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Holiday Special Artists: McQuarrie

The following interviews were originally printed in a double issue of Filmfax magazine #69/70 from 1998.

Ralph McQuarrie, Conceptual Illustrations

The “Star Wars Holiday Special” benefitted immeasurably from Ralph McQuarrie’s concepts for the Wookiee planet. One of today’s foremost space illustrators, McQuarrie was crucial in designing the look of Star Wars. He subsequently worked on The Empire Strikes Back in concert with “The Star Wars Holiday Special”. Joe Johnston, another of Lucasfilm’s prominent designers, storyboarded several scenes for the show, none of which were used. Ultimately, Johnston’s only contribution was establishing the scale of the new Wookiee characters and various elements of Boba Fett’s uniform.

FAX: What do you remember about “The Star Wars Holiday Special”?

McQUARRIE: [Joe Johnston and I] had worked out some stuff for the Wookiee planet for The Empire Strikes Back. I was drawing this forest with the mile-high trees and was deciding what the Wookiees’ tree houses should be. We then segued into the Christmas special through that.

FAX: Could you talk about the house’s interior?

McQUARRIE: I wound up with something that looks fairly earth-like. I invented those clay oven stoves and I experimented with all kinds of stuff. Frankly. I never saw the Christmas special so I don’t know exactly what they did with it. I did see a couple of stills and it looked like they had some of my ideas in there.

FAX: Why did the clay oven have futuristic tubing protruding from it?

McQUARRIE: I was thinking about a high-tech circulation system that used parts of old space craft. Half of the stuff on there wouldn’t work but the Wookiees adapted these old parts to their heating and ventilation systems.

FAX: Did the Wookiee technology come from their exposure to imperialism like many third world countries on Earth?

McQUARRIE: You would have to ask George about that. My feeling was that they had plenty of skills. They were kind of like Jawas in this sense. They collected space junk and things that were left over from wars that went by. The Empire would come through, build a base, and abandon it, and the Wookiees would go in and ransack the place for usable parts.

FAX: That’s reminiscent of your rendering of Tusken Raiders salvaging parts from a crashed space ship.

McQUARRIE: Yes. All those cultures on the fringe would be using this leftover hardware.

FAX: Did you design any life forms for Kashyyyk?

McQUARRIE: Well we were working with a caravan of animals. There was a big beast of burden on the Wookiee planet that was sort of elephant-like. I designed that for when the Wookiee planet was going to be in one of the films, not for the special.

FAX: How closely did you work with George Lucas?

McQUARRIE: I only had one meeting with him and the show’s producers and we just had a general conversation.

FAX: Were you given a lot of creative freedom?

McQUARRIE: Right. George just let me go ahead and do what I do. I gave him those sketches and he said: “I like this and I like that.” Usually when he says he likes something. it will get into the show if possible.

FAX: I understand that Lucas didn’t give the show very much attention.

McQUARRIE: Right. I know he wasn’t happy with it.

FAX: Many fans were glad to see the Wookiee planet.

McQUARRIE: Yes. I thought the Wookiee planet idea was terrific and it would have been great if it had gotten into one of the films [this interview was taken before Kashyyyk’s return in Episode III].