}); The Road to Episode Infinity: Willrow Hood: A Star Wars Story

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Willrow Hood: A Star Wars Story




The Star Wars community is known for leaving nothing unexplained. Almost every background alien has a very extensive backstory and sometimes characters that are only glimpsed for mere seconds become fan favorites. Perhaps the character that exemplifies this fact most pointedly is Willrow Hood. Allow me to explain.

In “The Empire Strikes Back” many people are seen fleeing Cloud City after Lando orders the evacuation. Yet one person stands out more than others- the guy carrying what appears to be an Ice Cream Maker.

Some fans (ones that make their own ice cream) probably noticed this odd extra during the original run of “The Empire Strikes Back” or on the VHS release. The background character became even more famous in 1997 when a card from the Collectible Card Game identified him as Willrow Hood.

From that point on, fame was really inevitable. A backstory was fleshed out through StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider, and even “The Complete Encyclopedia”. The "Ice Cream Maker" that Willrow carried out of Cloud City is now known to be the city's main computer memory core. Willrow was taking it with him to protect Bespin’s Rebellion contacts from falling into Imperial hands.

One would think that with a sufficient backstory, fans would slowly forget about Hood and move onto something else, but that is not what happened. The legend of Hood is only growing stronger. In 2009 Hood received a Kenner Action figure despite four years of rejection from the Hasbro design director. Included with the Kenner figure is Willrow's Ice Cream Maker (I mean, Data Core).

Hood has also recently appeared in the background of a Star Wars comic (Star Wars 22) and in the mobile game: "Star Wars Uprising”.

Yet the love for Willrow Hood is most visible at conventions. Not only are many fans dressing up at Willrow Hood, but many conventions now have an event called “The Running of the Hoods”. In this event fans dress in orange jumpsuits and jog down corridors carrying Ice Cream Makers.

Never let it be said that Star Wars fans don’t know how to have fun.

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