Warning: SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker are ahead!
Following the opening crawl that revealed that Emperor Palpatine was still alive, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker kicked off with a montage showing Kylo Ren on a mission to find a Sith wayfinder, which pointed him to Palpatine’s lair on Exegol. Kylo found the wayfinder on Grandaddy Darth Vader’s old stomping grounds, Mustafar, and while there, the original plan was for him to confront a spider-like being called the Eye of Webbish Bog.
While this alien was absent from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s theatrical cut, concept artwork of the Eye of Webbish Bog has been making the rounds over the last few months, and if Neal Scanlan, The Rise of Skywalker’s creature and special make-up effects creative supervisor, has his way, this freaky alien will show up elsewhere in a galaxy far, far away, specifically The Mandalorian.
Here’s what Neal Scanlan had to say to Collider about the creation of the Eye of Webbish Bog and shooting its scene for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker:
That was a character that was designed very early on in the day. Jake Lunt [Davies], who’s one of my concept designers, we were all playing around with this idea and talking about it and he did this drawing and J.J. [Abrams] saw it and went, ‘That is amazing.’ It was one of those moments where it was like, ‘This has to be in the movie.’ So we actually did build it and we took it to a place called Black Park in the UK, which is close to Pinewood Studios, where we shot it in a lake on location, and that sequence exists. Unfortunately it didn’t make it to the movie story, plot-wise, etc. It was a fully practical character shot in a location, and it is amazing.
Sometimes there are scenes included in a movie’s script that just don’t end up being shot, and other times a scene will make it in front of the camera, but is removed due to time constraints or other issues. Kylo Ren’s confrontation with the Eye of Webbish Bog falls into the latter category, and it sounds like Neal Scanlan and the rest of the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker scene didn’t skimp on bringing this scene to life.
When Kylo Ren met the Eye of Webbish Bog, this creature, which has a symbiotic relationship with a blind giant, claimed it has been tasked by Darth Vader to look after the wayfinder, and with Kylo Ren having eliminated the cultists protecting it, Mr. Bog directed the First Order’s Supreme Leader to the location of the artifact. Regarding why this particular scene was cut from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Neal Scanlan suspected it was “too lengthy an explanation” for something that director J.J. Abrams was able to explain in the movie “much quicker, eventually.”
It’s unclear if the Eye of Webbish Bog scene will be included on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s home media release, although it will be among the many cut plot points included in the movie’s novelization. As for the prospects of seeing the Eye of Webbish Bog elsewhere in the Star Wars universe, Neal Scanlan had this to say:
I hope that we can maybe bring that back in some way shape or form on the TV series [The Mandalorian] or that we can revisit that character in some way, because it was a haunting image and a very unusual image. But one which I think was incredibly Star Wars. So yeah, somewhere there’s footage of that.
Airing its first season across Disney+’s first two months of existence, The Mandalorian has been a huge hit for the streaming service and opened up a new corner for the Star Wars franchise, following along with the eponymous protagonist five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The Mandalorian Season 2 will arrive towards the end of this year, and along with there being a good chance of the series scoring another season after that, there are also spinoffs being considered.
Assuming that the Eye of Webbish Bog is being kept in good condition, it’s wouldn’t be a bad idea to pull the creature out of storage and include it in The Mandalorian, although the chances of it still appearing on Mustafar seem slim. If that doesn’t end up being in the cards, here’s hoping Mr. Bog can at least show up in a novel or comic book series so we can learn more about what its deal is.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker comes out on Digital HD March 17, and the Blu-ray and DVD copies will hit shelves on March 31. For information on the movies coming to theaters later this year, look through our 2020 release schedule.
