Name That Toon: The Nomenclature in “Star Wars Resistance”

Name That Toon: The Nomenclature in “Star Wars Resistance”

October 4th, 2018

W.R. Miller

Since George Lucas no longer owns the franchise, who names the new Star Wars characters, places and vehicles? With Star Wars Resistance, Disney/Lucasfilm allows several creatives to decide.

“It actually was a roundtable effort,” said Athena Portillo, one of the show’s three executive producers, during a press gathering at The Burbank Centre on September 25. “I remember printing a list of everybody’s thoughts of what these characters should be called, and then just sending these emails out and asking for decisions: “These are our top five; these are our top 3,” just getting everyone involved from Disney to the committee Story Group and [series creator Dave] Filoni. It was an effort, including Amy Beth Christenson, who is our art director.”

“Yeah, she came up with the name ‘Torra’,” says Brandon Auman, executive producer and head writer, referring to Torra Doza, the mechanic/pilot. “Dave had a couple of names in his head. I think he gave one of these names early on.

Executive producer and supervising director Justin Ridge concurs. “I think [it was] Team Fireball. We knew the ship that the team had was just a mess.

“It could turn into a fireball at any minute,” Auman says. “Which is kind of funny when you hear “fireball” you think, “Oh, it’s going to be really fast.” But it’s because it might really explode. “Oh, so that’s why it’s called ‘Fireball’.”

Bobby Moynihan, who spent nine years on NBC’s Saturday Night Live as a writer-performer, voices two roles: Orka, and a stormtrooper. “Me and Jim Rash (Community) play Flix and Orka. We are two guys that work at acquisitions in the basement of the Colossus, which is like a truck stop in space. A lot of people fixing their ships, getting their parts for their ships, racing. I’m sure there’s some seedy business going on. Star Wars has always been the Force and the Skywalker family. This is about a building where a bunch of people work. This is that blue collar gritty side of Star Wars where it’s just survival (chuckles) and selling stuff and I enjoy that part of it,” he says.

“I have to say it took awhile to come up with the name, ‘The Colossus,’ Portillo remarks.

“Oh, yeah, that took a long time,” Auman says. “Originally it was just called ‘The Platform.’ It’s not just a platform. Just think of a flat piece of metal. That doesn’t give it much character. They still refer to it as a platform every once in awhile, or as ‘The Station.’ In the beginning we were coming up with all kinds of names. We had more than a dozen names. We had about 30-40 names of what that station’s going to be called. It wasn’t until deep into Season One that we finally landed on ‘The Colossus’.”

“That’s true,” Portillo says. “Even while we’re working on stories in season one, we’re still trying to come up with character names. So we give them generic names and we’ll just call it whatever the species is. [When we] finally need a name, we’ll come up with one.”

Says Justin Ridge, “I think for a lot of shows, we have code names or temporary names to keep us going. ‘Okay, we have to come up with one officially, now.’”

Bobby Moynihan’s character name had yet to be chosen when he tried out for the part. He says, “I auditioned for this and once I started reading the sides, it wasn’t the real names. Everything was called something else.”

Even when he won the role, he says, “I didn’t know anything for a very long time. I didn’t see the character till right before we recorded. They showed me my character for the first time and my first thought was … You know in New Hope, in the cantina scene, Kabe? He’s trying to grab the drink off the bar and he can’t because of the gloves. He uses them, so crappy. I was like, ‘I’m one of them.’ They’re called ‘Chadra-fans.’ It’s crazy.

“When I first saw Flix, they showed it to us for a second and moved it away. I thought he was a Porg, so for months I was like, ‘My partner is a Porg?’ I was mad. Not in a bad way; I like the Porg. As I felt like I was turning into the character I was like, ‘I don’t want to work with a Porg,’ and that made me really happy. He’s kind of a brand new species [a Gozzo], Porg-like, Porg-adjacent. But there are these Gorgs, aquatic little creatures. They look like piranhas that we eat. Yeah, they’re my new favorite. I like them because they’re just evil Porgs.”

A reporter asks, “They’re evil Porgs?”

“They’re not. This is not canon,” Moynihan hastily points out. “I’m making up my own backstories.”

The reporter says, “I was disappointed that he was going to eat it, that that was going to be his lunch.”

“I know but it’s the Chewbacca moment. He’s got to,” Moynihan counters. “It’s amazing. There’s a lot of stuff in that, those Gorgs. Also, I have grown to love our droid in the shop. We have that pit droid, which is from The Phantom Menace. His name, it’s GL-N. We just call him Glenn. That’s my favorite. I love that. I go like, ‘That’s my droid’.”

The cast and creative team of Disney Channel’s animated series “Star Wars Resistance” – DONALD FAISON, ATHENA YVETTE PORTILLO (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), SUZIE MCGRATH, JUSTIN RIDGE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), CHRISTOPHER SEAN, BB-8, BRANDON AUMAN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER), BOBBY MOYNIHAN

One actor has a personalized identification with his character. “The name ‘Fazon’ will live forEVER,” enthuses Donald Faison (Turk on Scrubs), who voices his Rodian namesake on the Colossus. “It’s great to be on a show, period, but the fact that it’s a Star Wars show means everything to me. And the fact that they created a character WITH MY NAME means even more. Hype Fazon has the biggest ego on the Platform. You know how Palpatine WAS the Senate? Fazon IS the Platform. ‘I AM the Platform.’ My wife recently found out that I was in Star Wars. She thinks it’s great. She thinks it’s more impressive that my name is in Star Wars than I’m doing Star Wars.”

Says Brandon Auman, “I guess we could say this: It’s really not a huge deal. Originally Neeku (a good-natured alien mechanic voiced by Josh Brener) was called “Radar” as sort of a placeholder name. So we called him ‘Radar’ for a long time. It was almost like an homage to M*A*S*H, so we were called Neeku for a long time, ‘Radar.’

“Bucket was called ‘Junk’ for a long time. So that’s a scoop, right there. We hadn’t told anybody that.”

Until now.

Star Wars Resistance premieres Sunday, October 7 (10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT/PDT), on Disney Channel, DisneyNOW and Disney Channel VOD, with subsequent airings on Disney XD.

Author
Recent Posts

W.R. Miller

W.R. Miller - known informally as “Bob” – has written for Starlog, Comics Scene, Animation Magazine and Animation World Magazine. Bob has been involved in animation for two decades, as a writer, character animator, special effects animator, and storyboard artist - For more information about Bob, check his website: http://wrmilleronline.com/.

He has just completed Batman: The Animated Interviews, a five-volume work featuring the executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, designers, storyboard artists and composers involved with the making of Batman: The Animated Series and its spinoffs. BearManor Media is the publisher.