Everyone thought the Porgs, those cute lil’ animals from The Last Jedi, were basically space penguins. Turns out they’re actually puffins, because Skellig Michael (aka Luke’s Island) is so covered with the birds that it was easier for the VFX team to just work with them than try and cut them out of the movie.
, is why we’re here), but also reveals their very practical origins.
“From what I gathered, Rian [Johnson] had gone to shoot this sequence on Skellig Michael, which is the real island location that stands in for Ahch-To, and that island is covered in puffins”, he told the site. “It’s a wildlife preserve and everywhere you look there are hundreds of birds dotted around the landscape.”
“From what I gathered, Rian, in a positive spin on this, was looking at how can he work with this. You can’t remove them. You physically can’t get rid of them. And digitally removing them is an issue and a lot of work, so let’s just roll with it, play with it. And so I think he thought, ‘Well, that’s great, let’s have our own indigenous species.’
Which doesn’t explain the Space Nuns, but whatever.
There’s some concept art from the development of the Porgs below.
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Comments
7 responses to “The Last Jedi’s Porgs Are Just Puffins, Which The Film Crew Couldn’t Get Rid Of”
In 1977 Chewbacca would’ve eaten the bloody thing.
Good way to introduce more cute shit to turn into toys to sell to Star Wars addicts.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the movie, but I thought the Porgs were great little addition!
Nothing wrong with that. How else would there be merchandise to be sold based on the IP to have profit over the next 2 years until the next star wars
you do realise the only reason so many of us who grew up with Star Wars and claim it is the greatest thing ever is because of toy sales as much as the film itself. Without the toys would it have still hit such a mark. I doubt it.
Yes because that is so against the great tradition of Star Wars, never in its history has it made story decisions solely to make money off merch
How is it easier to use CGI to turn a bird into another bird than it is to turn a bird into a rock or piece of grass?
Are the franchise arm of Lucas films missing a trick, anyone remember Garfield and the window sticker version, why not do the same with this porg, as depicted in the last Jedi, it would be cool and make millions, ps I want a cut as it’s my idea.