flaws list.
The only way I see to save this is that the Empire, in its final yeas after Endor, have gone frenzy in its species eradication policy (not sure if the latter is attested besides Legends sources), and so the alien species have gotten rarer. But then there are the video games and books that are mentioned in the post…
Anyway, I feel much less alone in my concerns now!
A more reasonable explanation: the ST takes place on different planets that have different demographics.
As pointed out by the OP, this explanation can be ruled out: Hosnian Prime, Canto Bight, the Resistance one and only base, are all centers which do not reflect a specific demography but should display a variety of different species representatives.
Plus, in novels, comics, video games, all species are still displayed more or less evenly. So it’s a bit weird that this works only in the movies.
They do display a tremendous diversity of species, just not the sort you were expecting.
The movies are not beholden to any of the ancillary content, so long as they don’t outright contradict them.
I do understand your point and deem it valid.
I am just not convinced, at least for the Resistance base. Since the Resistance is relevant for the galaxy as a whole, and does not seem to have any other bases (at least according to TLJ), I would expect that it samples the different species on a galaxy-wide basis, and not quadrant-wide. Thus, some of the older, familiar species should turn out as well.
Plus, the incredible easiness with which characters travel across the galaxy through hyperspace makes the argument “the ST takes place in a different region of the galaxy” quite suspect.
Last, according to the official galaxy map, the planets from all three trilogies are quite mixed up and do not seem to focus on either one region or the other.
So, I think we can legitimately, from an internal consistency point of view, expect the older species to show up somehow on screen.
But isn’t the First Order a more localized issue at first, stemming from the Unknown Regions? It would make sense for the Resistance to draw more from species closer to that area, who would have a more direct stake in the fight. Much of the New Republic’s population at the time was tired of war.
Also hyperspace is generally traversed by hyperspace lanes, the specific routes of which may have some input on which species might be more likely to travel them.
To your final point, neither the presence nor lack of presence of older aliens threatens the internal consistency of the saga. Would it make sense for them to appear? Sure. Is it a problem for the stories if they don’t? Definitely not.
And lastly from me, this is an incredibly inane thing to get hung up on. It’s a big galaxy with tons of different species in it, and it doesn’t impact the story in any meaningful way which ones turn up where.
We can thank the prequels for this. It’s the only explanation I can think of.
The prequels had new aliens, yes. But also so many unnecessary nods to the OT (Greedo as a child).
Since Disney wanted to distance these new stories from the prequels, there are minimal references to the prequels. And having OT species but no prequel species is also a pretty blatant statement by omission.
Plus I can guarantee the first sign of a Dug, fans would worry we’d also see a Gungan.
But agreed. All i wanted was one Hammerhead in Maz’s castle.
That wasn’t Greedo as a child. His name was Wald.
But yes, point taken. Still, I agree with this article’s main complaint.
Thanx, was lazy to search it up to confirm my though that it wasnt actually Greedo. I should remember that as i have a lego figure of that character 🙂
Sorry. Was referencing a deleted scene. https://youtu.be/bcUCTdVw0_0
Oh yes! Yeah I draw the line at individual characters turning up in the middle of nowhere just for fan service, like that cut scene seems to be. Meeting the same characters all the time makes the universe seem small.
Gime a dug in the Solo movie. I was happy to see a dug VIGO of the Black Sun in the Darth Maul comix.
And exactly, if they keep this attitude for future movies, actually i care now only about the standalone so Solo – it will be another nail in the coffin of SW
And btw this gungan does not look bad
https://sk.pinterest.com/pin/461548661787155075/
I dont really like ewoks, but when i met Treek
https://youtu.be/szGa6h4A76k
I changed mi opinion, at least for this particular one 🙂
Yes! Thank you! This is something that is bugging me since TFA… I assume, and this is just an assumption, that Neal Scanlan was more interested in creating his own creatures. They should rethink that strategy and add more of the older species.
Is this really an issue?? An observation, yes, but an issue? -__-
…what Star Wars fans worry about these days…
to me, YES, really an issue
I was actually looking out for known aliens in the casino scene on my first and only one cinema viewing (coz i was bored, so did not paid attention to the main cast in that scene) and was pissed of not so see a single fine dressed twilek female, u know the one like the fat twilek senator has
and YES, it disconnects the ST for me from the whole SW universe
R1 did it right with space monkey and Pao (great new aliens) and still giving us familiar species
It’s not, but fans gonna fan.
