Ewoks made their debut in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but the film never rendered the species nameless; a pre-published book did it instead.
By Douglas Helm | Published
We’ve seen many different alien races and species in the Star Wars movies, including Wookies, Gungans, Mon Calamari, and Jawas. And who could forget the fuzzy little Ewok species that helped bring down the Empire Star Wars: Return of the Jedi? Except that we don’t seem to even hear the species name for these little teddy bears throughout the entire Skywalker saga (via Inside the Magic).
It’s hard to believe, but you really don’t even hear the word “Ewok” in the mainline Star Wars movies. So how did we figure out the names of these surprisingly battle-ready little rascals? It turns out that the name of these creatures was revealed in James Kahn’s novel Return of the Jedi, which was released two weeks before the film.
Kenner also released a line of toys in 1985 with the Ewok name on the boxes.
The Ewok species is in the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Novel in which C-3PO helps convince her to join the rebels and fight against the Empire. It’s quite strange that this is how fans around the world found out the name of these creatures earlier Return of the Jedi was published. It seems like including the name in at least one line of the film would have been pretty easy.
Of course, it doesn’t matter now because pretty much everyone knows what an Ewok is, and Star Wars remains one of the biggest franchises in the world. This also wouldn’t be the last time the franchise leaked key information about the film in a weird cross-media campaign. In a more egregious example, fans could have figured out that Emperor Palpatine was returning The Rise of Skywalker by playing a Fortnite event.
Knowing the word “Ewok” is definitely far less important than understanding that Star Wars’ biggest villain returns for the final film in the Skywalker saga with little to no explanation. Naturally, Return of the Jedi is still widely regarded as one of the best films in the franchise The Rise of Skywalker is usually considered the worst. In general, it’s probably best not to expect fans to scour other media to find relevant information about the film they’re watching.
That being said, it’s not as if the Ewok species were held in high esteem by the Star Wars fan base. Most modern shows and films in the franchise haven’t really made heavy use of these creatures. While species like Wookies and Jawas were commonly used in shows like The Mandalorian, Boba Fett’s book, Star Wars: The Clone Warsand more.
If for some reason you are a big fan of the Ewok species, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is probably still the best choice to see them in action. Though they’ve had various gigs since their initial debut, they’ve mostly been tertiary and inconsequential. Still, it’s interesting to know that if it weren’t for a novel and some toys, we might still know what these little guys are called.
