Iconic Star Wars Phantom Menace Droids Inspired By Alien Skeletons
The Star Wars prequels remain controversial among the fandom, but few can deny that these films had some killer designs. Few of those designs are more memorable than the B1 series Battle Droids, the largely disposable clankers who love to utter weird catchphrases like, “Roger, Roger!” But what most fans don’t realize is that this great design has a creepy little secret: originally, these droids were designed to resemble the skeletons of the Neimoidians.
That’s a trivia factoid that was included in Star Wars Episode I The Visual Dictionary, but such trivia was very confusing to anyone who actually watched The Phantom Menace. That’s because the Neimoidians (the goofy green guys who sprout such memeworthy lines as “this is getting out of hand, now there are two of them!”) look nothing like the B1 series Battle Droids. However, it turns out the Visual Dictionary was referring to the original design of these aliens, one that changed over the course of the production.
Early concept art of the Neimoidians shows them as having very thin faces, and it’s easy to see how the B1 series Battle Droids are meant to look like the skeletons of these spindly aliens. Back then, George Lucas planned to bring these exotic alien villains to life using CGI. Eventually, though, he decided the Neimoidians should look a bit more like the alien Duros, which is why we got new designs and (mercifully) animatronic masks for these characters rather than pure CGI.
Of course, the design change to the Neimoidians retroactively meant the design for the B1 series Battle Droids didn’t make much sense. Why, some fans wondered, would an alien race make bipedal robots that looked nothing like themselves? Star Wars might take place in a galaxy far, far away, but here on Earth, it’s not a coincidence that most of our own walking robots are designed to look human.
Credit where credit is due, George Lucas effectively solved this problem in Attack of the Clones. We discovered that the Neimoidians did not create the B1 series Battle Droids that they used to invade Naboo. Instead, these droids and other Separatist clankers were created by the Geonosians. And if you look closely at the insect-like Geonosians, you’ll see that their design was based very directly on the original concept art for the Neimoidians.
This means that what the Episode 1 Visual Dictionary told us was true…from a certain point of view. The B1 series Battle Droids were still based on the skeletons of their creators, but Attack of the Clones confirmed that those creators were Geonosian rather than Neimoidian. They seem to be the only Separatist droids based on Genosian physiology, though, as Super Battle Droids, Droidekas, and other creepy clankers seem to bear no real resemblance to their critter-like creators.
If nothing else, this weird little tale of the B1 series Battle Droid design is a reminder of how much work went into the Star Wars prequels and how much those movies won over an entirely new generation of fans. With any luck (and maybe the will of the Force), those fans can keep the franchise alive in its faltering years. Ever since Disney bought Star Wars, it seems they think “Roger, Roger” is less of a cute catchphrase and more like Kathleen Kennedy’s personal instructions for what writers need to do with this franchise with every new film.
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