Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker cut a tribute to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Though the final installment of the Skywalker saga came to an end this past December, the home video release of the film arrives at the end of this month.
The Rise of Skywalker may have greatly divided fans, but the film does its best to maintain a connection to the vast Star Wars legacy that came before it. This is certainly no easy task, given the history that the franchise encompasses and the talent that has helped to make Star Wars what it currently is. What began with George Lucas over 40 years ago has formed a variety of connections with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, allowing Lucas to expand his creativity into other like-minded filmmakers’ projects. One of those like-minded creatives was the late Jim Henson. In addition to crossover cameos of Star Wars characters in some of Henson’s most popular projects such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, Lucas was also responsible for executive producing Labyrinth. The 1986 Henson directed fantasy starred David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, and remains a cult favorite even today.
Though Henson passed away 30 years ago this May, Oscar-winning FX artist Neal Scanlan, who worked on Labyrinth and has since gone on to work on the Star Wars franchise, wanted to honor the iconic puppeteer and filmmaker in Rise of Skywalker. According to Yahoo, while working on Labyrinth, Scanlan recalls watching the character of Ludo being built and Henson seeing the character. While building the creatures for Rise of Skywalker, Scanlan decided that it would be great to create a version of Ludo for the Star Wars universe. The homage to Ludo was meant to appear during the portion of Rise of Skywalker where Rey, Finn and Poe travel to the wintry planet of Kijimi. Unfortunately, the scene has been cut from the film. You can see a photo of the Star Wars character below, as well as Scanlan’s explanation:
“To my knowledge, he didn’t make the movie. He may be in the Kijimi bar momentarily. If he is, some fan might pick up on it, and say, ‘Oh, that looks like Ludo.’ And they’d be right! He was envisaged the same way and performed in exactly the same way, because that technology was amazing in its day and still is, in my opinion.”
For those who aren’t quite sure who Ludo is in Labyrinth, he’s the large sloth-like creature who befriends and aids Sarah (Connelly) on her journey to rescue her baby brother from the evil Goblin king, Jareth (Bowie). The Star Wars version of the character is indeed quite similar, but it’s very unfortunate that after all the time and effort that went into creating him, he’s been cut from the film. Perhaps worse still is that the upcoming home video release of Rise of Skywalker does not include any deleted scenes, which means that there still won’t be a chance for fans to see the Henson tribute, even as a DVD/Blu-Ray extra feature.
For Jim Henson fans, this news will likely be a major disappointment. It may also serve to further fuel the fire against J.J. Abrams, who some Star Wars fans are upset with over his handling of the sequel trilogy. If there is an upside to all this, however, it’s that given the history and extensiveness of the Star Wars franchise, the Henson homage character’s scene stands a good chance of appearing at some point. Exactly when or how that opportunity will come about, though, is anyone’s guess.
Source: Yahoo