It may seem hard to believe, but the original fate for Babu Frik – as it has been for so many characters later saved like Lando Calrissian and Poe Dameron – was to perish in The Rise of Skywalker, but it appears that a timely intervention from Steven Spielberg saved the day.
Talking to Empire Magazine, Neal Scanlan shed some light on this unlikely saviour, which came about after Spielberg saw an early cut of the film, once again firming up his own decades long connection to the saga.
“It could be a rumour, but I believe JJ screened the movie for Steven Spielberg, and at the end Spielberg said, ‘What happened to Babu?'” Everybody thought, ‘Oh God, what did happen to Babu?'”
Concept artist Ivan Manzella added,
“I think he was going to die originally – I think the AD shot that. When the planet [Kijimi] was blown up, he was on it.”
Scanlan continues.
“We shot several other sequences. The ILM guys found one, lifted out Babu and put him into Zorii’s ship at the end.”
So, thanks to Steven Spielberg and the magic of ILM Babu Frik lives to weld another day.
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