ARTICLE UPDATE: With a new Star Wars: The Jedi trailer being released overnight, people are once again going crazy for the porgs. So the following are the best new Tweets — both positive AND negative — concerning the galaxy’s cutest new creatures…
Porg Love
Porg Hate
Love For a Non-Porg
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: A bunch of new stills from Star Wars The Last Jedi were released week, including a picture of the galaxy’s cutest new critters, the porgs.
According to Entertainment Weekly “These penguin-like wide-eyed creatures are native to the planet of Ahch-To, site of the first Jedi temple.”
Director Rian Johnson says he was inspired by what he found when shooting the end of The Force Awakens on the Irish island of Skellig Michael. “If you go to Skellig at the right time of year, it’s just covered in puffins, and they’re the most adorable things in the world” he told EW. “So when I was first scouting there, I saw these guys, and I was like, oh, these are part of the island. And so the porgs are in that realm.”
But while they are pretty adorable, the Internet isn’t so sure, with the porg backlash kicking off as soon as the creatures debuted.
There’s already a Reddit thread that’s filled with porg put-downs, the creatures being compared to Pikachu, the dramatic chipmunk, Grumpy Cat, and old Mark Hamill.
Reddit user Leckere views the creatures more cynically, writing “Looks like something only included to sell toys.” Fortunate34 agrees, responding “It’s Disney. It’s Star Wars. Of course it’s made to sell toys.”
Noimnotonacid compares the porg to Jar-Jar Binks, writing “Uh oh that cute alien with chewbacca has potential for annoying taglines, youssa knossa what I meena?”
And over-thinking it a bit, pleasefeedthedino says “He looks haunted. It’ll be a good contrast to Rey’s enthusiasm.”
The porg memes, meanwhile, have already begun…
And there are even some lookalikes hitting the net.
The Last Jedi hits screens this December.