Current or Previously Unidentified Species 301-350

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 301 UPDATES: The more I compare them, the more I am convinced that this bust is the same as the one I highlighted on DAY 608, which appeared in “Star Wars (2015) #12” a while back!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 302 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 303 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 304 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 305 UPDATES: Relatively recently I realized that this species, and specifically this character, reappears 20 issues later in Star Wars (1977) #99 where we get a slightly updated look at them!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 306 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 307 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 308 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 309 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 310 UPDATES: Something happened to the concept art’s integrity after I scheduled it, so here is a higher quality version of the concept art by Tim Napper. I’ve been asked multiple times where the species appears in the film, so on the right, I have also included the brief moment in which the “Colonel’s” head can be seen!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 311 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 312 UPDATES: Like with Pili Walde on Day 262, this is one of the final new species to be linked to an artist, or in this case, an entire art studio. Little Red Zombies Studios, an Indian 3D Character Production company, shared the below production art on their ArtStation, and since they don’t attribute any single artists to their Jedi Survivor models, it is very possible Bhima is the result of a collaborative effort. Like I mentioned with Pili, it is very possible that this species was also actually first designed on-paper by Jean-francois Rey, who sketched out a lot of the other new species from the game, which were then translated into 3D models by other various artists. This, unfortunately, cannot be confirmed until the game’s official artbook is released in early 2024!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 313 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 314 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 315 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 316 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: Ensel

DAY 317 UPDATES: This design always just seemed so familiar to me. Some people suggested Arcona or even Blood Carver when I made the initial post, however, it wasn’t until I started watching “The Making of Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)” that all of the pieces started falling in place! At a certain point in the doc we see a table full of aliens sculpts ready to be presented to George Lucas, primarily so that he can select a design for the character Dexter Jettster. Some of the “rejected” designs found life as Jedi or Separatists in the film, others were recycled as the Jedi busts spread around the temple archives, and others still seem to have been lost to obscurity. Among them is one that instantly reminded me of this species, despite not being able to gather the clearest of picture.

When posting these revelations, a fellow fan pointed out that they all resembled a few prequel-era designs. That was when my memory was jogged about a species I’d written an article about back when I first started my writer’s guide: the Ensel! Based directly off of concept art for a Jedi Master named Alta Ranga, the Jedi and his species, the Ensel, were made official in EU lore and appear to have just missed out on being featured in Attack of the Clones, with a fully body maquette even being made at some point. Here the similarities are a lot more evident, with a shorter neck than the bust above, as well as the same little set of flesh lobes protruding from the top of the species’ head, as seen on the background species in War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1!

I have now reached out to Charles Soule to see if he knows one way or another, or if he could possibly contact Steve McNiven for confirmation, and am excitedly awaiting a reply. If we get one, I will update this article immediately! (In the meantime I would like to add that we now have confirmation that the above maquette busts were 100% used for the Alta Ranga design as soon in this official production continuity sheet found for Attack of the Clones!)

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 318 UPDATE: So Daniel Jose Older actually commented with a correction, confirming that the illustrator was actually Harvey Tolibao and not Toni Bruno.

I usually just add the “Author” and “Penciller” from Wookieepedia into the Creator field and call it a day, but this one confuses me a bit. Issue #6’s cover features Tolibao’s name but features no credit for Bruno, yet the interior page lists Tolibao as the cover artist and Bruno as the illustrator (which mirrors the info seen on Wookieepedia, although they have Bruno listed as penciller and colorist).

So I guess the question is which source do you trust, the printed credits or the direct words from someone who created the issue? I’m definitely more inclined to believe that the credits can be misattributed during the publishing process, although I suppose the situation could be more nuanced than that. Maybe Bruno and Tolibao both helped illustrate the issue and Tolibao was responsible for that particular layout or the design of Barbatash. I guess at the end of the day it doesn’t matter all too much in regards to the continuity of an unidentified species, but I still like to give proper attribution whenever possible, both to have a source of insight regarding each species’ design as well as just to highlight various Star Wars creators’ various skill, imagination, and creativity!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 319 UPDATES: A species with very similar traits, specifically with the glasses-like eye growths, appears in other issues of this series as well, however, it has some noticeably different details as well, including a triple set of horns. They will be featured on Day 415, which has been scheduled out but not posted as of the addition of this update. I’ll come back once it’s been posted to include more examples/images!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 320 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 321 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 322 UPDATES: The 2023 High Republic Character Encyclopedia apparently lists Rado’s species as “Unknown,” so it sounds like we’ve still got a ways to go before we get anything official on this little guy…

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 323 UPDATES: Thanks to Ben Lee’s ArtStation portfolio, we now know that Tulli Mu was design by Jean-francois Rey (initial sketch) and Lee (3D model)! I currently only have the 3D renders, but I hope to have access to the collection of the sketches once I get my hands on the Jedi: Survivor art book!

The image filename also includes the term “Snalien” which I’m assuming is in reference to the species’ design, presumably a nickname used behind the scenes. This confuses me a bit because I was fairly confident that this design was inspired by some sort of stickbug or a similar insect, however, I suppose the eyestalks are snail or slug-like. Now I’m curious whether Snalien could be considered the species’ official name, or just a gag between designers. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 324 UPDATES: Well, Quadpaw was eventually revealed to be our first Canon Jillsarian! Now it makes me wonder if, given the chance, would they have retroactively confirmed this to be a Jillsarian as well? Definitely fits the general appearance.

