4 Things All 'Star Wars' Fans Need To Know About Porgs
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the second installment of the third trilogy in the Skywalker family saga, but that doesn't mean it cannot surprise us. New faces, new friends, and new species are being discovered every day in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. The newest edition to the pantheon are the plushie-doll merchandise-ready creatures known as "porgs." But what are porgs, exactly? And why the heck are they so cute?
First introduced at the D-23 conference, in a behind the scenes reel for the upcoming Last Jedi film back in July, the porgs immediately took the fandom by storm. According to Wookieepdeia, the Star Wars wiki for all things related to the fandom, these cliff-dwelling, puffin-like birds are a native species to the planet Ahch-To.
Ahch-To, for those who maybe haven't put it together, is the planet seen at the very end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with the gorgeous green islands and deep blue seas. It's also home to those marathon stone steps that Rey climbs to find the reclusive Luke Skywalker. Luke has been in self-exile here since the events that lead to Han and Leia's son, Ben Solo, joining the dark side and taking the moniker Kylo Ren.
Porgs Are Technically Birds
The avian creatures are based on the Earth's bird, the puffin, which are a stocky-looking, northernly bird, with both the ability to fly and swim. Porgs are slightly more penguin-like, in the sense that they are streamlined missile shaped critters. Adults are "porgs," babies are known as "porglets."
Though we have only seen one or two so far, we are told via the wiki that they range in color from dark brown to dark grey, and have a telltale white circle on their bellies and faces. Some have patches of orange around the eyes, which we assume, like puffins, is mostly to attract mates during breeding season.
Porgs Are Naturally Curious
Director Rian Johnson, when asked about them, gave a few more insights on Twitter, one of which suggests how we might meet them in the movie this Christmas.
"They're inquisitive." That suggests that when a random ape man with metal parts arrived on their island home, they watched him from afar as he built himself shelter, then waddled up to his house and peered in once he had settled.
Luke Does Not Eat Porgs
Some wondered if porgs might have been part of the Skywalker diet, but Mark Hamill insisted that rumor is not true.
Luke's diet means porgs have learned not to fear humans as predators. So when more humanoids (and wookies!) turn up in the Millennium Falcon, ostensibly on a mission to give Luke back his light saber (but really so Rey can train to become a Jedi), the porgs, or perhaps a cute porglet, wouldn't think twice about wandering up to say hi.
Porgs Travel
Exactly how a porg gets on the Falcon, flying through space with Chewie, as we saw in the latest trailer, isn't exactly clear. But since Rey was perfectly happy to adopt BB-8 at the start of The Force Awakens, we can't see why she wouldn't also immediately sign up for Ahch-To's local adopt-a-porg program.
By the way, it seems as if Rey isn't the only one who spends time with them, which suggests our porg friend on the Falcon might make it all the way back to the Resistance camp. When asked, Finn, who did not accompany Rey to Ahch-To, weighed in on porgs as well.
They're so cute. They're rodents, but they're great.
For more on porgs, we will have to wait until Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on Dec. 15, 2017. Until then, we'll just have to enjoy all the amazing photoshops fans have done.
