10 Awesome Star Wars Characters Only In One Scene

7. Malakili - Return Of The Jedi

Greedo Star Wars
Lucasfilm

Another character who had an extremely minor supporting role during the Jabba's Palace moments of Return of the Jedi, is Malakili.

Most may know this fella simply as 'rancor keeper', but his actual name is Malakili and he's a human from Corellia. Likewise, the rancor that he was tasked with overseeing in Return of the Jedi was called Pateesa.

What makes Malakili stand out so much during his mere seconds on screen is that he adds a jarring amount of emotional weight to Return of the Jedi's opening act. We'd seen Leia Organa and then Luke Skywalker confront Jabba, both with the intention to rescue the frozen-in-carbonite Han Solo - and Luke's attempted deal brokering with Jabba ended up with Master Skywalker dropped into the rancor pit underneath Jabba's Palace.

At first, the audience is left to cheer on Luke as he battles the hulking rancor. With Skywalker overcoming the odds to take down this beast, the heaviness of this hits home when we see the rancor keeper step out of the shadows and break down in tears at the death of his beloved best pal.

Away from the movies, standard canon saw Malakili become suicidal following the death of Pateesa. Left to aimlessly wander the desert looking for purpose in his life, Malakili eventually ended up opening a restaurant on Mos Eisley.

In this post: 
Star Wars
 
First Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.