10 Genius Ways Movies Fixed Their Own Mistakes
8. Porgs Were Created After Puffins Wouldn't Leave The Set - Star Wars: The Last Jedi
The bug-eyed bird-like creatures known as Porgs seemed like they were always part of the plan for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, because when can either Lucasfilm or Disney resist the opportunity to create some adorable, merch-friendly critters?
But the Porgs weren't actually conceived until shooting has started, as when Rian Johnson went to the Irish island of Skellig Michael to film the scenes set on Luke's home planet Ahch-To, he discovered that the island was covered with puffins who quickly disrupted production.
Moreover, Skellig Michael is a nature reserve, meaning that the animals cannot be moved, even temporarily.
And so, rather than ask the VFX team to painstakingly remove the puffins from hundreds of shots, Johnson decided to simply incorporate an indigenous bird species into the final film.
With that, the Porgs were quickly conceptualised and integrated into the film during production, because as anyone with any knowledge of VFX knows, it's much easier to build on top of existing, already-shot material than having to meticulously remove elements from it.
You'd never guess from the final film, and for the mere shot of Chewie (Joonas Suotamo) snacking on a Porg, the hassle was all totally worth it.