- Appeared in:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
CW
- Homeworld:
Mon Calamari
- Species:
Mon Calamari
- Gender:
Male
- Size:
1.75 meters
- Affiliation:
Galactic Senate
-
From the Movies
Before it became an active supporter of the Rebel Alliance in the Galactic Civil War, the watery world of Mon Calamari was part of the Delegation of 2,000 -- Senatorial representatives concerned with the manner that Chancellor Palpatine had waged the Clone Wars. The Petition of 2,000 identified Senators formally complaining on Palpatine's conduct, and requesting that he return his emergency powers to the Senate following the resolution of the conflict.
From the Expanded Universe
The people of Mon Calamari weathered great political upheaval during the Clone Wars. Their Senate representative, Tikkes, proved to be a Separatist turncoat. This Quarren nearly dragged the entire planet into the Confederacy fold during the start of the conflict. This sparked a civil war beneath the oceans as the Quarren Isolation League did battle with the Jedi-backed Mon Calamari Knights.
With the signing of a peace accord between the Quarren and the Mon Calamari, a new resolution was passed that saw the planet be represented jointly in the Senate by dignitaries from both species. By the time of the Clone Wars' end, this office would be jointly held by Senators Tundra Dowmeia and Meena Tills. For much of the conflict, their administration was rife with Separatist spies.
Behind the Scenes
To provide visual continuity between the prequel and original
Star Wars trilogy, writer/director George Lucas specifically included a Mon Calamari senator in the script to Episode III. The fish-faced species was first introduced in
Return of the Jedi, with the Rebellion's Admiral Ackbar being a memorable supporting character in the 1983 film. That character was achieved with the latest puppetry technology available at the time, but Lucas always felt the end result was a compromise.
For the Mon Calamari Senator in Episode III, the Creature Shop used its design as a test-bed for new animatronics to be later incorporated into the Neimoidian characters. The Mon Calamari appeared earlier in the schedule than the Neimoidians, and as a background character didn't expressly require such intricate performance. As such, this gave the Creature Shop more room for experimentation. The end result was a very expressive background character capable of a great range of radio-controlled lip and eye movement. So impressed with the new Mon Calamari mask was Lucas that he briefly considered replacing the footage of Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi with the improved mask.
The original costume concept design for the Mon Calamari Senator was actually first drawn up for the Gran Senator, Ask Aak.