This is one of a very few valid gripes with the sequel trilogy. I totally agree there needs to be a mix of familiar species alongside the new species. Shouldn’t there be a Hutt or two in Canto Bight? The concept art really nails it, but WTF happened in the creature shop? Did they not see the concepts art? Curious.
In the Concept Art book theres a huge fat centipede looking alien that could have easily just been a Hutt. Not sure if he made it into the film. Maybe the Spa shot. There is also an alien when you first open the book that is clearly an Ood from Doctor Who with a face mask on.
Actually think about it though. Before all the expanded lore, prequels, cartoons, comics, etc… just looking at the original trilogy, they didn’t repeat aliens hardly at all and each film introduced us to new ones. Empire (which actually doesn’t even have many aliens in it ) didn’t reuse any species from A New Hope. Return of the Jedi didn’t give us any repeated aliens from Empire or A New Hope except a background Rodian in Jabba’s palace (and that’s only because we were back on Tatooine). They were all new.
Twi’lek, Mon Cal, Weequays, etc. weren’t even part of saga until ROTJ. It makes sense, considering the pattern set up by the originals, that TFA and TLJ didn’t reuse aliens. In the new trilogy, we have only visited new worlds, just like in the originals (again, outside when Tatooine was revisited in ROTJ).
Getting to the prequels, you only really see many of the original trilogy aliens on Tatooine (again—cause we had been there before. It made sense). And then the occasional Twi’lek or Rodian on Coruscant. Only new creatures are seen on Naboo, mostly only new species were seen on Coruscant, only new ones on Kamino, only new ones on Geonosis, only new ones on Mustafar, only new ones on Utapau, only new ones on Polis Massa and of course wookies on Kashyyyk.
I think it’s the cartoon series and comics that make you think OT species are seen more than they actually are in the films.
Also, final point, if you watch the prequels first and then the originals, think about how many species aren’t seen! Like 98% of them.
Hmm. That’s an interesting point.
This is one of the better counters to my view. Like i say in the article Lucas did make an effort to include these aliens somewhat in the prequels. All those other prequel planets you mention were planets with a species that belonged to it and we dont really focus on much else in those scenes. There are no Bars or clubs or meeting places. They are not huge hubs of commerce or business. When you’re in a place where many species are gathering, The Cantina, Maz’s Castle, Canto Bight, The entire planet of Coruscant and The Senate, The Ring of Kafrene etc you would expect to see familiar aliens because frankly they would be there. They still need to be present. And lets not forget that the Cartoons and Comics are CANON. This sets a precedent. Casuals won’t care regardless but the Fans are still important and we see the Galaxy as a whole.
Thanks for the response! And yah, I totally get all that, but still, how many OT species can you list in the prequels (NOT counting Tatooine since we have already visited there twice in the originals), that Lucas put in? The only ones I can think of are a couple of Rodians and Twi’leks on Coruscant as well as a Mon Cal senator barely in the background. Maybe some more in the senate chambers only because all the planets are represented there so it makes sense. My point is all the movies introduce tons of new species that we don’t really see much after the matter. (again, I’m just looking at the films, even though I know the cartoons are canon).
I agree with this, but the familiar aliens are still there. We don’t see any familiar aliens (except the main characters like Chewy and Yoda) in the ST. Rogue One also didn’t have much, just a brief glimpse of a Twi’lek. I think that a little bit of old stuff thrown in there. Really good argument, even if I don’t necessarily agree, I’m still up voting it (:
The Coruscant Night Club scene has Rodians, an Ithorian, a Nikto, Quarren, Twi’leks. There is a Bith in the club and on an Ad which also has an Arcona (doing a thumbs up). There are numerous alien senators of course. There are various OT aliens outside of the Opera House in ROTS. My point isnt so much WHERE these aliens show up as that its that they dont show up at all in the new films. We really dont see too many Hub-worlds in the prequels. Tatooine counts as a hub, as its known to be a place for traders and criminals etc.Though, I still do believe Maz’s castle and Canto-Bight should have familiar aliens for the same reasons. Canto-Bight is basically a club for the Rich of which there should be familiar aliens included. Maz’s is more akin to Jabbas Palace more than anything where you might expect to find some familiar aliens.
Coruscant is the cosmopolitan heart of the Republic, it makes sense we’d see familiar species. Tatooine is a planet we’ve seen many times before, so it makes sense its cultural makeup wouldn’t be drastically changed when we revisit. But Takodana, Cantonica and D’Qar are wholly new worlds; it makes sense they’d be different places traveled by different peoples.
