If I asked you to picture Aayla Secura, you’d probably envision that graceful blue Twi’lek Jedi from the Clone Wars era, right?
Well, prepare to have your mind blown. What we know and love about this iconic character nearly took a completely different path. Before joining the cinematic Star Wars universe in Attack of the Clones, Aayla began her journey in the pages of Star Wars: Republic comics with a design so bizarre you wouldn’t recognize her, think less elegant Twi’lek and more… fish.
I’m about to take you behind the scenes of one of Star Wars’ most dramatic character redesigns that eventually caught George Lucas’s attention and changed this Jedi’s look forever.
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Early Concept: The Fish-Like Jedi
When writer John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema began crafting new stories for the Star Wars: Republic comics in the early 2000s, they wanted to introduce fresh faces to expand the Jedi Order. One of these new characters was intended to be a partner and companion for Quinlan Vos.
Duursema’s first pass at the design leaned heavily into alien territory — she drew a figure with fish-like features, including an aquatic head shape that was far more alien than the more humanoid Jedi audiences were familiar with.
In fact, years later, Jan Duursema confirmed in a Facebook post that Aayla was originally imagined as a fish-like character before they decided to redesign her into a Twi’lek.
The goal at the time was to make the Jedi feel more diverse, showing that the Force wasn’t limited to just human-like characters. However, the fish-like concept didn’t quite land. While it would have added variety, it lacked the immediate visual connection to Star Wars lore that fans tend to latch onto. The design was ultimately set aside before the character’s first comic appearance, but it gives us an early glimpse into how experimental the creative process was for expanding the galaxy’s roster of Jedi.
Transformation into a Twi’lek
While the fish-like design offered something new, it didn’t quite fit the tone that Star Wars was known for. Wanting a character that still felt alien but more connected to the existing universe, Jan Duursema and John Ostrander reworked the concept. They decided to base Aayla on the Twi’lek species, already familiar to fans thanks to Oola, the green-skinned dancer in Return of the Jedi.
This change gave the character an immediate visual recognition. Twi’leks were already established in Star Wars as exotic and visually striking beings, making Aayla stand out without feeling out of place. Her updated design, with the iconic head-tails (lekku) and vibrant blue skin, gave her a fresh identity while staying true to the galaxy’s aesthetic. Even her outfit, which showed more skin than most Jedi robes, was designed to emphasize her alien elegance without detaching her from the role of a capable Jedi Knight.
George Lucas’s Reaction and Film Inclusion
Aayla’s leap from the comic pages to the big screen was almost accidental — and all thanks to George Lucas himself. While flipping through Star Wars comic art during the pre-production of Attack of the Clones, Lucas noticed an illustration of Aayla Secura.
He immediately took an interest in her design. Lucas felt that the Jedi Order needed to look more diverse and visually varied, and Aayla’s Twi’lek appearance was exactly what he was looking for. Without a long discussion or detailed backstory, he decided she should be added to the movie.
As Lucas later mentioned in the 2002 Attack of the Clones DVD commentary, he felt the Jedi Order needed to look more diverse and visually varied, and Aayla’s Twi’lek appearance was exactly what he was looking for. Without a long discussion or detailed backstory, he decided she should be added to the movie.
In his own words, Lucas explained his thought process: “When we started building Jedis– We had a lot of Jedis and needed more Jedi. We ended up with a lot of Jedis that looked like people that worked at ILM, with these short little haircuts, and they looked like they stepped out from behind a computer. So I was saying ‘We have to get more exotic Jedis.”
The solution came from an unexpected source. Lucas continued, “We only have so much resources to do these things… but I do have Twi’leks because we use them quite a bit in other areas — in the Senate and as background action. So I have a wardrobe and a setup of certain kinds of characters. It was a way of reinventing some of those characters.”
That’s when the connection to the comics happened. “I had realized that… we had a comic book that has a Twi’lek in it that is a Jedi. There’s a whole series actually of her,’ Lucas recalled. ‘And I said, ‘Well, why don’t we put her in this? She’s a comic character, but we’ll just fit her in… and have her be a background character, ’cause that’s exotic.”
The comic Lucas was referring to was ‘Star Wars: Republic – Darkness,’ where Aayla had already been established as a compelling character with her own storyline. This serendipitous discovery would give the blue-skinned Jedi her moment in the cinematic spotlight.
Portrayed by Amy Allen, a production assistant at Industrial Light & Magic at the time, Aayla Secura would go on to appear briefly in Attack of the Clones and again in Revenge of the Sith, ultimately gaining a place in Star Wars canon far beyond what her creators first imagined.
Behind-the-Scenes: Costume and Production Work
Once George Lucas made the call, the production team had to move fast. Aayla Secura wasn’t part of the original shooting plan, meaning her costume had to be assembled quickly and with limited resources.
Costume supervisor Gillian Libbert and her team managed to create Aayla’s outfit in just about two weeks. They reused and repurposed materials already available on set — including leather pieces from Jar Jar Binks’s costumes — to complete her look.
Transforming Amy Allen into Aayla Secura was no small task either. Makeup artists spent around four hours each day applying the full-body blue paint and fitting the Twi’lek headpiece. Despite the rush and the challenges, Aayla’s final look ended up blending seamlessly with the rest of the Jedi Order.
Her brief but memorable appearances left such an impact that even casual fans remember her among the dozens of background Jedi shown during the Clone Wars era.