Star Wars’ 14-ton Creature Build Never Came to the Screen

As Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has finished its theater run and will release on DVD and Blu-Ray at the end of March, more behind-the-scenes details are arriving. One is a preview of The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which features concept art from the movie. And from this book are details of a creature called the Oracle. This 14-ton puppet would have been larger than Jabba the Hutt. But it never made it to the screen.

The beginning of Kylo Ren’s storyline in The Rise of Skywalker is searching for a Sith wayfinder. There were a few different versions of this quest pitched before the movie. An early one featured Ren trekking to a swampy planet much like Dagobah to meet with the Oracle. The Art of Star Wars book features some freakish concept designs for this creature. J.J. Abrams ultimately settled on a six-legged being that traversed across the swampy waters while riding on the head of some sort of large monster.

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This storyline was set in stone enough that the production crew began to build it. Neal Scanlan, creature and droid effects supervisor, said in the book:

The Oracle is the biggest silicon pour we have ever done. The guys who did Bor Gullet for [Rogue One] approached this one in a rather off-handed way. To their credit, they did it in one pour. It was nearly twenty-eight thousand pounds . . . Isn’t it odd that we just kind of approach this stuff in a slightly easygoing way, whereas a few years ago that would have just been a nightmare? Now, it just seems that’s the norm.”

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Bor Gullet was the strange tentacle monster used by Sol Guerrera to interrogate prisoners. The Oracle would have required nine puppeteers that operated two eyes, one head, and six legs. Jabba the Hutt only weighed 2,000 pounds and needed three puppeteers.

Early images of the Oracle were leaked in January of 2020, but now details have come to light. The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be available to purchase on March 31, 2020.