{"id":187619,"date":"2019-05-03T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.factstoryhub.com\/?p=187619"},"modified":"2025-02-16T22:32:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T22:32:05","slug":"r2d2-and-c3po-facts","status":"publish","type":[],"link":"https:\/\/www.factstoryhub.com\/r2d2-and-c3po-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Facts About Your Favorite Droids: R2-D2 & C-3PO"},"content":{"rendered":"
One thing I love about the Star Wars universe is the way characters are coupled with each other. There’s Luke and Leia, Han and Chewie, Vader and Sidious – and, of course, R2D2 and C-3PO.\n In a galaxy full of icons and iconic moments, these two droids are about as iconic as you can get.\n Hell, this duo is one of Sci-Fi\u2019s all-round biggest icons \u2013 let alone Star Wars‘.\n These two have lived through generations of amazing galactic adventures, always somehow caught up in the middle of everything.\n Check out these 10 facts about this iconic droid duo!\n George Lucas’s original design inspiration for R2-D2 came after the 1972 sci-fi flick Silent Running.\n In Silent Running, there was a trio of droids called Huey, Duey and Louie, and George Lucas showed them to legendary concept artist Ralph McQuarrie who designed Artoo using them as inspiration.\n The likeness of Artoo to Silent Running‘s trio of droids caused Universal Studios to kick off a lawsuit for breach of creative copyright issues.\n However, the suit was quickly dropped by Universal when Fox levied a counter-sue.\n They pointed out the similarities between Universal’s Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars.\n If you ask me, gonk droids look more like the Silent Running droids than astromech droids. Just sayin’…\n One of the little confusing plot points about A New Hope is how old Ben Kenobi claims to have no memory of Artoo, and acts as though he doesn’t recognize the droid.\n However, we the audience know this isn’t the case from the prequels.\n And as we also know, old Obi Wan is all for truths \u201cfrom a certain point of view\u201d. He simply states \u201cI don’t seem to remember owning a droid\u201d in his classic coy Obi Wan style \u2013 never stating he didn’t know Artoo specifically.\n In the novel Star Wars: A New Hope \u2013 The Princess The Scoundrel and The Farmboy, Han looks over the falcon to see Ben beckon over Artoo whilst Luke is training with the lightsaber.\n The passage reads:\n \u201cThe R2 unit moved to Ben’s side, as if it was his faithful pet. An image that was further reinforced by the old man stroking a hand over its domed head.\n \u201cIt’s good to fly with you again, my old friend.\u201d The old man said, so softly Han wasn’t sure he had heard him right.\u201d\n This little moment shared between Artoo and his old friend Obi Wan stunningly ties up a loose end in the original Star Wars outing.\n During the making of George Lucas’s 1973 film American Graffiti, he was in a room working on the Star Wars script and dozed off.\n Whilst snoozing, sound editor Walter Murch called out for Reel 2, Dialogue Track 2, by the abbreviation of \u201cR-2-D-2\u201d.\n Lucas awoke when he heard the request and asked Murch to repeat what he’d just said.\n After he heard it again he stated it was a \u201cgreat name\u201d and went back to work on his script.\n It was sheer fluke that the plucky little foul-mouthed droid we all love was named R2-D2!\n In the commentary for Revenge of the Sith, Lucas revealed that Artoo is his favorite Star Wars character.\n He said that he always makes sure that he saves the day at least once every film, because he loves the droid so much.\n The Phantom Menace: R2 repairs the shields on the Queen’s ship.\n Attack of the Clones: He saves Padme from being melted in the droid foundry on Geonosis.\n Revenge of the Sith: R2 operates the elevator for Obi Wan & Anakin – and he distracts Grievous so the two Jedi can retrieve their lightsabers, lest they become a fine addition in the General’s collection.\n A New Hope: R2-D2 gets the Death Star plans to the Rebellion and stops the trash compactor.\n Empire Strikes Back: R2 fixes the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon.\n Return of the Jedi: R2-D2 smuggles Luke’s lightsaber to the Sarlacc pit and throws it to him when he’s fighting Jabba’s goons.\n So yeah, when you think about all the heroic actions Artoo gets to do throughout the Lucas-era Star Wars films it should come as no surprise that Lucas has the biggest soft spot for Artoo over all the other characters!