Maybe Bothans aren’t even a species – Lucasfilm

We could think that Bothans are a species but the Creative Executive of Lucasfilm Story Group had an interesting statement on this. What do we even know about Bothans?

The Hungarian translation – made by our editor-in-chief, Bence Földi – of Alien Archive was published this week in Hungary. The beautifully illustrated book writes about many interesting intelligent species and animals as well. But there are no words about Bothans in the book.

That’s why part of Ziro.hu’s editorial team, known as Star Wars MythBusters, asked Matt Martin – the Chief Executive of Lucasfilm Story Group – about the absence of the Bothans. Mr Martin answered respectfully, this way:

Matt Martin on Twitter

@MythbustersStar Bothans have yet to show up in canon. Maybe Bothans aren’t even a species?!?

This answer is surprising and exciting at the same time, which gives us a new angle to think about Bothans. They appeared – as a species – in many books and comics of the Legends. They’re pictured mainly after the Bothan of the Thrawn-trilogy, called Borsk Fey’lya. In these appearances, they are wolf-like creatures.

But in the canon of Star Wars Universe, we barely know anything about Bothans. Everyone knows, that Mon Mothma spoke about them in the Return of the Jedi when she said:

“Many Bothans died to bring us this information.” Aaaand, that’s it!

We know from other canon-contents that the Bothan spies were important. But there was no further info about the identity of them. Interestingly even George Lucas didn’t want to bother with this issue.  In the animated series called The Clone Wars appeared the planet Bothawui  – as a strategically important planet –, but we didn’t see Bothans in the episodes.

Bothans appear in Bloodline, the brilliant novel written by Claudia Gray, as well.

“The numerous citizens of various worlds milled around, both on the mobile sidewalks and around them:  a group of Bothans growling to one another  in front of one office’s door, a Gungan having an animated conversation via the comlink in his hand, and two Wookies far ahead of her on the sidewalk, being propelled forward past the throngs of politicians, workers, lobbyists, and visiting constituents that perpetually filled the complex.”

The word “growling” probably refers to the wolf-like appearance of the Bothans, and the mentioning with Gungans and Wookiees probably suggests that they are are a species. But the book doesn’t clarify this openly. We can think about one more canon-content: the in-universe book called Sabine – My Rebel Sketchbook.  There is a sketch in the book which can remind us to the wolf-like pictures of Bothans in the Legends.  But the book doesn’t say that we are watching a pic of a Bothan, probably it is just the product of the imagination of the Mandalorian girl.

So if we summarize the info above, we can think that the Bothans are probably just a group of the Rebellion or another organization, not a species. We hope, we’ll know much more about them in the coming years!

This article was published first in Hungarian. Translated by Bence Földi.