Main image via Collider
After the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi premiered back in October, there was one other creature besides the Ewok-like porgs that filled us with wonderment – the crystal foxes that sprinted across the mineral-rich, salt covered planet of Crait.
The crystal fox is actually called a “vulptex” or “vulptices” when plural. They are the only species that live on Crait – which is also an old Rebel base that the Resistance repurposed as new headquarters.
Neal Scanlan, the creature effects supervisor, told EW that the vulptex has crytallised fur for a very specific reason.
“The idea is that these wonderful sort of feral creatures had lived on this planet and had consumed the planet’s surface, and as such had become crystalline,” Scanlan said. The designers took inspiration from “crystal glass chandeliers and the sort of luminosity and elements of refraction” they create.
He also hinted that these creatures may play a very direct role in helping the heroes on Crait: “They live within the burrows and tunnels beneath the planet. So there is a time where their ability to shine within the darkness should provide a guiding light to our heroes.”
The creatures were designed by Aaron McBride and the name “vulptex” came from Pablo Hidalgo, Lucasfilm’s creative executive in story development, who went back to the Latin word for “fox”, which is “vulpes”, and gave it a more sci-fi sounding suffix.
Article via EW
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