D’Qar is uninhabited aside from The Resistance Base. Takodana/Maz’s Castle is a place akin to Jabbas Palace. They are new planets to us, but not to the galaxy. The planets should make no difference unless theyre inhabited by one particular species. Canto-Bight on Cantonica is in the Corporate Sector where you’d expect a lot of business to be done. Makes 0 sense that it would be limited to aliens never before seen. There are no Rodian, Twi’lek, Neimoidian or Gran rich folks I guess.The more I respond the more i’m going to repeat myself. We can rationalize it in whichever direction we lean to but to me the excuse just doesnt work. If were on a planet that is the home planet of a species and it isnt a hub of commerce or trade or politics on that planet i wouldnt expect to see a familiar race, only the new ones. In a place where those things are being done, yes you expect to see more variety.
It makes a lot of sense that planets in different parts of the galaxy would be visited by different species in greater or lesser quantities. Look at a much smaller place, like Earth. You don’t find the same ethnicities or nationalities in the same proportions everywhere you go.
And Maz’s Castle is a dive bar on a dive world, who are you to say which people visit it? The only reason familiar species were in Jabba’s Palace is because it’s on Tatooine, a world whose demographics we’re already familiar with. And Canto Bight is far from the only high society town in the galaxy – the lack of familiar aliens there is no more outrageous than their absence from Cloud City. Not everywhere in the galaxy is a melting pot of the same handful of alien species, and that’s been true from the jump.
“And Maz’s Castle is a dive bar on a dive world, who are you to say which people visit it?”
Look at the book Visual Dictionary for TFA it explicitly says about Takodana its a hub world a crossroads for any trawlers going of the known territories or going into known territories so u expect to see familiar species, but they needed to make NEW so we have a parody on Ithorian (Ottegan) and Shistvanen / Defel (those trio of hassck) and moon (those duo of ubdurian)
You literally made this comment to me twice on the same post. Maybe go home and rethink how much this matters to you.
nope, an error message appeared, so i hit the the post button again, it posted twice. I dont see a button for deleting a message so im not able to correct that error.
“And Maz’s Castle is a dive bar on a dive world, who are you to say which people visit it?”
Look at the book Visual Dictionary for TFA it explicitly says about Takodana its a hub world a crossroads for any trawlers going of the known territories or going into known territories so u expect to see familiar species, but they needed to make NEW so we have a parody on Ithorian (Ottegan) and Shistvanen / Defel (those trio of hassck) and moon (those duo of ubdurian)
1) Real world comparison – look at any major airport or capital city or a city with more big international companies. Its totally different as looking around in any local small town of a country.
2) Tatooine does not has a set demographic, its a trawlers world and a world to hide.
3) Cloud City – i dont remember seeing a casino scene on that floating city which would give opportunity.
4) For god sake think also in the dimension of filmmaking and real world time when making statements regarding the movies, when u dont want to mix other sources like comix where u have no problem to draw any aliens (adding a twilek to a rogue squadron etc) into the comparisons of galaxy state. Lucas didnt have the possibilities in OT to add more aliens and the universe was not yet developped. I believe that if Lucas did the ST, we would see new aliens + familiar species too
I think we have provided a lot of counterarguments now. U dont want to accept the arguments. So i leave it there not repeating myself over and over.
Any reader of the comments section can now make his own opinion whether ST sucks with adding only NEW aliens or not.
Anyway im glad that this article appeared here on SWNN and also glad that there are multiple pople who see this lack of established aliens in ST and general in the new Disney cinematic production
U saved me 1h of looking up and counting the species on Coruscant 🙂
Already spent some time proving my point within the OT above
Should go to sleep already 😀
You are wrong.
” just looking at the original trilogy, they didn’t repeat aliens hardly
at all and each film introduced us to new ones. Empire (which actually
doesn’t even have many aliens in it ) didn’t reuse any species from A
New Hope. Return of the Jedi didn’t give us any repeated aliens from
Empire or A New Hope except a background Rodian in Jabba’s palace (and
that’s only because we were back on Tatooine). They were all new.”
