Star Wars: 10 Weirdest Aliens in the Mos Eisley Cantina

If Mos Eisley is a rotten hive of scum and villainy, then Chalmun’s Cantina, otherwise known as the Mos Eisley Cantina, is its raw, beating heart. A favorite hangout for criminals, gangsters, smugglers and more, the establishment is a place where shootouts can happen at any moment, and patron deaths are a dime a dozen.

For most viewers, the Cantina was their first look at all the diverse alien races that populated the Star Wars galaxy, and a revelation of just how dangerous it could be.

Here are ten denizens that make this wild west saloon what it is.

10 Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes

No article about the Cantina would be complete without the famous band responsible for one of the catchiest tunes in the galaxy. These baby-headed jazz musicians are what would happen if Kenny G studied the clarinet in Chernobyl.

Their black eyes look like those of the so-called ‘greys’ that are always abducting people. It’s their song, Mad About Me, that forever made them a favorite among the Star Wars devoted. It’s just one of those earworms that get stuck in a person’s head and refuses to leave.

9 Arleil Schous

A wolfman with glowing, red eyes, Arleil Schous was shown just briefly in the Cantina’s opening shots. He’s just sitting there, growling, taking slow sips from his cup like it’s nobody’s business. Readers who haven’t seen the un-edited original trilogy probably would not recognize him, as he was replaced in the special edition with a generic, CGI creature.

Which is a shame, because while he may look more like a Universal Pictures monster than a creature from Star Wars, he did add to the foreboding nature of the Cantina.

8 Hem Dazon

The first Cantina patron viewers see upon Luke and Obi-Wan’s entry, Hem Dazon’s triangular head pops up out of nowhere and hangs around for a little bit. While he vanishes into the background after his brief introduction, that didn’t stop Expanded Universe writers from exploring his backstory.

According to EU lore, Dazon lost everything on booze and ended up getting stuck in Mos Eisley. Because of course, every fictional saloon deserves its own resident deadbeat.

7 Kardue’sai’Malloc

A devilish character with horns and red skin, Malloc, or Labria as he often went by, is one of the Cantina’s most loathsome customers. In the pre-Disney EU, he was a warlord of sorts, known to have committed genocide and other such atrocities.

After years living under an assumed identity, he was hunted down by Boba Fett and executed. Allegedly, he was a super-fan of Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, which explains why he was at the Cantina on the day Luke and Obi-Wan arrived.

6 Myo

Looking like he just stepped out of a Greek epic poem, Myo is a one-eyed monster who looks absolutely frightening. The EU claims that he’s a survivalist who is tough as nails, so he probably doesn’t have much to fear from the Cantina’s rough and dangerous halls.

He also apparently likes a good fight, which should have made him feel quite lucky to have witnessed bot a lightsaber brawl and a shootout in the same afternoon.

5 Kabe

The little bat creature who’s almost too small to reach the bar’s counter, Kabe looks cute, innocent and not the sort of person you’d expect at the Cantina. But as Yoda once said, “size matters not,” and if the EU is to be believed, Kabe is a clever, street smart furball who knows how to get what she wants.

Case in point, she stole an expensive object and immediately turned around and sold it to a Cantina patron, just so she could buy a glass of blue milk. Sure, it may not have been the wisest use of one’s money, but at least she got a good time out of it.

4 Momaw Nadon

Better known as ‘Hammerhead’, which is what Kenner called his action figure incarnation, Momaw Nadon is that turtle looking thing sitting at a table alongside his equally weird friends. In the EU, he supported the Rebellion and was an avid green thumb, and would often hide fugitive rebels amid the plants in his garden. He’s pretty much the Star Wars equivalent of a hippie, and the Cantina’s most chill customer.

Just looking into his half-moon eyes is enough to convince anyone that he’s in another galaxy entirely. In other words, he’s probably growing more than just fruits and veggies in that garden of his.

3 Muftak

One can’t help but wonder if Muftak inspired the Wampa monster from The Empire Strikes Back. This creature looks like the Abominable Snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the face of a spider, the sort of nightmare fuel creature that’s the subject of urban legends. Apparently, though, he’s actually not as threatening as he seems.

The EU often describes him as a petty thief that lives in the streets of Mos Eisley and spends everything on booze. This sort of takes away some of the sinister aspects of his appearance and paints him as the world’s most pathetic teddybear. So no, he’s not hiding under anyone’s bed, and if he were, he probably just wants to check their couch for change.

2 Ponda Baba

A temperamental creature, Baba’s defining characteristic, other than his dark, soulless eyes, is the fact that he has a butt for a mouth. Better known as the alien who accosted Luke, Baba is a known criminal who, along with his partner in crime Dr. Evazan, were two of the most insufferable hooligans in the galaxy.

If Baba doesn’t like someone, for whatever reason, he’ll tell them. Thankfully, Obi-Wan was there to defend Luke when Baba tried to attack, cutting off his arm with one swift swipe of his lightsaber. We hope Baba learned his lesson this time, that is, if he didn’t bleed to death while staggering outside.

1 Kitik Keed’kak

Yes, that is a giant praying mantis, and yes, she was in the Mos Eisley Cantina. While she appeared only in a background shot of the opening interior pan, it is possible to see her telltale mantis arms hanging over the edge of the bar at the top-right corner of the frame.

It’s a shame she didn’t get as much screen time as her fellow weirdos. At least there’s an action figure of her, to remind us all that Industrial Light and Magic’s design team knows no bounds.

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