Episode VII: The Force Awakens - Discussion * SPOILER THREAD * — Page 126

Tobar said:

I'm just wondering why they decided the character had to be a previously established CG alien from the prequels. There are plenty of prosthetic options that would have delivered an exotic look while allowing the actress' performance to shine through instead of under a ton of CGI.

 Lupita is playing a prequel character?

No, but her species is from the prequels.

SilverWook said:

Would we be having this same convo about a guy getting covered up by CGI?

I've known people who thought it was a shame Roddy McDowall was covered up by foam latex in the orginal Planet of The Apes series. Arguably one of his greatest roles.

And until we actually see Lupita's character on screen, speculating whether or not it's another Jar Jar type character is a little premature.

Most everything about this thread is supposition aside from what has been officially released so I stay away from it because I don't want this to spoil my time at the theater when it is released.

:)

I see the similarities but there are enough differences in the face for me to think it's a new kind of alien. Though I could be wrong.

.Mac. said:

RicOlie_2 said:

No, but her species is from the prequels.

Which species is she playing?

 Just look at the preceding page. I guess it's not certain that her character is the same species as the one from the prequels, but they're pretty similar.

Tobar said:

timdiggerm said:

There's been speculation that the small person handing the lightsaber to Leia in the trailer is Lupita's character, in which case it looks like her skin may be orange now.

 I quite literally believe the people who think that hand is CG are insane.

You know there's a blink and you'll miss it glimpse of the face too, right? That definitely looks CG. The hand I'm not sure though. It's way too small to be anything but a VERY small child or primordial dwarf's hand. Just comparing it to the receiving hand suggests it's inhumanly small, but comparing it to the lightsaber prop (a replica of which I happen to own) confirms it without a doubt.

I'm going with CG.

I saw a glimpse of a face, but it was way to quick for me to make out anything besides what it was.

RicOlie_2 said:

.Mac. said:

RicOlie_2 said:

No, but her species is from the prequels.

Which species is she playing?

 Just look at the preceding page. I guess it's not certain that her character is the same species as the one from the prequels, but they're pretty similar.

 I don't think it's the same species.

SilverWook said:

I guess some people forget there are shots of Jar Jar's hands and feet that were Ahmed Best in a rubber suit in TPM.

It's more to do with the scale of the creature that points to it being CG, arms and all. Sure, they could have pulled a Lord of the Rings, and employed lots of tricks. For instance they could have shot it twice - once with the regular sized saber being handed to the human hand by someone crouched down in a green lycra costume who could be keyed out after, then a second time with our orange costumed actor handing an oversized saber up to nothing at all. Making sure of course that the positioning of the sabers matched each other as close as possible so it could be lined up seamlessly. Then they could have matched the motion of both versions and shrink/blow up the footage accordingly - just like the scene in bag end of Gandalf giving Bilbo his hat - combined from 2 different takes.

That's a LOT of effort for what I assume is a throwaway character though. It would be far easier and more practical to just CG it. Which is why I said it's either a TINY actor, or far more likely, it's all CG. And just looking at it, I think it's CG personally. It looks great, but there's definitely that 'uncanny valley' feel about it IMO.

Maybe they're aliens too.

Well the rumors have been stating that they have one or two doubles that they use in addition to Lupita's motion capture performance, so the arm may very well be real with the face CG'd.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if the arm was CGI though, since there is the technology to do a shot like that.  I mean Gollum in The Hobbit looked amazing, if only the other CG in those movies looked as good.

I have little doubt it's Maz Kanata handing the lightsaber to Leia, though I guess it could just be some other alien.

Also on the weird theforce.net forums, there was a fully organized compilation of all the rumors/speculation into a full plot, mostly from Making Star Wars stuff.  Who knows how much is legitimate, I'm betting maybe 20% of it is correct at most.

Tobar said:

Now they're tiny? You guys have weird eyes. 

Seriously? The creature's tiny head is pretty much at waist level to the actress it's handing the saber to. (though I concede the character could be kneeling/sitting EDIT: Actually, no I don't, the creature is clearly standing), but more importantly the actress's hand all but envelops the saber whereas the orange creature's hand would barely get around it.

Ah I have nothing better to do. *Gets shitty cameraphone out*

I've tried to pose it the same way as the scene so people can get a sense of scale. This saber is a hefty prop, and I have fairly small hands for a man I guess, but you guys can surely see that the alien hand is WAYYY smaller than mine. Obviously you're going to have to look at the difference in relation to the saber as I didn't think to enlarge the screenshot to get the scale to match. But my thumb reaches roughly the same point on the grip as the alien's does (further up if anything), yet my hand extends well past the bottom of it to a point where, proportionally, the alien's forearm is starting. I'm bending my hand at an awkward angle to try and get the photo one-handed, but you get the idea. Where the alien's forearm is, my wrist has only just started. 

Anyway, if this is Maz Kanata, the pirate (according to Vanity Fair) then it would seem it's the same person we saw in this leaked concept art.

How strange that we would have 2 distinct aliens, one orange, one blue, both involved in scenes involving passing on sabers. At least that's what the painting above seems to indicate to me.

Could this be a contemporary equivalent of Yoda? And as a pirate, her ideology would clash with our ideas of what a wise master is meant to be. 

Also, if the art is anything to go by, it's definitely not the same species as in AOTC. It doesn't have the elongated head the AOTC alien has (It is in fact a long cranium, not just a headdress as we see another of the species on Coruscant as well).

brash_stryker said:

Anyway, if this is Maz Kanata, the pirate (according to Vanity Fair) then it would seem it's the same person we saw in this leaked concept art.

How strange that we would have 2 distinct aliens, one orange, one blue, both involved in scenes involving passing on sabers. At least that's what the painting above seems to indicate to me.

Could this be a contemporary equivalent of Yoda? And as a pirate, her ideology would clash with our ideas of what a wise master is meant to be. 

Also, if the art is anything to go by, it's definitely not the same species as in AOTC. It doesn't have the elongated head the AOTC alien has (It is in fact a long cranium, not just a headdress as we see another of the species on Coruscant as well).

That sure does looks like the same face in both pictures.  I wonder if that creature has an E.T. type neck as well since the neck seems shorter in the second picture.