Leektar
Leektar was an elder Ewok belonging to the Bright Tree tribe, residing in Bright Tree Village located on the planet of Endor. Following the capture of a group of rebels by the Ewoks of the Bright Tree tribe, who were then brought back to their village, Leektar observed from the village center. He watched as the prisoners were prepared for a celebratory feast honoring the protocol droid C-3PO, whom the Ewoks mistakenly believed to be the deity known as the Golden One.
After Luke Skywalker, a captive, used the Force to lift C-3PO into the air, the Ewoks set the rebels free. They then consented to fight alongside the rebels against the Galactic Empire on Endor. With the Empire defeated by the newly established alliance, Leektar took part in the festivities held in Bright Tree Village.
Biography
Leektar, an elder within the Bright Tree tribe, was an Ewok inhabiting Bright Tree Village on the forest moon of Endor. In the year 4 ABY, Princess Leia Organa, a human, arrived at the village as a guest after traveling to the moon to fight against the Galactic Empire. Subsequently, several of Organa's comrades were apprehended by a scouting party from the village, led by the Ewok Teebo, and brought to the village center, bound to wooden stakes. Leektar, alongside Chief Chirpa, stood near the entrance of one of the huts surrounding the village center when Organa appeared to witness the arrival of the new captives. These captives were being readied to be cooked for a banquet in tribute to C-3PO, another of the princess's allies, whom the Ewoks had confused for the deity known as the Golden One.
At the urging of Luke Skywalker, a prisoner, C-3PO attempted to persuade the Ewoks to spare his companions. He captured Leektar's and other Ewoks' attention by declaring that he would become angry and use his magic if they did not stop. The Ewoks continued their preparations until Skywalker, a Force-sensitive Jedi, employed the Force to lift C-3PO and his throne into the air. As the Ewoks panicked, Logray promptly commanded the release of the prisoners. Later that night, Leektar stood behind Chirpa's throne in the chief's hut as C-3PO recounted stories to the Ewoks about his and his companions' fight against the Empire. After hearing these tales, Chirpa declared that the rebels would be accepted into the tribe and that the Ewoks would assist them in destroying the Empire's shield generator bunker on Endor.
The following day, the Ewoks and rebels launched an assault on the Empire and successfully destroyed the bunker, enabling an Alliance fleet above to obliterate the Empire's Death Star II superweapon. That evening, the rebels and Ewoks celebrated their victory in the village, with Leektar playing a set of drums beside Teebo during the celebration.
Behind the scenes
Malcolm Dixon played Leektar in the 1983 original trilogy film, Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. The filming of the Ewok village scenes occurred between January 18 and February 2, 1982, on Stage 3 at Elstree Studios. Within the current Star Wars canon, Leektar's identity was first established in the 2015 reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know.
The character's name was initially created within the Star Wars Legends continuity. Andrew Gilbertson devised the name for a databank entry co-authored with Arthur Papadam for the StarWars.com Hyperspace feature "What's The Story?," released on November 18, 2005. Gilbertson generated the name by manipulating the letters of the exclamation "Yee-cha," used by the Ewok character Wicket Wystri Warrick in the 1994 video game Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, seeking a phonetically similar result, as the author considered the exclamation a definitive Ewok vocalization.