Ahead of the fourth episode of The Acolyte, StarWars.com introduces us to Bazil, the Tynnan Tracker performed by Hassan Taj, who was R2-D2 in The Rise of Skywalker, with insights from Creature & Droid FX Creative Supervisor Neal Scanlan.
Tynnans date back to the 1979 novel Han Solo’s Revenge by Brian Daley — the endearing tracker has elements of beavers and otters incorporated into his extremely cute features. And, yes, Scanlan and his team did purposely make him look extra darling by design.
“We spoke about those kinds of things,” Scanlan says, with the team creating their own headcanon backstory to help bring each new alien to life. “We thought about how we could include some of these things that were not only, you know, cute and lovable and adorable, but also showed signs of a bigger sort of character makeup. A character like this is much more engaging,” Scanlan adds. “What qualities are [fans of all ages] going to see in him that they would identify with? That will only work if they feel like there’s an element that they could give him a cuddle or that he’s friendly. You know, it’s an important part of, I think, the Star Wars world.”
Bazil’s role in the story was one of the most important factors to consider in his design, ensuring that he was created with a more prominent snout to sniff out his quarries. A visor and helmet adds to the sensory deprivation when Bazil needs to focus on the task at hand and really tune out the rest of the outside world. “Bazil was very sensory, so he would obviously smell and hear things probably better than using his eyesight,” Scanlan adds. “The idea of having goggles was that he would then sort of go inwardly and become the tracker.”
Among his cinematic inspirations, Scanlan used Marty Feldman’s Igor in Young Frankenstein as a touchstone. “It was one of the oddly inspiring things for me when I spoke to Leslye [Headland, the series creator,] about it.” In the Mel Brooks comedy, Igor appears to be shorter in stature, but his personality looms as large as the rest of the characters. “We just felt that this could be a really useful tool for Bazil. He’s tiny, but [in camera you] shoot him in that kind of directorial style whereby his presence was equal, if not in some ways more commanding than those around him.”
Read the article in full at StarWars.com, and steam the the fourth episode of The Acolyte, featuring Bazil, only on Disney+ from Tuesday night in the USA and Wednesday morning in Europe and the UK.
