Why This Ridiculous Alien Never Made It Into 'Return Of The Jedi'

And For Very Good Reasons

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

Star Wars is known for its wide array of planets and various alien races that have come to life in the franchise's more than forty years history of its existence. Legendary VFX expert Phil Tippet is now revealing a design that did not make the final cut of Return of the Jedi. Tippet has been the VFX artist on the original Star Wars trilogy. Some of his most impressive work for the series included such creatures as the Rancor and the Gamorrean guards of Jabba the Hutt’s palace. Tippet had said that he always wanted to make everything in Star Wars seem as realistic as possible to try and make fans believe in the designs.

Tippet was tagged in a Twitter post to show us one particular design that did not make the cut. Known simply as the Lightman, it is exactly what the name implies. It is an alien covered in what looks like simple household light bulbs. Tippet commented that the creature was scrapped because it "looked just like that" and "everyone laughed.”

Tippet backed up his claims with a simple explanation on Twitter, which was literally a bodysuit covered in light bulbs and long dangling arms coupled with a very awkward body movement style. There is no question that in comparison to other amazing aliens and creatures this one just did not stack up. Tippet has been known for creating practical creatures, especially given when this movie was made and how it came to be. This is one of the rare misfires from the original trilogy given that the aliens are one of the things people praise the most.

Fans even went as far as to criticize the prequel trilogy for not using more of Tippet's amazing work in a more modern VFX style. As it was set before the original trilogy, it would have been easy to keep the continuity alive and make it look sleeker. This has been corrected in recent shows such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett with each capitalizing on the old-school aesthetic and vibe. Fans have seen the Sarlaac pit and the Rancor both return in the new Disney+ series, and both are done with care and respect to Tippet’s prior work on the films. It is nice to see a return to form for Star Wars with the return to the more practical-looking creatures.

Tippet has teased in the past that many amazing designs have been cut from the series. It is pretty much guaranteed the Lightman creature is not one of those creatures he is referring to with those comments. It is safe to say that even the best of the best can slip up from time to time. At least fans can rejoice at the fact the producers all recognized it as a poor design and immediately chose to scrap the concept.

It would be cool to see the creatures that Tippet did cut. Maybe some of them could eventually find their way into future works within the series. Maybe others are just cool creatures that would look fantastic in a book of unreleased concept art. It is very unique regardless of the poor design and allows us to get some insight into the mind of the man who brought the alien creatures to life within this world.

While it remains to be seen if Tippet has any other cool tidbits up his sleeve regarding past Star Wars character designs, fans can enjoy all of their favorites and take solace in the fact that Lightman will forever remain where it belongs—on a backlot of cutscenes and creature designs that never made it into the films.

Written By Kenneth Belliveau

Source(s): Screen Rant

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