Green Monster on Star Wars

With approximately ten gazillion alien creatures packed into the Star Wars universe, you can count on there being one to creep out almost anybody. Some of the most memorable creatures in the original films could have easily carried their own horror stories, adding excitement and danger to these beloved classics with their inventively threatening designs and abilities. I’d be researching made up animals for days if I counted the entirety of Star Wars fiction, so for this list, I’ll be sticking as close as possible to the “official” canon of the feature films and immediate spinoffs.

10 – The Kouhun

The centipede-like Kouhun supposedly pack a sting so deadly that they’re employed by assassins throughout the galaxy, as seen in episode II when a couple of the scurrying killers are released into Queen Amidala’s quarters. Maybe I just like these because I’m biased towards bugs and we don’t see a whole lot of them in the Star Wars films, but you have admit there’s always something cool and dramatic about living alien creatures as weapons, impractical as they may be. Sure, a gun doesn’t have to poop, but would you rather just shoot your enemies or watch a bunch of giant, alien death worms pump them full of acid?

9 – The Dianoga

Known to fans as “the trash compactor monster, ” the Dianoga appeared in when our heroes make a not-so-dignified escape down a Death Star trash chute, where Luke is attacked by a mysterious aquatic creature who shows us only a pale, clammy tentacle and bulging, periscope-like eyeball. Artists have interpreted the rest of the Dionaga various ways, usually as some sort of one-eyed octopus, though an official 1977 Kenner playset included an oddly shark-like interpretation. How exactly does a tentacle monster end up in the garbage on a space station? I’m pretty sure that’s a story unto itself…a story simply far too disturbing to tell.

8 – The Temptor

This multi-eyed, reptilian eel is an indigenous predator of Endor, the forest moon best known as the home of the merchandise-friendly Ewoks. Demonstrating similar biology to deep sea fish, the Temptor uses a fuzzy, squeaking, doe-eyed growth on its tongue to attract other hungry carnivores, hiding the rest of its grotesque form in a hollow tree. If you don’t remember any of this, it’s because the critter was scrapped as a concept from Return of the Jedi but recycled for “Caravan of Courage, ” a made-for-tv Star Wars spinoff starring the Ewoks in all their sickening, roly-poly cuteness. We can only hope that Ewoks are a common food source. They certainly SEEM dumb enough to fall for the trap.