PROOF:
snivvian and lutrillian on Bespin
http://johnrozum.blogspot.sk/2010/05/30-years-of-empire-strikes-back-part-30.html
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/430304939373557418/
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Treva_Horme
Snivvian:
E4 – Takeel, Zutton
E5 – (see link above)
E6 – http://i.imgur.com/iD5KCus.jpg
Saurin in E4 and E6
http://i.imgur.com/iD5KCus.jpg
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/0/05/RoguesGallery-SWI130.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20111219030349
COCLUSION:
snivvian, lutrillian, saurin, rodian, jawa – 5!!! species appearing from E4 in E6 (Wookie not included 🙂 that would be already 6 )
i see i did mistaken a lutrillian with a nimban – but if i find a lutrillian in Jabbas palace that would be a 7, 8 with chewie
Unfortunatelly i dont see a chadra-fan although i have him on a SW CCG card staring down on rancor through the gates, but this seems to be just a montage
Dude I’ve already said multiple times in this thread that I’m not really counting tattooine since that is REVISITING a planet. Of course there are gonna be repeated aliens there across the films when you revisit a planet.
And snivvian and lutrillian on bespin is a huge freakin stretch. They must barely be seen. I’ve never spotted them. Can you post an exact screen shot of their appearance?
And what about ALL the aliens introduced in the prequels that aren’t in the OT?
Are u serious ?
Do u expect George Lucas to travel in time to reshoot OT and add aliens that he created for PT ?
It was done vice versa. OT aliens were added to PT in places where it fits (Coruscant streets and senate, hub worlds, cantinas, bars …)
Its not about REVISITING planets that the aliens appears, its about TYPE OF PLACE – u cant expect to see different species on a planet where a native species is the majority and we dont get to see a spaceport or cantina of that planet.
Tatooine has crime lord hive and a spaceport city scenes and all the inhabitants were “colonist” or trawlers, natives are only tuskens and jawas as far as i remember.
For the duo the are a blink and u miss it appear, but they were on promo materials, figures and so on
Source of below citation: http://sompeetalay.blogspot.sk/2012/03/treva-horme-wiorkettle-odd-couple.html
“2. Where can they be seen?
Sadly, Treva and Wiorkettle were almost deleted from the movie. They can
be seen in a rush when Cloud City citizens run past Lando, Leia and
Chewie. Treva can be seen clearly but I’m still not sure about
Wiorkettle. There is a blue blur so let’s hope this is our Snivvian.
There are several photos taken on set that show us that both aliens were
present on the set. There is a picture that shows a small part of both
aliens so we even have an idea where they were supposed to be or where
they just went out of the camera’s reach.”
Actually, Lucas added numerically some of PT aliens in the OT (a ronto I would think).
Ronto was the other way around – first E4 special edition, then E1
However he added Gungans at the end of ROTJ 🙂
He probably could made a special edition v2.0 to make the OT and PT more consistent 🙂 make a facelift of effects again 🙂 fix the Jabba scene in E4 – i dont like the stepping on the tail move although it was then the only way how to do it – in a few years we can do it the other way -> do Han digitally so he does not need to go around Jabba
Great article. This definitely give me a lot more respect for SWNN, at the very least. I agree with pretty much all of the points, as well. I think that Maz’s castle and Canto Bight would have been great opportunities for throwing in a Twi’lek here, Hammerhead there, maybe even a Weequay! I have enjoyed all of the Disney movies so far, but the lack of familiar alien species has been disappointing. I do not like a lot of the aliens that were in TLJ mainly, (except the Abednebedos, those are actually pretty good) but I would like them a lot more if they just had some other, familiar aliens sprinkled in there.
Great article. This definitely give me a lot more respect for SWNN, at the very least. I agree with pretty much all of the points, as well. I think that Maz’s castle and Canto Bight would have been great opportunities for throwing in a Twi’lek here, Hammerhead there, maybe even a Weequay! I have enjoyed all of the Disney movies so far, but the lack of familiar alien species has been disappointing. I do not like a lot of the aliens that were in TLJ mainly, (except the Abednebedos, those are actually pretty good) but I would like them a lot more if they just had some other, familiar aliens sprinkled in there.
Yes!! Thank you so much for making this a article. I 100% agree with you. I love all the classic alien species from the Lucas era. I was very disappointed by the lack of them in TFA TLJ and R1. It makes the galaxy feel split apart. I can’t believe we haven’t seen a rodian duros or twilek. I really hope Solo and episode 9 can give us some. I’m happy you mentioned Shriv. I love his dialogue in the game and he would be a awesome character on screen. Maybe since they keep trying to do little Odes to the OT episode 9 will have a hutt and Kowakian monkey lizard
I thought the alien usage in R1 was great. The egg twins were my favorite new species by far, and there were three twi’leks!
