Star Wars: 8 Stupid Changes In The Phantom Menace Special Edition

2. Orn Free Taa's Aides

Nothing shows the ridiculousness of producer Rick McCallum's "it's so dense" quote, so regularly used as an example of how the creative targets of the prequels were off, than the story of Orn Free Taa's aides. That's right - there's an entire behind-the-scenes tale about the extras who accompany a background character who wouldn't get a line until Revenge Of The Sith (telling Jar Jar to "watch it"). Orn Free Taa is a fat twi'lek senator throughout the prequels, in The Phantom Menace seen briefly in the Senate chamber. On set he had a pair of fellow twi'lek helpers (played by costume designer Trisha Biggar and concept artist Iain McCaig), but when the movie rolled around they had been replaced by two humans, cameos for Chrissie England (Visual Effects Executive Producer) and Jim Morris (then President of Lucas Digital). Clearly not happy with his in-joke, the DVD reverted back to the aliens. Except he replaced McCaig with a green twi'lek, preempting her minor appearance in Attack Of The Clones. Neither of these options is really better than the others - a senator having representatives of his own species may make sense, but it's not like human's wouldn't - and that's exactly the problem. In the massive, oft-criticised Senate sequence George changed only the most minor of things, almost teasing his detractors (although, again, it appears to come once more from it already being shot).