As it turns out, Babu Frik nearly died in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Babu was a minor character who was introduced as part of Episode IX's Sith dagger subplot. Zorii Bliss took the heroes to Babu's workshop on Kijimi and tasked him with reprogramming C-3PO. When the First Order obliterated the planet, Babu was supposed to be one of Kijimi's many casualties.

RELATED: Forget Baby Yoda, Star Wars' Cutest Character Is Babu Frik

"I think he was going to die originally -- I think the AD shot that. When the planet [Kijimi] was blown up, he was on it," concept artist Ivan Manzella told Empire. Creature effects creative supervisor Neal Scanlan added that Steven Spielberg may have been responsible for saving Babu, saying, "It could be a rumor, but I believe J.J. screened the movie for Steven Spielberg, and at the end Spielberg said, 'What happened to Babu?' Everybody thought, 'Oh God, what did happen to Babu?'"

Scanlan explained that Babu's Kijimi sequence was just a small part of what they shot for the character. This enabled the VFX department to simply lift "out Babu and put him into Zorii's ship at the end." As a result, both Babu and Zorii thankfully escaped death on Kijimi and were part of the Resistance's fight against the Final Order.

RELATED: The Rise of Skywalker Puppeteer Reveals Who Inspired Babu Frik's Design

Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant.