He may not have had much screen-time in STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, but fans quickly fell in love with Babu Frik, the tiny droidsmith who worked among the Spice Runners of Kijimi. Empire recently spoke with a few of the folks involved in the creation of Babu Frik, including creature effects creative supervisor Neal Scanlan, concept artist Ivan Manzella, and actor Shirley Henderson, and it turns out that Babu Frik actually perished in the original cut of the film, until a superstar director inadvertently saved him.
"It could be a rumour," Neal Scanlan told Empire, "but I believe J.J. 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?'" Ivan Mazella 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." However, as we know, Babu Frik made his triumphant return on Zorii Bliss' ship, and Scanlan said that Babu's appearance was lifted from earlier footage.
We shot several other sequences. The ILM guys found one, lifted out Babu and put him into Zorii’s ship at the end.
Depending on whether it's true or not, we probably owe Steven Spielberg a big thank you for helping to ensure Babu Frik's continued survival. Bring on the Babu Frik Disney+ series!
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER is now available on Digital/DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD.