Spamel

"We're the cavalry. The&hellip; strange, whatever-these-are-called riding cavalry. We're Rebels. We're looking for the Partisans who worked with Saw Gerrera."

- Leia Organa, on one of these mounts

During the Galactic Empire's occupation of the holy moon of Jedha, Imperial sandtroopers used blue-skinned long-legged mounts to traverse the moon's cold desert landscape and to also patrol pilgrimage routes to Jedha City. Later, Rebel heroes Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker rode these mounts when they undertook a mission to Jedha to search for surviving members of Saw Gerrera's Partisans.

Biology and appearance
These creatures were blue-skinned, quadrupedal species that possessed a pair of gray eyes, a long neck and a small tail (relative to the rest of their body). With their four long slender legs, they stood up to 4.9 meters high. The mounts dwelled on Jedha after the destruction of Jedha City had breath masks strapped to their face due to the harsh conditions on the moon.

History
"Hey, hero! Come aboard!"

- Leia Organa, to Luke Skywalker after his mount was shot down

These long-legged mounts were used by sandtroopers on the desert moon of Jedha, during its occupation by the Galactic Empire. Riding these creatures, Imperial troopers traversed the chilly sands of Jedha, patrolling pilgrimage routes to Jedha City, and watched for smugglers and Saw Gerrera's rebels &mdash;the Partisans. The troopers who rode these mounts also wielded a pike, visually similar to the ones wielded by dewback troopers&mdash;the sandtroopers who utilized dewbacks as mounts.

In the year 0 BBY, the Empire destroyed Jedha City in an effort to test the superlaser of the Death Star. The destruction devastated the entire moon, threw a major blow to the Partisans, and sparked a chain of events that marked the outbreak of the open war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Some time after the Battle of Yavin, Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker rode two of these mounts when they led a team of Rebels into a mission to Jedha in an attempt to make contact with the surviving members of the Partisans. Shortly after the two rescued two Partisans named Ubin Des and Chulco Gi, an Imperial patrol transport shot down Skywalker's mount. Therefore they all four got on the same mount, but eventually managed to escape from Imperials by jumping from the top of the mount into the Millennium Falcon.

Behind the scenes
"One of the first shots featured a stormtrooper sitting on a camel, and I thought to myself: "Wow, I'm in Star Wars!""

- Felicity Jones

The long-legged mount was created and developed for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first film in the Star Wars Anthology Series, which was released in North America on December 16, 2016. Prior to the film's release, the mount was first depicted in Star Wars: Galactic Atlas, a canon reference book which included a map of Jedha as a spread to the then-upcoming film Rogue One. The book was illustrated by Tim McDonagh and first published on November 3, 2016.

As Rogue One ' s Holy City of Jedha was inspired by real-life holy cities such as Mecca, Jerusalem, and other&mdash;mostly desert&mdash;locations in the Middle East and North Africa; the long-legged mounts were inspired by camels that inhabited those lands. Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One, called the creatures "space camels."

During the filming of Rogue One on July 23–24, 2015 in Jordan, stormtroopers were filmed riding camels between Jedha City and the lookout rock where Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, and K-2SO stand. The camels were to be digitally replaced with a creature design by concept artist Christian Alzmann, but the shots were ultimately cut. However, the creatures can be seen in some scenes within the Jedha City, which were completely digitally generated.

Appearances

 * Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
 * Star Wars 38: The Ashes of Jedha, Part I
 * Star Wars 39: The Ashes of Jedha, Part II