On the set of the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back, Howie Weed can be seen reading Star Wars Insider 29. Harold "Howie" Weed, born on December 23, 1962, is an artist at Industrial Light & Magic who has also taken on acting roles within the Star Wars universe. For the 1997 Special Editions, he portrayed several background characters such as Ketwol and Melas, in addition to the Wampa ice creature.
Harold Weed began his involvement with the Special Editions of the Star Wars original trilogy in 1997. Weed held the position of lead creature creator for the Special Editions of both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, responsible for designing the new creatures featured in these versions of the films.
Following in the footsteps of Rick Baker, Weed himself performed as some of the characters he created. Notably, in A New Hope, he appears in the cantina scene as both Ketwol and Melas, utilizing the same puppet for both roles. During the production of The Empire Strikes Back, Weed was selected to wear his own Wampa Ice Creature costume for the newly filmed scenes. As this part did not necessitate a particularly tall actor, Des Webb was not asked to return. Consequently, Weed is the primary performer of the "gory Wampa" seen in the Special Edition.
Weed's involvement with the Star Wars franchise continued with Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, where he contributed to ILM as a construction artist and a digital model development artist.
- He worked as a recording technician for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back
- " Renewing the Universe " — as seen in Star Wars Galaxy Magazine 10
- Star Wars Insider 33
- Harold Weed's page on Wikipedia
- Howie Weed's profile at the Internet Movie Database
- Howie Weed (Creature Maker) by Dennis Pellegrom featured on Star Wars Interviews in May of 2010 (Note: The original content is no longer available; archived on December 9, 2022)