Beezer Fortuna looks like a Spice head lol. Thinnest Lekku ever
Gotta say that Shriv was great in SWBF2. We need more characters like that.
Let’s remember that, apart from Chewie, there were no recurring aliens in EMPIRE, either. And in RETURN, it was really just a couple Jawas and Rodians at Jabba’s palace. Even the Prequels didn’t repeat a ton of aliens apart from named characters like Jar Jar or Watto.
For my money, the sequels are doing just fine on aliens, and this is a really minor issue to get hung up on anyway. It’s a big galaxy and there’s a lot of diversity.
Hey now. The PT had a bunch of known aliens. Twi’leks, Ree’yees dudes (the three eyed aliens). I’m just scratching the surface, but there were tons. That would be my only gripe for the article, the author should have listed some of the aliens that appeared in the PT AND OT timeframe. I think that the ST is doing fine on aliens as well, but they need to have a couple other familiar ones thrown in there.
I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing a few sprinkled in like in the Prequels, but my point stands that they weren’t there a ton. The emphasis was always on new species like Geonosians, Gungans, Pau’ans, Kaminoans, etc. And I said in another post, it made more sense to see familiar species on Corsucant, heart of the Republic, and Tatooine, which we’d visited before, than it does on new planets like Takodana and Cantonica.
“on new planets like Takodana and Cantonica.” Both planets were a hub, no original inhabitants showed. Not a single pretty twilek lady for a rich armsdealers ??? The red flower gui in casino could have one hot twilak standing next to him – doing that dice blow thing for example – but nooooooo
Takodana literally a hub place for trawlers from all the corners of the galaxy but no existing species shown …
Cantonica is literally beyond the edge of th galaxy.
And it was an artificial city and a planet without native race. Already replied above to your post.
And it was an artificial city and a planet without native race. Already replied above to your post.
Its in the Corporate Sector…
I agree with that, except for D’Qar, which should sample all species involved in the Resistance.
This kind of pedantic bullshit is what ends up making people disappointed in these new movies. The Original Trilogy only repeated alien species when they were on Tatooine. Who cares?
Outside of a scant few? Nobody. And nor should they. It’s the elevation of lore above story.
I agree with all of this, and it’s been something I’ve found really curious about the new trilogy timeline so far. It’s not a deal breaker by any means, but it has me scratching my head a bit as to why it’s not being done, since it would help to aesthetically and narratively bridge the new with the old (and would literally be less work for the creature shop for the same output).
Like many fellow fans have said so far here, we wouldn’t need much, maybe an Ithorian in Maz’s castle or a Twi’lek on Canto Bight. Just a couple subtle nods would do it. I hope JJ’s thinking about this for IX, which he’s said will act as a bridge between all 3 trilogies. I know there are new species introduced in every film so far, but it would make sense to do this on several levels, including economics.
As an aside, in my own personal head canon, I imagined that many of the alien species we know from earlier in the timeline were subject to genocide by the Empire, and completely wiped out from the galaxy, perhaps as part of erasing the dissolved Galactic Senate. That’d be a really emotionally heavy but fitting way to explain why we don’t see most of them in the NT.
I agree with your personal head canon!
If you remember there was a Legends story collected in the Boba Fett omnibus and written by Ostrander about such genocidal practices by the Empire.
If you draw a comparison with WW2, the Jewish holocaust was drastically accelerated when the Third Reich knew it would be eventually defeated within weeks, after the Americans successfully managed Operation Overlord.
Then we can perfectly imagine that, between Endor and Jakku, the Empire, feeling its approaching doom, entered in some sort of a frenzy directed at the eradication of alien species.
Thanks for the response and thoughts! It would also make sense (in a twisted and f-ed up way) for the Empire to focus on eradicating species around the core worlds, or in other words, the most common species that we’re most familiar with. I haven’t read all of the new canon books set around that era, other than Aftermath and Bloodlines, but I wonder if it was actually mentioned somewhere?
In any case, there are definitely strong threads between the Star Wars galaxy and our own war history, perhaps more than we might realize sometimes. (IE: It really doesn’t take long for people to forget events of the recent past and even repeat their mistakes, re-embracing ideologies and identities that seem incomprehensible if you’ve read up on them. I think that’s been pretty evident over the last couple years on Earth, but I digress..)
Of course, there are many interesting parallels! Also I think I have read somewhere that AoTC was a (subtle?) parallel with the reinforcing security policies in the USA under Bush Jr. by that time.
