The Mon Calamari and Quarren species were created for Return of the Jedi. The Mon Calamari design was developed by Phil Tippett for Admiral Ackbar and his fleet officers, and he named it after a lunch of calamari salad he had one day. The Quarren was originally a single alien for the background of Jabba's palace called "Squid Head." It was designed in a series of sketches by Chris Walas and Nilo Rodis Jamero.

The first source to establish that the Mon Calamari and the Quarren shared a planet was The Star Wars Sourcebook, published in 1987 by West End Games. Since then, stories of tensions between the two cultures have appeared many times in the Expanded Universe, quite memorably in the 2003 Clone Wars animated micro-series.

Captain Ackbar's declaration "It's an attack!" is an homage to his much quoted and parodied line in Return of the Jedi, "it's a trap!"

The design of the Mon Cala city is meant to remind viewers of the Mon Calamari cruisers seen in Return of the Jedi. In fact, the Mon Cala towers are essentially landed and docked starship designs.

Prince Lee-Char's name derives from "Charlie," a nod to the famous animated mascot for a certain brand of tuna.

Kit Fisto's gunship nose art features a cartoon of a bomb with Kit's face on it, and written in Aurebesh underneath that, "Service with a smile," a reference to Kit's famous grin in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones.