In today’s issue of EMPIRE, Neal Scanlan — the Oscar-winning head of the Creature Workshop for Star Wars — follows up his previous interview about porgs and more by explaining another cool new creature in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The creature above — spotted in Wednesday’s episode of The Star Wars Show — is an elf-like equine that looks like something Jim Henson would have eventually made if he took antibiotics. Scanlan reveals this animal is called a Fathier, and he explained the stately creature to EMPIRE (via Screen Rant).
“Fathiers have the power and majestic quality that one might find in a male lion and also beauty in their equine aspects. They’re racing creatures, with bets placed upon them, and are subjected to slightly cruel treatment. We knew any version of those in a wide shot would be CG but we produced a real-scale practical version for the first encounter with a Fathier, so it was able to look over the stable door and Finn could touch and act with it. They’re amazing creatures.”
The Fathiers are found on Canto Bight, a high-class gambling destination where Finn (John Boyega) and Resistance member Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) go on a mission, reportedly enlisting the help of Benicio del Toro’s character, a shady codebreaker of some sort (and one of God’s own prototypes). Mild spoiler: during filming, Boyega and Tran were spotted riding on the back of a Fathier as part of a chase sequence.
So now we know what that fancy space-horse is, but we still have unanswered questions about this other character seen in the same montage during The Star Wars Show:
WHO IS SHE?
(Via EMPIRE Magazine and Screen Rant)