Mylaya

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"I'd LOVE to ride on a mylaya's back one day - the view would be AMAZING!"

Mylayas were a type of huge cat-like simian creature with telescoping ears. They climbed and leapt through the forests of the planet Kashyyyk, where they were used as mounts by members of the Wookiee species. Between 19 BBY and 18 BBY, the residents of one Wookiee sanctuary used a trio of mylayas to transport Clone Force 99 and the Jedi Gungi back to the settlement. They then used the mounts in combat when fighting an Imperial convoy of Trandoshans and clone troopers.

Description

"Hard to believe, but mylayas are so big they can carry a Wookiee on their back - and more!"

―Zaina^[4]

Mylayas^[5] were a type of huge cat-like simian beast with wide, telescoping ears.^[3] They were fur-covered quadrupeds with thin tails that had bushy fur along the end portion of their length. The creatures' fur could be red, green, or yellow in color, with darker stripes on their limbs and a lighter beard around their mouth, which had dark gray lips and two sharp teeth protruding from the lower jaw.^[2]

Mylayas also had two black eyes and a large flat nose. Their^[2] paws^[3] had three long, clawed toes with a fourth, smaller toe near the rear of the palm.^[2] Despite their size, Mylayas managed to travel quickly through the forests of Kashyyyk. This, along with their strength, made them natural mounts for the Wookiees.^[6] They were capable of carrying a Wookiee and two armored adult humans in a saddle on their backs as they leapt and climbed through the trees, chittering and shrieking as they went.^[2]

History

"More Trandoshans?"
"No. Something bigger."

―Echo and Hunter hear the mylayas approaching^[2]

The majestic mylayas were domesticated by Wookiee warriors. They trained them to carry the towering riders across great expanses of forest. This allowed the Wookiees to traverse their native terrain at a faster clip, scouting the dense forests for intruders.^[7]

In 19 BBY or 18 BBY,^[8] the Wookiees of a sanctuary on Kashyyyk used mylayas as mounts to traverse the forest, and after a resident of the sanctuary was freed from captivity at the hands of the Galactic Empire by the clones of Clone Force 99 and the Wookiee Jedi Gungi, he returned on a mylaya with two other mounted Wookiees. The trio then carried the clones and Gungi back to the sanctuary, delivering them to the base of the treetop settlement before bounding up higher into the sanctuary.^[2]

Clone Force 99 chose to help the Wookiee villagers fight an Imperial convoy headed their way and set up an ambush, with several Wookiees mounted in pairs on mylayas in the branches above the convoy's path. Once the clones opened fire from the foliage below, the mylayas leapt down so their riders could also begin firing on the Imperial forces, which consisted of clone troopers and Trandoshans.^[2]

One Wookiee was shot from the back of a mylaya stood on top of a wrecked Armored Assault Tank, prompting its rider to charge further into the fray, but soon the Wookiees and their allies pulled back in order to lure the Imperials closer to a nearby netcaster nest. As they pulled the Imperials further in, one of the mylayas leapt down atop another active tank and swiped the Trandoshan on its turret away through the air before leaping away again. The Imperials were then defeated when the netcaster swarmed them as planned.^[2]

Behind the scenes

"George had this idea that the Wookiees knew these giant tree spirits and so I sketeched this for him, and then you see the little yellow post-it on there is because he didn't like the first head I drew for it."

―Dave Filoni^[9]

The mylaya, albeit unidentified, first appeared in "Tribe," the sixth episode of the second season of the animated television series Star Wars: The Bad Batch,^[2] which aired February 1, 2023.^[10] The creatures were identified in the official promotional assets linked to the show released by Walt Disney Studios via Getty Images on the same day as the episode.^[5]

The creatures were originally designed by series supervising director Dave Filoni for an unfinished arc of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series set on Kashyyyk,^[9] written by Matt Michnovetz.^[11] George Lucas had an idea that the Wookiees knew giant tree spirits that they could summon and ride, so Filoni sketched a Wookiee mounted on the creature that would become the mylaya for him.^[9]

Lucas did not like the creature's head in the initial sketch, so Filoni covered it with a post-it note and drew a second face that Lucas approved. The original idea was that riding the creatures would represent the Wookiees' benevolent relationship with nature and would have been a religious practice for the species, who would not have liked riding the creatures into battle. Filoni first revealed the concept sketch for the creatures at Celebration Anaheim in 2015.^[9]