Actually, there are quite a fair number of species in Bloodline, which takes place mostly on Hosnian Prime under the New Republic rule. Some of them have senates representatives. Bloodline is excellent in every regard and the balance of old and new species as discussed in the OP is perfectly done as well.
Which implies that the species have survived, at least enough so as to motivate that they have senate representatives in the New Republic.
Then, we can assume that the alien species are more concerned than any other sentient beings in the galaxy that the Empire could resurface from its ashes under the First Order banner. And so, the Resistance should have many recruits among their ranks.
Which, judging by the scenes in TFA and TLJ on D’Qar, they don’t.
Hence, even with this pretty smart way to solve the matter, I guess we would still have a continuity issue here.
The Resistance has next to ZERO aliens in its ranks other than a couple Mon Calamari and maybe one other alien. Thanks to Kathleen Kennedy and her asinine idea to make the GFFA reflect ‘our galaxy’ there is a lack of aliens in the ST. The prequels were teeming with a diverse menagerie of alien life. And essentially the OT, too, considering that Lucas had limited resources in the 70s and 80s to populate those films with an abundance of creatures. I can barely remember any of the aliens in the ‘casino’ scenes in TLJ, since those scenes were a whole lot of nothing.
The ST is a lost cause all around. All things considered, these new films are pretty vapid. There have been so many missed opportunities for unique things.
I don’t blame Lucas for disowning the ST.
Yeah, Canto Bight and Takodana were totally devoid of aliens.
Also, the Rebel Alliance was almost entirely human, too.
“Also, the Rebel Alliance was almost entirely human, too.” was already explained in@Baron Karza:disqus post. Lucas did not have that much of a budget to throw enough aliens in the cast (still there was a Dresilian in the Endor strike team). Disney has, but Political Correctness says u have to put a girl, mexican, Chinese and muslim in R1 instead of having an alien in the team – at least there was space monkey and Pao in the infiltration team – their only luck was that those actors did a great job and the characters were good so i am willing to overlook this forced diversity, but they may not be that lucky with the next SW movie (am looking at u Solo).
In TLJ its even worse. We have plenty of PC SJW color diversity in the resistance, but think just 2 aliens (dont count Chewbacca) – indian girl, afro girl, asian girl (multiple shots to specifically show those girls like in the speeder sequence, endshot onboard Falcon), but minimum aliens, just Nien Nunb and the new one which was lucky enough to live through the movie up to the end 😀
You seem real hung up on race and women.
I agree with your point, but its just not worth talking about the “forced diversity” on SWNN. Probably a conversation for another place, and it’s not as if Disney will change. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the diversity, but as you said, it does seem like they are forcing it quite a bit
Agree that its at the edge of the galaxy.
But look at the lore of the planet (here the picture from the book)
Look above. There are no native species, the city was artificaly created for a huge amount of credits (like arabian countries are doing for the oil money – creating whole artifical islands)
“This opulent resort is the playground for the galaxy’s super rich”
So u can see a lot of humans, but no moon from the rich banking clan, any race from the rich core worlds.
The Banking Clan was nationalized by the Empire, it no longer exists.
Any source of that info ? Wookipedia has no info of the IGBC as canon during Empire, Legends sections just stating that it was under control of Empire – the wealthy people are remaining just serving another instance.
Also can imagine that there are no moons that managed to transfer enough wealth to their personal accounts.
Databank: http://www.starwars.com/databank/confederacy-of-independent-systems
“The Alliance’s leaders were executed on Mustafar, and the trade groups that had supported the cause became part of the new Empire.”
Also, the Clone Wars episode Crisis at the Heart ends with Palpatine taking direct control over the banks, dissolving the Banking Clan as a formal entity.
Also, Aftermath reveals Palpatine had Arsin Crassus transfer all of the Separatists’ financial assets to the Empire immediately after Vader killed their leaders.
All of which is to say, the Banking Clan is gone and its wealth used to fund the new Empire.
Databank: http://www.starwars.com/databank/confederacy-of-independent-systems
“The Alliance’s leaders were executed on Mustafar, and the trade groups that had supported the cause became part of the new Empire.”
Also, the Clone Wars episode Crisis at the Heart ends with Palpatine taking direct control over the banks, dissolving the Banking Clan as a formal entity.
Also, Aftermath reveals Palpatine had Arsin Crassus transfer all of the Separatists’ financial assets to the Empire immediately after Vader killed their leaders.
