Lak Sivrak

Lak Sivrak was a Shistavanen male who served the Galactic Empire as a scout and hunter. He^[1] at one point was a patron of Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina in Mos Eisley^[3] spaceport on the planet Tatooine^[4] and left the establishment by a backdoor during a brawl.^[2] After meeting the Force-sensitive Lamproid Dice Ibegon,^[1] another patron of the cantina,^[5] he fell in love with her.^[1] Ibegon was a member of the Alliance to Restore the Republic and convinced Sivrak to join her cause^[5] in the Galactic Civil War between the Empire and the rebels.^[4]

In 4 ABY,^[6] Sivrak flew an X-wing starfighter for the rebels during the Battle of Endor,^[1] in which the Alliance Fleet engaged the Imperial Navy above the moon of Endor and successfully destroyed the Death Star II.^[4] Sivrak had brown fur, gray skin, and black eyes.^[2] He wore a brown shawl over a white shirt with a black belt and used a SE-14r light repeating blaster.^[7]

Behind the scenes[]

The audio of Dice Ibegon and Lak Sivrak that would be reused for Ibegon and Ketwol
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Star Wars: Soundboards on StarWars.com (article) (content now obsolete; backup link)

Lak Sivrak was portrayed by a woman^[8] in the original trilogy film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,^[9] which was released on May 25, 1977.^[10] He was added to the film during^[11] a series of supplemental shots filmed for the cantina sequence on a sound stage in Dovington's Hollywood studio between January 24–25, 1977.^[12] Due to time and budget restraints,^[13] the Lak Sivrak mask was an off-the-shelf Halloween mask created by creature designer Rick Baker, who also used an altered version of the same commercial mask for the cantina character Arleil Schous. Sivrak's shawl was a re-used Jawa robe.^[14]

Sivrak-Mask — Lak Sivrak used an off-the-shelf Halloween mask made by Rick Baker.

Sivrak's mask long bothered director George Lucas,^[11] as although he had approved its use, the mask had been created outside his sphere of control.^[13] Because of this, he digitally replaced the character with the highly detailed puppet Ketwol in the Special Edition version of A New Hope^[15] released in 1997,^[10] although the audio that was intended to be Sivrak growling was left unchanged.^[16]

Sivrak was known as "Hyena"^[16] or "Hyena-Man" on set,^[11] but in the current Star Wars canon, the character was first identified in the mobile card game Star Wars: Force Collection,^[1] which initially launched in 2013. Although the launch of Force Collection predates^[17] the Star Wars canon reset of 2014,^[18] Lucasfilm Story Group member Leland Chee confirmed that the game was kept updated to fit with canon.^[19] The name originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity, where Sivrak was first identified in the 1989 Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game supplement Galaxy Guide 1: A New Hope, which was written by Grant S. Boucher for West End Games.^[20] The Troig^[21] Jak Sivrak, who was created for the 2018 animated television series Star Wars Resistance, was named as a reference to Lak Sivrak.^[22]