Star Wars: Meet the Creatures and Droids in Rogue One

What is Star Wars without its creatures and droids? From sleek machines to giant furry creatures to human-size amphibians, Rogue One seems to be keeping the fantastical tradition alive. Creature-effect supervisor Neal Scanlan introduced us to a few newcomers. Ahead, an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly’s collector’s edition of The Ultimate Guide to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, on newsstands now.

Warwick Davis has played various characters in three Star Wars movies — and in Rogue One he’s back as a wrinkly member of Saw Gerrera’s (Forest Whittaker) team. “Warwick is performing pretty blind inside the animatronic head,” Creature-effect supervisor Neal Scanlan says. “He is cocooned in his [costume], and his imagination brings such incredible life to his performance.” Though Weeteef is a good rebel, his look was inspired by a mean fish. “We thought of a piranha,” says Scanlan, pointing out that Weeteef’s name is slang (wee teeth) for his tiny, sharp incisors.

“It was a passion of Gareth’s to find this character — and we really think he’s going to be the next big breakout droid,” says creature-effect supervisor Neal Scanlan. (More about the newest Star Wars droid, voiced by Alan Tudyk, can be found here.)

Unless there’s a big surprise in store, Rogue One will be the first Star Wars movie without the presence of everybody’s favorite bleeping best friend, R2-D2. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any of his kind. “There was a lot of thought given to making changes to the R2 units while staying within the protocol of what’s been established,” says Scanlan. The C2-B5, he continues, “is a product of that imagination.” As you might guess from the black finish, this droid belongs to the Empire.

The Star Wars furry club has included the Wookiee Chewbacca, the Ewoks, and the snowbound Wampa that almost eats Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s about time for a new hairy critter. “We jokingly said that somewhere along the line, a rather amorous Wookiee had met a rather amorous Wampa,” Scanlan says. Moroff, who’s fitted with a voice-translation box on his mouth, is part of the Rebel fighting force and particularly useful for carrying heavy cargo on his back — though he’s not exactly the most cooperative beast of burden. “Whenever he’s asked to do something, he does it begrudgingly,” Scanlan says. “But whatever his short, grumpy reaction to a command might be, his voice box is always politically correct, saying, ‘Yes, of course I will!'”

Breathing assistance is not a new concept for Star Wars characters, even though the coughing and heavy wheezing are often reserved for villains like Darth Vader or General Grievous. But despite the apparatus on his face (inspired by gas masks from the First and Second World Wars), Benthic is no friend of the Empire. In Rogue One, he’s allied with the Rebels to fight back against the evil forces that conquered his home planet, and rendered him a refugee. The oxygen is strong with this one.