‘Rogue One’: ‘Star Wars’ Character Inspired By Winston Churchill

During a new behind-the-scenes video for Rogue One, we got a glimpse of another member of Admiral Ackbar’s race joining the Star Wars cannon. The character, identified as Admiral Raddus, is said to be inspired by none other than British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

Neal Scanlan, the creature effects supervisor, had the following to say about using Churchill for inspiration in Rogue One:

“We always tried to find a real world example of who these creatures may be, and in this case we used Churchill, Admiral Raddus is a very strong figure. We would use [Churchill] not only as visual reference for his physical features, but also when it came to performing him and expressing him through the actor.”

“You try to look at a famous actor, or a statesperson or something like that. Someone you could use.”

“It helps to have someone to reference in the real world. It grounds our creatures and ideas, we use these references to pull these creatures back and make them feel like they belong here in our world.”

The race Raddus and Ackbar belong to is called the Mon Calamari, a boiled lobster looking species often seen in military positions of power. Ackbar had previously been the only Mon Calamari somewhat important to the Star Wars films, but that will change with Rogue One.

Scanlan also mentioned some other famous people various aliens were modeled after including Bela Lugosi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef, and Peter Lorre. Scanlan warned however that he wasn’t sure which of these background characters would make it into the final cut of the film.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16th, 2016.

Source: EW