Top 10 Rejected Maz Kanata Concepts from The Force Awakens

May 16, 2015 Sheevel Knievel

So we finally know the name and sort of what Lupita Nyong’o’s character Maz Katana looks like. After the jump, however, we reveal the concepts of Maz that, thank the maker, were left on the cutting room floor. Fortunately Jacen’s custodian cousin was able to sweep them up for us.

This lovely lady was the first initial idea for the character after Lupita Nyong’o was cast. Unfortunately for the design team, JJ recognized her as a gender swapped version of The Flintstone’s Great Gazoo.

Maz was originally a blue imp that kind of looked like Yoda but with a white beard and red clothes. The concept was dropped when Bob Iger said he wanted to avoid copyright infringement with the owners of the Smurfs franchise.

Our next concept was similar to the Gazoo one and took the form of a space traveling midget. JJ is apparently a huge Super Smash Bros gamer and recognized Captain Olimar as one of his favorite fighters hailing from the Pikmin videogame series. While Disney is buying Nintendo, JJ didn’t want a videogame character joining the Star Wars roster.

The next idea was for Maz to be a mouthy little droid, contrasting greatly with the lovable BB-8. The creative team wasn’t very creative though, as the physical model they made was literally a Transformers action figure of this douche bag.

The next concept was of a person wearing a white turban with three big red spots on it. The art department was so impressed with their work here, they went ahead and forwarded it to the wardrobe department and had the costume made. Above is one of the art department ladies in the costume for Lupita to check out. Upon her arrival Lupita questioned why she was being asked to dress like Toad from the Super Mario Bros. videogame series.

This concept came from when they wanted the character of Maz to be blue. The design featured a set of five spines extending from the back of the character’s head, with one centred on the top, and two more on each side of the head. It then had two more spines on its back, and wore white gloves, red shoes, and half a mouth. Tom Cruise, the original actor for Maz before he dropped out and Lupita was hired, said while Sonic the Hedgehog was his favorite videogame, he was not going to dress up as him and quit the film.

This furry guy was actually going to be Maz, before they decided to go a whole new route. Maz Rebo was Mad Max Rebo’s grand son, voiced by Cruise and portrayed by JJ’s personal cat, really named Maz. While the practical effect of using a real cat seemed like a great idea on paper, getting a cat to play a circular piano and serve drinks in a pub was actually a really bad idea.

This one actually came from Mr. Abrams himself. He wanted the Muppets to crossover with Star Wars and include one of their own as a new species of alien. Sam Eagle was chosen to be Maz but due to scheduling conflicts, had to drop out of the project. Kermit the Frog volunteered to take his place but JJ passed on the offer deciding Yoda will be the only Muppet in Star Wars.

This design was well received by JJ and he even brought it before Bob Iger for a final approval. While this little girl dragon looks an awful lot like Metroid’s Ridley it’s actually a direct copy of the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde’s faithful Lockheed. Lucky for JJ Marvel’s Stan Lee was visiting Iger at the time and was able to inform JJ of the uncanny (see what I did there) resemblance to Shadowcat’s magic dragon.

The final rejected design was actually going to be Alf. Like no joke, Maz was not a character in Arndt’s draft or Kasdan’s original screenplay. The part was literally going to be Alf, contingent on getting the rights to have him in there of course. Unfortunately, the deal was not able to go through so Alf wasn’t able to make in appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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