The porgs are becoming the new stars of ‘Star Wars’

Just in time for the holidays, the porgs are having their moment in the Ahch-To sun.

This week’s release of the latest trailer for “Last Jedi,” which opens Dec. 15, lets us hear just what a screaming space porg sounds like as we see the furry critter riding in the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca.

That briefest of teaser shots launched an armada of memes, and one of the most impressive responses mixes that porg peal. Volpe Music has re-created John Williams’ triumphal “Star Wars” theme by making it sound as if the porgs are singing. The result seems to be the first Porg Symphony.

The porgs were also featured prominently in the kickoff to Tuesday’s “Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” In the comedic short, BB-8, the droid mascot in 2015’s “The Force Awakens,” now wallows in its diminished status at the resident cute “Star Wars” creation as REM’s “Everybody Hurts” cuts like a lightsaber.

Director Rian Johnson and his team drew direct inspiration for the porgs from Ireland’s Skellig Michael, the remote isle that stands in for Ahch-To, Luke Skywalker’s hideout while in exile.

As the filmmakers told Entertainment Weekly, these space-puffin puppets were created in the creature shop of Neal Scanlan after Johnson saw the island seabirds while scouting locations for the final scene in “Force Awakens.”

“If you go to Skellig at the right time of year, it’s just covered in puffins, and they’re the most adorable things in the world,” Johnson told EW, adding: “So the Porgs are in that realm.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2017 at 12:25 PM with the headline "The porgs are becoming the new stars of ‘Star Wars’."