Ackbar's appearance in the film was created using a combination of either a half-body puppet or a full-body costume, depending on the camera angle required for the shot. The puppet and mask were created by the "Monster Shop" of Industrial Light & Magic, the motion picture visual effects company founded by Lucas. In close-up scenes of Ackbar that required dialogue, puppeteer Timothy M. Rose sat inside the chest of the character and operated the head like a traditional hand puppet from below. Rose moved the mouth using his hand, while Mike Quinn operated the eyes via cables. and the character's scenes took six weeks to shoot. Occasionally, members of the film crew jokingly referred to the Ackbar character as "Ernie Ackbar", and his name appeared that way on some of the film's progress reports.
Although the character was created with the best available puppetry technology at the time, Lucas was not entirely pleased with the final result and felt it was a compromise. According to the book Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy, published in 2014, the original masks used for the Ackbar costumes are "in a fragile state today." Rose was frustrated by the amount of secrecy on the set, which he felt prevented him and the other actors from having everything they needed to do their jobs as well as possible. Many of Ackbar's scenes were cut from the first film, which Rose said was a disappointment to him "after waiting 30 years to reprise Ackbar". and had unsuccessfully auditioned to voice Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. He was cast after Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt approached him in 1983, while Bauersfeld was producing a radio drama with Lucasfilm sound designer Randy Thom and suggested he audition for the part of Ackbar. The recording session took one hour, and Bauersfeld made up the voice on the spot after looking at a photograph of Ackbar, without having any other information about the character. According to Bauersfeld: "I saw the face, and I knew what he must sound like." the video game Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016), and the Disney attraction Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. Voice actor Artt Butler, who was a fan of Ackbar ever since watching the Star Wars films as a child, portrayed the character in the television series The Clone Wars.
Breckin Meyer portrayed Ackbar in the Robot Chicken: Star Wars series, a Star Wars-themed version of the stop motion sketch comedy television series Robot Chicken on Adult Swim dedicated entirely to Star Wars parodies. Meyer, who also wrote for the series, called voicing Ackbar "my favorite (experience) in the history of the world". Meyer said he tries to mimic Ackbar's voice from Return of the Jedi as best he can, but that the humor comes through because "the actual voice is just funny". Robot Chicken co-creator Seth Green said of Meyer's performance: "When Breckin does Ackbar, it splits me every time. No matter what he says, it's always funny."
Cultural impact
Critical reception
Despite his small role in Return of the Jedi, Admiral Ackbar is considered a fan favorite among Star Wars characters. No. 21 on IGNs list of the Top 25 Star Wars Heroes,
Scott Chernoff, a writer for Star Wars Insider, called Ackbar's character "one of the most visually striking and memorable characters introduced in the final installment of the saga". Rebecca Hawkes of The Daily Telegraph credited Erik Bauersfeld in particular with "bringing the much-loved Ackbar to life, imbuing the fish-eyed orange monster with a voice, a forceful personality, and a lasting cult appeal".
"It's a trap!"
Admiral Ackbar's line, "It's a trap!", which he says during the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi, became one of the most famous and beloved lines from the original Star Wars trilogy. The line has become a popular Internet meme, Ben Sherlock of Screen Rant called the line "one of the most memorable quotes in the saga's history, for reasons that are unknown yet somehow obvious, and it immortalized what could've been a forgettable character". Renaldo Matadeen of Comic Book Resources called the line "a pop culture touchstone". "It's a Trap!", the 2011 episode of the animated comedy series Family Guy spoofing Return of the Jedi, took its name from Ackbar's famous line; Ackbar himself makes an appearance in the episode, portrayed by the character Klaus Heissler – a talking goldfish – from the animated series American Dad!. Additionally, a smartphone app was developed with the sole purpose of playing Ackbar's "It's a trap!" line whenever the user pushes a button.
In 2018, the comic strip story in which Ackbar made his debut in 1982 was retroactively titled after the character's famous line. Kane likewise thought the death scene was poorly handled, and believed Ackbar should have been given the larger role in The Last Jedi that went to Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo, a new character played by Laura Dern. In The Last Jedi episode of the comedic animated webseries How It Should Have Ended, which parodies and reimagines aspects of popular films, Ackbar's character survives the bridge attack after claiming he has to go to the bathroom at the time the bridge is shot, and he assumes control of the Resistance afterward.
Cultural references
The first Admiral Ackbar action figure was released in 1983, the same year as Return of the Jedi. In 1996, Ackbar was one of the Star Wars characters to receive its own Micro Machines mini-transforming playsets by Galoob. The toy line included miniature versions of the head of each character, which opened to reveal a small set from the film and a figurine of the character itself. The Ackbar playset was sold as part of a collection that also included an Boba Fett and a Gamorrean guard. A Lego figurine of Ackbar was created and released as part of multiple Lego Star Wars toy sets, including with the Lego Home One Calamari cruiser in 2009, the Lego A-Wing Starfighter in 2013, and the Lego Resistance Troop Transporter in 2015. Ackbar's full-sized costume from Return of the Jedi was featured in a 200-piece exhibition of Star Wars costumes, props, and other memorabilia at the Smithsonian Institution called "Star Wars: The Magic of Myth". The exhibit opened at the Washington, D.C. museum complex in 1997 and later went on a national tour that lasted until 2002 and visited various museums, including the San Diego Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.
Ackbar has repeatedly appeared in the Robot Chicken: Star Wars series, Several additional Ackbar skits were conceived but never completed, including one in which he is a Costco greeter, and another in which he contracts gonorrhea from a stripper and is told by a doctor "It's the clap!", in reference to Ackbar's famous line "It's a trap!" Morgan Phillips, an independent hip hop musician and disc jockey, included a song about the character called "Admiral Ackbar Please" on his album Star Wars Breakbeats.
In 2010, when the University of Mississippi began a process to find a new mascot to replace Colonel Reb, students Matthew Henry, Tyler Craft, Joseph Katool, and Ben McMurtray started a campaign to have Admiral Ackbar selected. Although their efforts started out as a joke, some students began to seriously push for the idea, while others strongly opposed it and felt it was an embarrassment for the university. Some students went so far as threatening to transfer out of the school if he was chosen, and some prospective parents said they would not let their children attend there.