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 325 UPDATES: Nothing to specifically add about this species, but just for good measure, I’ll link the follow up tweets about Aau’s Species, the Korbans, below!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 326 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: Human

DAY 327 UPDATES: So a few weeks after I scheduled this tweet out but a few weeks before it was posted a Topps collectible trading card was released that confirmed Tetha Grig was indeed just a Human. This means that the prosthetics on the side of her head and cheek are simply scarring, some sort of “space tattoo,” or possibly even evidence of her being a half-Human hybrid (could still count). Almost went back and replaced it with another species for Day 327, but I didn’t have any entries ready and was on vacation when the tweet went live so left it and just posted a correction shortly after it was posted. Just a reminder of the dangers of scheduling this tweets out over a month in advance. Hopefully this doesn’t happen too often, and we learn more about this character someday with an explanation for the raised markings!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 328 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 329 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: The character continues to appear alongside Marchion Ro in THR media, though still does not have a species.

DAY 330 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 331 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 332 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 333 UPDATES: The species that would eventually become my face on Fandom/Wookieepedia!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 334 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 335 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 336 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 337 UPDATES: This post generated a really fun chain of official Star Wars creators tagging each other to identify who may have created this design. Brian Herring, the lead puppeteer/operator for BB-8, was the first to take notice of the lack of creator attribution. He tagged official concept artists Luke D Fisher and friend of the series Jake Lunt Davies for additional information and to see if the design was brought to life by Lucasfilm CFX (Creature Effects) or the Costume Department. Fisher hasn’t been active on Twitter/X for some time, but Davies was quick to respond and confirmed that this design originated from Costume, which is somewhat unusual but not unheard of for a unique species design like this.

As for the creator, Davies tagged costume designer and artist Glyn Dillon to see if he knew anymore about it. Dillon was finally able to pinpoint the species origins as, at least partially, coming from the mind of Creature Effects Supervisor Neal Scanlan! Dillon wasn’t sure where to find, or even if there was any concept art for the design, although Scanlan occasionally delves into drawing his own concepts, so he may actually be the sole “Creator” (not counting the various other ILM/Effects staff who contributed to the costume’s creation, who are generally just understood to have had a hand in the process, but should also still be acknowledged from time to time). I did point out that the sort of raw, almost grotesque, fleshy design of the species bore similarities to the trademarks of concept artist Ivan Manzella’s designs, however, Herring reached out to him personally as he is not on the platform, and he denied designing the species. (I also recently got to create the Wookieepedia article for this species: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Unidentified_worm-like_species.)

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 338 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 339 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 340 UPDATES: So apparently Pablo Hidalgo has stated somewhere in the past, or at least hinted, that Naare and Dryden Vos are indeed probably the same species. Unfortunately, despite commenters bringing this to my attention, and Wookieepedia actually mentioning this on Naare’s page, it is currently not referenced and I cannot figure out where this came from. If it was tweeted (which is usually how most Hidalgo info is obtained), then that tweet must not have been archived. And if the hint was relayed some other way, I cannot find where or why, so until I do, we’ll leave this with a grain of salt (not that confirmation will help all that much anyway since Vos’ species is still unidentified anyway).

Fortunately, Keeper of the Holocron Leland Chee also made brief reference to this which was archived, though I still wish we could find the original Pablo thread as well!

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 341 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 342 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 343 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 344 UPDATES: What I thought was a straightforward entry actually spiraled into a bit of confusion on the creators’ end. The first person to comment was Ethan Sacks, who agreed with my note about the species presumably being a Zygerrian, but specified he didn’t choose a specific species for this character so he couldn’t say for 100% sure. He then tagged artist Paolo Villanelli, which is where things got a little bit confusing. He claims to remember making this character a species from Saw Gerrera forces in Rogue One, saying he thinks the species he based the majordomo on was originally grey. He also reveals it’s possibly he could be mistaken, maybe confusing this species’ development with one from another issue or comic. Who’s to say, although he did reinforce the idea that he was pretty sure this character was not an original species from his imagination, and was pre-established.

After revealing where he though the species’ origins may have resided, the only species I could think of that might have fit the bill were the Meftians, as seen above. I did a little extra digging and didn’t unveil anything else of note, so I commented a picture of the Meftians to Paolo’s tweet to maybe help jog his memory, but pointed out that, despite being grey, they don’t share many traits with the species in question. In fact, none of Saw’s soldiers really resembled the majordomo’s, with the Sabat possibly being the closest but still very different. After Paolo saw a picture of the Meftian, he said he was going to do some “mail diggin” to see if he could uncover the species’ origins for sure. Ethan Sacks replied with a GIF about solving the mystery and reaffirmed that he still believed the species in question is just a Zygerrian… and that’s where our story ends. No additional comments or replies; presumably these men are very busy so I’m just thankful they even took the time to respond as much as they did. I love that we can get direct insight from creators thanks to Twitter/X, and I still definitely believe the highlighted species is a Zygerrian, but it looks like this mystery will remain unsolved. For now.

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 345 UPDATES: I was finally able to track down the full archive of “Design An Alien” entries, which includes full descriptions of each one. This one in particular was described by Aaron Reeder as a mixture of Ewok, Wookiee, and Yoda’s species.

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 346 UPDATES: N/A

SPECIES: (still unidentified)

DAY 347 UPDATES: A number of very similar species appear in the background of other issues of both Star Wars (1977) and Star Wars Weekly, not all by the same illustrator. But given the generic nature of their reptilian design, it’s extremely hard to say whether or not they’re intended to be the same. In fact, the two individuals in the page above may not have been intended to be the same (more than likely so, if we’re being honest). Species consistency, especially regarding one-off/background designs, were of very little consequence back in this era. The illustrators usually just sort of drew whatever random alien came to mind and called it a day, which is fun when you’re a reader, but not when you’re a researcher like me. Anyway, if I ever come across any nearly identical species from this time period, I will probably just include them here instead of creating additional posts for them. So far we have seen an extremely similar design in the small crowd on the left from the below panel in Star Wars Weekly #104.