The Best, Freakiest Little Guys From Star Wars

Here’s a great example that being a freaky little guy isn’t inherently a bad thing. Nien Nunb is a fun-loving pilot who helped save the galaxy plenty of times and still finds time to laugh. It’s a shame this cool dude got zapped to death in Rise of Skywalker, but I bet he went out laughing after taking down a dozen Final Order TIE Fighters.

This little shit is the weird space monkey hanging out with Jabba The Hutt in Return of the Jedi. He’s a real stinker: At one point he rips out C-3PO’s eye, at another, he laughs at people as Jabba orders them to be killed. Maybe the best part of this little freak is the fact that he, for some reason, has a middle name. Star Wars is silly. I love it.

Yeah, that weird tiny bat-person alien that briefly appears in the original Star Wars has a name. Also, she’s a rare example of a confirmed female freaky little guy. Anyone who is freaky and/or small can be on this list, gender does not matter. So say hello to Kabe, a freaky little gal hanging out at the local cantina in Mos Eisley. She’s looking for a good time and a strong drink.

Did you know members of E.T.’s species appeared in a Star Wars movie? It’s true. You can barely spot these aliens during a scene in the Galactic Senate, but they’re there. And because this is Star Wars, one of these freaky freaks was eventually given a silly name: Grebleips. That’s Speilberg spelled backward. A perfectly weird name for these odd and tiny fellas.

Wow! There sure were a lot of little freaks in the final film of the original trilogy! Who knew? Anyway, Joh Yowza is the furry dude with a big nose and bigger mouth who leads the band in the musical sequence that was added to Return of the Jedi via the Special Edition. He’s not a beloved character by any stretch of the imagination, but he is freaky and some would call him little, so he joins our list. Congrats, Yowza. Now stop singing.

Finally, it only took the entire saga, but someone created a race of aliens that are composed entirely of freaky little dudes. Babu Frik, a member of the Anzellan species, first appears in Rise of Skywalker and regardless of how you feel about that film, you can’t deny the allure of Frik.

Even famed director Steven Speilberg, reportedly after seeing an early version of the film, was so into Babu Frik that he was confused about what happened to the little dude. So apparently director JJ Abrams and ILM digitally added that shot of Frik popping up in an X-Wing cockpit at the end as a way of going “It’s okay everyone, your favorite tiny freak is alive and well.” Not sure if Speilberg had anything to do with these little freaks showing up in the most recent season of The Mandalorian on Disney+, though…

It’s weird that nobody has ever settled on the biological details of Max Rebo’s species (and by extension, Rebo himself). Sometimes he’s depicted with big, thick blue legs. Other times he’s a stump. Sometimes his ears are actually flippers. And other days his flippers once again become ears. It’s very odd, but that doesn’t stop Rebo and his band from cranking out hit after hit for whichever crimelord they’re working for that week.

The life of a podracer is dangerous and often very short. That was true of Ratts Tyerell, a small and freaky alien dude who ate it during the podrace scene in Phantom Menace. That’s sad enough, but in a deleted scene from the movie, we discover that his wife and kids were in the audience that day and watched Tyerell die. This would eventually inspire his son to start a foundation dedicated to exposing how dangerous podracing is and that led to the sport being outlawed in most of the galaxy. A freaky dude with a purpose. You love to see it.

Recently, the internet’s favorite new-ish Star Wars character may be Turgle, a frog-like alien dude who is both a little freak and a little stinker. He runs around the planet of Koboh completely nude, getting into trouble with criminals and raiders. But he’s so damn cute and sad that you can’t help but love Turgle, even as he keeps failing and nearly dying. Never give up Turgle, we all adore you.

I had no idea that so many little freaky guys and gals from the Star Wars universe are crammed into Return of the Jedi! I’ve seen the movie so many times, yet I never really noticed all of ‘em before now. Let’s add another to this list: Sly Snootles. She is the singer hanging out with Joh Yowza in the musical performance scene added in the Special Edition version of the film. But don’t dare make fun of Snootles, even if you find her name funny or her singing bad. She’s killed before and she’ll kill again if she has to.