One of the most popular things to come out of the new Star Wars movie was the adorable porg but the real reason they were in the movie may surprise you.

Skeptics may say that the main reason they are in there is merchandising because, let's face it, who doesn't want one in their stocking after the movie came out?

No doubt they will be a popular item on Christmas lists this year.

Well, there was actually a smart reason as to why they were all over the island of Skellig Michael.

They are roughly the same size and shape as the native bird of the island, the puffin. Puffins were all over the island during filming and constantly flying by the cameras.


Creator Concept Designer for the movie, Jake Lunt said on StarWars.com that the porg was designed to cover up all the puffins:

“From what I gathered, Rian [Johnson] had gone to shoot this sequence on Skellig Michael, which is the real island location that stands in for Ahch-To, and that island is covered in puffins.

"It’s a wildlife preserve and everywhere you look there are hundreds of birds dotted around the landscape,

“Rian, in a positive spin on this, was looking at how can he work with this. You can’t remove them. You physically can’t get rid of them. And digitally removing them is an issue and a lot of work, so let’s just roll with it, play with it.”

Director Rian Johnson also said that, as well as covering up the puffins, the porgs were included as a bit of comic relief.

Critics were extremely impressed with the creativity and diversity of creatures on the island of Skellig Michael and the porgs certainly got a big reaction from the crowd!