20 Things You Somehow Missed In Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise Of Skywalker
2. Maz Kanata Was An Animatronic Instead Of CGI
From sneaky Star Wars CGI to an unexpected lack of it, Maz Kanata's return in The Rise of Skywalker was actually a whole lot more practical than her first few appearances in Episodes VII and VIII.
J. J. Abrams had actually originally wanted to go down the puppet route for Lupita Nyong'o's 'pirate queen' during the making of The Force Awakens, but eventually settled on creating the character via CGI/motion capture.
However, when it came time to bring the humanoid back as Leia's advisor in Episode IX, creature and special make-up effects creative supervisor Neal Scanlan would eventually tell Cinemablend that the director wanted the various characters sharing scenes with the late Carrie Fisher's Leia - brought to screen via digital effects and unused footage from The Force Awakens - to be "intimately involved."
So, rather than go back to the CGI well for Kanata, the team created a highly advanced animatronic puppet for the moments Maz could be seen interacting with the likes of Leia and Chewbacca in the flick, with digital effects only being used to perfect a few details and erase riggings.