All of which is to say, the Banking Clan is gone and its wealth used to fund the new Empire.
Fair to say IGBC was absorbed by Empire, but still u need people to run it and manages at high posts to do the business – those people are still there and have still good salaries, or u think that Palpatine himself will set aside his career as a Sith lord ruling the galaxy and instead of becomming a full time banker ?
In CW it was shown that the moons management was still in charge, just now under the influence of Empire, but i dont believe that all those rich moons would all of a sudden lost all their accumulated wealth. OR is there any canon story that would say exactly that all the moons wealth was confiscated and the rich moons families were enslaved ?
The wealth of the Banking Clan was looted by the Empire and used to fund its military expansion, as per Aftermath.
I think it would be Muun instead of moon. I had a hard time understanding your reply before figuring that out.
ah yes, sorry there should be a spell checker with SW terms dictionary 😀 😀 😀
ST? – Star Trek?
Sequel Trilogy
Yeah, I feel the same way. It’s bothered me more with each sequel that comes out. Not too late to rectify it, but they’ll have to do something soon for it not to feel like a totally different universe.
Yeah, I feel the same way. It’s bothered me more with each sequel that comes out. Not too late to rectify it, but they’ll have to do something soon for it not to feel like a totally different universe.
A totally different universe with many of the same characters, vehicles and clear references to earlier events?
Princess leia talks specifically ab
out the outer rim when they send the call from crait. So I thought… They are in fact in another region of the galaxy. And in the last episode ( IX ) the final war , we get to see all the species again. I mean the very last saga episode, i dont expect a war between the resistance and first order. but on a much bigger scale. like the whole galaxy.
Check the official galaxy map and you’ll see D’Qar is not in another part of the galaxy. It’s close to Sullust, Naboo and Malastare. So we could have expected Sullustans (others than Nian Numb), Grans, even Dugs. Takodana is admittedly a bit stranded (close to Endor though but Ewoks don’t space travel). Cantonica, the planet of Canto Bight, is actually quite far away, close to Yavin.
Any close look at this map should rule out once and for all the whole “they are in a different part of the galaxy” argument to explain the disappearance of all established species.
https://i0.wp.com/media2.slashfilm.com/slashfilm/wp/wp-content/images/star-wars-galaxy-map.jpg
These maps are so helpful, but Im surprised that StarWars.com doesnt have a fully interactive map of the galaxy that they can update as needed with new planets.
because they want you to buy those books
Nobody is buying them for the map.
There is a book called: The Essential Atlas
A book filled just with maps and planet infos – bought this book exactly for maps
Another book i have for maps/locations is “Complete Locations” with crossection of location and that map is at the beginning
But that would require Ruin J. to have a bigger SW library of course, not just 2 books
The problem with these books like the Essential Atlas is that, as soon as a new movie is released (and by the way it goes it happens every year), the book ceases to be up to date.
That’s why there would be a need for an online map, updated with each movie. They could even use this to tease us by adding some planets even slightly before the movie is released.
seems they have no problem by updating the map in each Visual Dictionary for Epizode XYZ.
I have the E7 books (Visual dictionary + vehicles crossections), have the R1 where they combined VD with CS into one book, dont plan to buy E8 and E9 of the books
If solo is good ill buy he books for this one – hope they combine it to 1 book the same way as with R1.
Would also love the idea of online FREE stuff – but thats not a business to #Di$ney.
when i look at the map, another question pops up: How could they fly that kind of distance on just sublight speed in just feaw hours. This was only done in TESB from Hoth to Bespin and those are damn close.
I guess that’s the way hyperspace works. For instance, in ANH, they make rather a quick jump between Tatooine and the surroundings of Yavin (I guess Alderaan is not much further away). Also, in TPM, why would they stop near Tatooine on the road from Naboo to Coruscant if Tatooine is that clearly out of the way? I guess in ATC, there are also a handful examples of super-fast hyperspace travel.
I guess hyperspace completely mess up with actual distances so we cannot take this map as a reliable tool to assess time travels through this particular medium.
Im not pointing on the hyperspace travel. Im talking about the dotted line between DQar and Crait – it was done by normal sublight flying not via hyperspace. It was also specified that the filght took only several hours.
There was a small hyperspace jump as well that the FO tracked. That probably is some of the distance
There was a small hyperspace jump as well that the FO tracked. That probably is some of the distance
Yes, you’ve been faster than me.
Oh, yes, sorry, I misread your question.
