By Ben Travis | Posted 14 Apr 2020

When it hit cinemas last December, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker proved divisive – once again splitting audiences down the middle as J.J. Abrams brought the nine-film Skywalker Saga to a close. But if there’s one thing everyone can agree on, it’s that Babu Frik rules – the tiny, ancient alien droid mechanic of Kijimi proved a universally-beloved addition to the galaxy far, far away, from his part-alien-part-human speech patterns, to his glorious ‘Hehey!’ noises. In the upcoming new issue of Empire, we spoke to the people behind Babu Frik himself – creature effects creative supervisor Neal Scanlan, concept artist Ivan Manzella, and actor Shirley Henderson – to get the full story behind the instant icon.

As it turns out, it wasn’t just Star Wars fans who fell for Babu Frik – he also reportedly has a major fan in one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Not only that, but said director could even be partially responsible for Babu’s greatest moment – that final ‘Heyhey!’ in the final reel, when he pops up in Zorii Bliss’s ship during the battle of Kijimi. “It could be a rumour, but I believe J.J. screened the movie for Steven Spielberg, and at the end Spielberg said, ‘What happened to Babu?’,” Scanlan told Empire. “Everybody thought, ‘Oh God, what did happen to Babu?’”

As it turns out, even Henderson – who voiced Babu and puppeteered his mouth live on set – was surprised to see the character return in the last stretch of the film. “I think he was going to die originally – I think the AD shot that,” admits Manzella. “When the planet [Kijimi] was blown up, he was on it.” Instead the little guy was rescued, his reappearance drafted in from one of many deleted Babu Frik scenes. “We shot several other sequences,” says Scanlan. “The ILM guys found one, lifted out Babu and put him into Zorii’s ship at the end.” Now that’s a happily ever after.

Read Empire’s full Babu Frik oral history in the Wonder Woman 1984 issue, available from Thursday 16 April. Read here for more info on picking up a copy while social distancing. Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is available now on Digital HD, and arrives on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray, and DVD from Monday 20 April.