Via USAtoday.com:
Aliens, creatures and droids are as much a part of Star Wars movie lore as starships, lightsabers and Death Stars.

Neal Scanlan, the Oscar-winning creature-effects supervisor for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, created 110 decidedly colorful non-human characters for the blockbuster seventh movie in the saga. A few play key roles and the vast majority are akin to cosmic window dressing, but Scanlan made sure to give all 110 of them names and backstories.

“There were certain aliens that we made than, even during the shooting process clearly transcended from being just a background alien to having an authority or likability,” explains Scanlan, part of the Force Awakens team nominated for a visual-effects Academy Award this year.

“Should the human race of Star Wars die tomorrow, any one of these characters could take the mantle and become the next species that dominated the universe.”

George Lucas’ original Star Wars movie trilogy had a certain tangibility in its world but also a sense of familiarity with its aliens, according to Scanlan — folks like the green-skinned bounty hunter Greedo or Jabba the Hutt’s little monkey-lizard buddy Salacious B. Crumb became cult favorites in fandom.

Some in The Force Awakens have the same potential: BB-8 of course is the droid of the moment, but the movie also offers blubbery Jakku junk boss (Simon Pegg), Beastie Boys-inspired X-wing pilot Ello Asty, and Captain Ithano, Quiggold and the rest of the crew at Max Kanata’s castle on Takodana, the pop-culture successor to the Mos Eisley cantina.

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