That’s a fairly easy one, actually! In TLJ, they were clearly able to make a jump through hyperspace after escaping D’Qar. So, they are not exactly in the same part of the galaxy anymore when the chase takes place, and hence it makes perfectly sense to be close to Crait at that time.
Ok, good point. Yes they could be already in the same system as Crait. So one less plot hole in TLJ
Ok, good point. Yes they could be already in the same system as Crait. So one less plot hole in TLJ
I think here is not the place to discuss it (although I would enjoy it!) but I believe most plot holes from TLJ are patched once you see the movie several times. At least it happened for me.
Wow! Nice work on the research, I own the visual guide but didn’t think to check this. Really good!
Another concern of mine, but not quite the same as the one made in the post, is also the lack of aliens in the new EU material. I think comics are fine in this regard, but then:
– in Phasma, you have lambs, chickens, a clumsy description of what can only be a dog.
– in the Canto Bight collection of novellas, if you check the “Appearences – Creatures section” on Wookieepedia, you have :
* Fish
* Mammal
* Mentions of Rats, Salamanders, Fleas, Birds, Insects, Dog, Coral
* Reptile
The only aliens would be Fathiers, and mentions of Bantha, Gundark and Mynock.
It would seem to me that there is an overall tendency to neglect galactic lore, especially regarding aliens. In this regard, I strongly appreciated to see a relatively rich alien life on Ach-To in TLJ.
The Star Wars universe is vast though – so its possible that some alien species have barely made it to other planets or star systems. Also we don’t know what kind of classes or social strata’s some of these aliens belong to. For example, If I was in a casino in London for example, I would see many white Europeans, I might see some wealthy Asians, maybe some Africans – I guarantee I would not see any native Peruvians. Now times that by what a million percent? Its entirely likely you’re not going to run into the same species, even if you do have sub light travel.
The problem is, in the Canto Bight collection of novellas, it is explicitly stated that you have, in the casino, Klatooinians, Gamorreans, Twi’Leks, Trandoshans, Wookiees, Devaronians, Ithorians, Nautolans, Nimbanels, Pantorans, Quermians, Rodians, Sullustans. The list is quite long.
So, why the hell are they not appearing in the movies? They’re all there, it’s certified canon!
Now let me handle your argument (which has been made throughout the discussion so it’s nothing personal and you actually shaped it out in an interesting way). I agree that, in a casino in London, you would hardly see Peruvians. But, then, take a casino in London, and a casino in Lima. Surely there will not be a lot of Polish people in the latter, while there is a fairly reasonable probability to find one in the London casino. So, that’s your argument so far.
But the real question is: what would be the probability to find completely different ethnic groups in one and the other, that is, the probability that there is not any single ethnic group (except, say, the most represented ethnic group on Earth, whatever it is) to be present in both casinos?
I would say the odds are very low. Most likely, there will be a chance to find some ethnic group which is represented in both casinos as well (if you enjoy maths, a binomial law where you assign the same very low probability for each ethnic group to show up would tell you that this event is extremely unlikely).
That’s exactly the point made in this great article. We expect to see new species, for sure; but there should be, in the background of the new movies, at least one or two representatives of the species that we already know.
Thanks for bringing this casino story on the table. I think it helps to clarify things a bit.
Very interesting article. We share your concern, let’s hope (at least) to see Greedo or Jabba in Solo. From Argentina, May the force be with you all!
Very interesting article. We share your concern, let’s hope (at least) to see Greedo or Jabba in Solo. From Argentina, May the force be with you all!
I only can believe in 300 species of alien, more would be improbable. And human alien are the most important of the universe, cause they are smart enough to elect Trump and to defend flat Earth
This is my biggest issue with the new movies. It ahouldsho be that difficult to throw some familiar species in the background here.
I totally agree with this article… Bring back more species from the OT and PT… 🙂
Another one of those ‘small’ issues in the sequels that really makes no sense at all. Because this was chosen at one point, to agree on not putting familiar aliens in. Can’t wrap my head around it.
I think, like with almost all of the decisions made for TFA and the ST in general, it was a decision made in order to distance themselves from the PT. Which is a huge shame, in my opinion, as the PT made Star Wars into a world that was so wonderfully imaginative and dense.
I totally agree and I think this is a point that should not be underestimated. I think this is one of the reasons why the new sequels do not reach the Star Wars Feel for me. Many of the new Aliens seem not fitting, as if they came out of The Fith Element. The already known species are absolutely missing!!!
Bravo!!!