\n The characters and the dynamic of the relationship the two droids share was heavily influenced by the slapstick comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.\n When looking at the mischievous, bullish Artoo, next to the uptight and clumsy English Threepio, the parallels are quite easily drawn between Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.\n Anyone who knows a bit about Star Wars will also know that George Lucas was very inspired by Japanese films.\n So it should come as no surprise that they were also influenced by the characters Tahei and Matashichi \u2013 two peasants from Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 film The Hidden Fortress.\n Here, Lucas took influence from the way The Hidden Fortress is told from the perspective of the film’s lowliest characters, and aimed to bring this perspective to Star Wars through R2-D2 and C-3PO’s eyes.\n As expected from two of Sci-Fi\u2019s most recognizable icons, Artoo and Threepio have made many (non-canon) cameos over the years\n Artoo appeared in both the 2009 Star Trek reboot and the 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, where he was briefly seen flying in some space debris.\n In sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Artoo can be seen on the underside of the alien ship, and he also makes minor cameo appearances in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Ready Player One.\n The duo appears in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where they are seen on the wall of the room containing the Ark in a hieroglyphic.\n They also both also have a small cameo in the Wreck-It Ralph sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet.\n The duo even appeared in an episode of Sesame Street together!\n Artoo was initially supposed to be a main character in The Lego Movie, but was sadly written out when its creators couldn’t obtain the rights to use him.\n \u201cI am C-3PO, human-cyborg relations and I am fluent in over six million forms of communication!\u201d\n Now that is a line any Star Wars fan has heard… well, probably a good six million times!\n I doubt there’s a Star Wars film that goes by without hearing Threepio say that line.\n Heck, other than telling people (especially Han Solo) the odds, I’d say it’s the closest he has to a catchphrase!\n However, in the gulf between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, Threepio’s TranLang III communication module was upgraded.\n So he can now communicate in over seven million forms of communication.\n When do you think we’ll hear him brag about that next?\n When the two first met in 1975 and George Lucas proposed playing the character of C-3PO, Daniels didn’t want to do it. He said that he was uninterested in portraying a robot on-screen.\n However, he changed his mind when he saw Ralph McQuarrie’s conceptual painting for the character, saying that he thought the robot was beautiful.\n Daniels reprized his role for The Force Awakens when J.J. Abrams asked him to come back.\n Initially, Abrams only asked Daniels if he wanted to do the voice, due to his age, but Daniels was more than happy to get back in costume again.\n The entire C-3PO costume was rebuilt from the bottom up to be easier for Daniels to get in and out of, without any changes being visible on-screen.\n Daniels also provided the voice for C-3PO in the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003), Droids, The Clone Wars, and Rebels.\n Just like Artoo and Obi Wan in A New Hope, Vader and Threepio come into contact with no on-screen recognition of each other during Empire Strikes Back.\nThe design inspiration for R2-D2 caused a lawsuit between Universal & Fox.\n
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Obi Wan remembered R2-D2 in A New Hope.\n
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R2-D2’s name came from the set of American Graffiti.\n
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R2-D2 is George Lucas’ favorite character.\n
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R2-D2 and C-3PO were inspired by comic duo Laurel and Hardy.\n
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Both R2-D2 & C-3PO have appeared in multiple films outside the Star Wars franchise.\n
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C-3PO is actually now fluent in over seven million forms of communication!\n
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Anthony Daniels didn’t originally want to play C-3PO.\n
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Vader remembers C-3PO in Empire Strikes Back.\n
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