This week’s sixth episode of Skeleton Crew ‘Zero Friends Again‘ not only delivered the KB episode we’ve been waiting for since week one but also a new and terrifying creature from Tippett Studios, the enormous Megapagurus Detritiphorus (aka Tet’niss the Mama Crab) that stalks KB and Wim across the wreckage of Lapuna. Speaking with StarWars.com, visual effects supervisor Chris “CMo” Morley explains how this creation came about, including some familiar pieces of junk attached to the crab.
Look carefully and you may find some of the Easter eggs the team added to Mama Crab’s shell, hiding some elements with weathering and rust so it wasn’t immediately apparent where they were borrowed from. “If you look closely at the junk on his back, it’s not just random parts. There’s pieces of the Millennium Falcon in there,” says Mark Dubeau. “There’s pieces of an Imperial walker. There [are] droids stuck in there! I just wanted to make it look as bizarre as humanly possible.”
Scaled versions of R2-D2, K-2SO and C-3PO, complete with one articulated arm that can wave, were added alongside a plaque listing the names of the Tippett Studio team in Aurebesh affixed to the puppet’s posterior. But Chiang was adamant that any callbacks remained disguised. “Doug was very specific,” Dubeau says. “He didn’t want it to look like there was an X-wing sticking out of it. So, it’s very well disguised.” Other elements include parts from the scrap walker seen in The Mandalorian Season 2 and panels from an X-wing starfighter.
