Insults referencing unseen space critters is the true heart and soul of Star Wars. And now, in a new deleted scene, The Last Jedi has joined the ranks of Womp Rats, Nerfs, Gundarks and Moofs with the latest offscreen creature diss: Captain Phasma ain’t nothing but a “Whoop Hog.”
On Wednesday, the Star Wars show debuted a new deleted scene from the forthcoming home video release of The Last Jedi. In it, Finn and Phasma’s rematch is slightly expanded and now includes Finn outing Phasma for being a coward on Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens. He also calls her a “Whoop Hog,” which feel like it might be friends with the “Womp Rats” Luke referenced in A New Hope.
If you don’t count the special edition, we’ve never really scene Womp Rats in a Star Wars movie. Nor have we seen a Gundark, a creature that, according to Han, Luke was strong enough to “pull the ears off of” in The Empire Strikes Back. Gundarks were also referenced but not seen in Revenge of the Sith.
We’ve also never seen a “Nerf,” a creature that Leia references in The Empire Strikes Back when she calls Han a “nerf herder.”
And then there are the infamous “moofs” referenced by Han Solo in The Force Awakens when he dismissively suggests that whoever messed with the control on the Falcon is a “moof milker.” Sadly, the creature Luke Skywalker milked in The Last Jedi is not a moof, but instead called a Thala-siren, even though no one says its name in the movie.
Sometimes creatures who appear onscreen in Star Wars movies don’t get named, like Luke’s gross Thala-siren, or…the Ewoks. Yeah, no one says the word “Ewok” in Return of the Jedi. Really. You had to look that shit up in your read-along storybooks in 1983. The point is, some critters we hear about but never see, and other we see, but don’t know what they’re called, unless we look it up.
Either way, this deleted scene from The Last Jedi might be considered cool by some fans because it’s a longer version of a sick fight scene. But what does a whoop hog actually sound like when it squeals? And will the cycle of hearing about weird critters, but hiding them from the audience ever be broken? If he’s kind, J.J. Abrams will give us one scene in Episode IX in which all the unseen critters of Star Wars will have a party.
The Last Jedi is out on digital download on March 13, and on Blu-ray and DVD on March 27.
