Featured Image Credit: 20th Century Fox
Topics: Star Wars, TV And Film, Lucasfilm, Disney
I never thought that seeing a behind-the-scenes image from a favourite childhood film of mine could induce nightmares, and yet here are.
An image taken from behind-the-scenes footage of Return of the Jedi has resurfaced online, although I kind of wish it hadn’t.
The image, which was uploaded online by Star Wars creature designer Jake Lunt Davies, shows a close look at the Ewok costumes without all the fur covering them up.
What we’re left with is a short, smooth yellow creature that I can only describe as a Mad God-style crossover between Shrek and Winnie the Pooh.
Advert
Take a look at the image for yourself.
As interesting as behind-the-scenes looks are, I can’t imagine I’ll be able to divorce this image from the cute, cuddly teddy bears we grew to love in Return of the Jedi.
The actor in the costume is none other than Warwick Davis, who played Wicket the Ewok in the 1983 film.
Although Jake Lunt Davies has worked on Star Wars as creature designer across many projects since Disney began producing them, he did not design the Ewoks or work on the original trilogy.
The creatures were originally conceptualised by George Lucas.
It was Lucas’ original intent for Wookiees to participate in the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope, but the idea was scrapped and later reused with a different species for Return of the Jedi.
Stuart Freeborn was then tasked with designing them for the third film in the original trilogy. He was a makeup supervisor for all three films.
In addition to designing the Ewoks, Freeborn is also credited with transforming Peter Mayhew into Chewbacca, and he also designed creatures like Jabba the Hutt and Yoda.
It’s a good job these shaved Ewoks weren’t the final design by Freeborn. Although they may have looked a bit more intimidating to go up against the Empire, I think I definitely prefer their adorable, furry look.