Rocket Raccoon better watch out, because he’s no longer the only trigger-happy furry little guy with nary a fuck to give in the big-budget sci-fi game. Enter Space Monkey, the cackling air gunner set to debut in Rogue One: A Star War Story and glimpsed briefly two minutes and five seconds into the behind-the-scenes video that debuted at last weekend’s Star Wars Celebration Europe:
Now, “Space Monkey” isn’t the creature’s official name. That’s just what Star Wars creature shop boss Neal Scanlan called him while showing off the animatronic creature during the “Star Wars Creatures, Droids & Aliens” panel last weekend. “He has a name but I’ve forgotten it,” Scanlan said, a delightful throwback to the days when Rick Baker was just grabbing leftover werewolf masks from his studio to fill up the background of the original Star Wars’ famous cantina scene. Anyway, that must have pissed the actor remotely operating Space Monkey right off, because they proceeded to grab an Ewok action figure off of a table and chuck it at Warwick Davis:
So, as you can see, Space Monkey seems like a fun intergalactic primate to throw back a few Corellian spiced ales with. Plus, he already has his pick of potential theme songs for his inevitable spin-off solo adventure. We’re partial to this one, though: