R2 D2

Design

George Lucas's creation of R2-D2 was influenced by Akira Kurosawa's 1958 feature film The Hidden Fortress (USA release 1962), particularly Tahei and Matashichi, the two comic relief characters that serve as sidekicks to General Makabe. Lucas and artist Ralph McQuarrie also drew inspiration from the robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Douglas Trumbull's 1972 film Silent Running.

The name is said to derive from when Lucas was making one of his earlier films, American Graffiti. Sound editor Walter Murch states that he is responsible for the utterance which sparked the name for the droid. Murch asked for Reel 2, Dialog Track 2, in the abbreviated form "R-2-D-2". Lucas, who was in the room and had dozed off while working on the script for Star Wars, momentarily woke when he heard the request and, after asking for clarification, stated that it was a "great name" before falling immediately back to sleep.

R2-D2 stands for Second Generation Robotic Droid Series-2, according to a Star Wars encyclopedia published after the release of the film Star Wars.

Tony Dyson, owner of the special effects studio The White Horse Toy Company, was commissioned to fabricate the design, making four units operated by remote control. Two were used by Baker, and two were stunt double models made for the scene where the droid was shot from the swamp onto the shore on Dagobah.

Star Wars

In Star Wars, both R2-D2 and C-3PO are introduced on board the Tantive IV, along with Princess Leia of Alderaan, when they are fired upon by an Imperial Star Destroyer. Leia inserts into R2-D2 an information disc containing the plans for the Death Star battle station, and encodes a distress message on the droid's holographic projector. The droids then escape in a pod that crashes on Tatooine near Obi-Wan Kenobi's desert abode.

R2-D2 and C-3PO are then abducted by Jawas and bought by Owen Lars, step-uncle of Luke Skywalker. While Luke cleans the sand out of R2-D2's gears, he discovers a fragment of Leia's message, and removes the droid's restraining bolt to see more; once free of the bolt, R2 claims to have no knowledge of the message. That night, R2-D2 leaves the farm to seek out Obi-Wan. Soon, by way of fate, Luke is forced to leave Tatooine with Obi-Wan, Han Solo, and Chewbacca, and they attempt to deliver R2-D2 to the Rebel Alliance. Along the way, they are pulled in by the Death Star's tractor beam, but eventually rescue Princess Leia and escape. R2-D2 delivers the plans to the Rebel Alliance, and serves as Luke's astromech droid during the attack on the station. R2-D2 is severely damaged during the battle, but is restored before the ceremony at the end of the film.

The Empire Strikes Back

In The Empire Strikes Back, R2-D2 accompanies Luke to Dagobah, and later to Cloud City, where he helps to rescue and repair a heavily damaged C-3PO and to override city security computers. He also manages to fix the Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive, resulting in a last-minute escape from Imperial forces.

Return of the Jedi

In Return of the Jedi, R2-D2 plays a critical role in rescuing Luke, Leia, and Han from Jabba the Hutt. He later joins the Rebel strike team on Endor. He is badly damaged during the fight between the Imperial troops and the Rebels, but is repaired in time for the celebration marking the second Death Star's destruction and the end of the Empire.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, set 32 years before Star Wars, R2-D2 is portrayed as belonging to the Naboo defense forces and is one of four astromech droids deployed for repair duty on Queen Padmé Amidala's starship as it attempts to get past the Trade Federation blockade. The sole survivor of the four, R2-D2 becomes part of Qui-Gon Jinn's party on Tatooine and meets C-3PO and Anakin Skywalker. Later still, he serves as the astromech droid for Anakin's starfighter during the Battle of Naboo.

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

In Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, set 10 years after The Phantom Menace, R2-D2 still serves Anakin and Obi-Wan. He accompanies Anakin and Padmé to Naboo, and then to Tatooine when Anakin tries to rescue his mother Shmi. Here, he is reunited with C-3PO, and the two get into various misadventures on Geonosis. He and C-3PO are later witnesses to Anakin and Padmé's secret wedding.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

In Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, R2-D2 helps Anakin and Obi-Wan in their mission to rescue Chancellor Palpatine from Count Dooku's capital ship, the Invisible Hand. He is attacked by battle droids, but defeats them through ingenious tactics. After Anakin falls to the dark side of the Force and becomes Darth Vader, he takes R2-D2 with him when he goes to assassinate the Separatist council, but tells him to stay with the ship. After the Galactic Empire is established at the end of the film, C-3PO's memory is erased to keep the knowledge of the locations of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia a secret from their father. However, R2-D2's memory isn't wiped; as a result, R2-D2 is the only surviving character at the end of Return of the Jedi who knows the entire story of the Skywalker family. Both R2-D2 and C-3PO end up in the possession of Captain Raymus Antilles on board the Corellian corvette Tantive IV.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, set approximately 30 years after Return of the Jedi, R2-D2 is revealed to be kept in storage at the Resistance base on the planet D'Qar, having put himself in a low-power mode after Luke Skywalker's disappearance. He later awakens and reveals Luke's location by combining map data stored in his memory with that of the droid BB-8. He then travels with Rey and Chewbacca to the planet highlighted on the map, where they find Luke in self-imposed exile. In the credits, Kenny Baker was credited as 'R2-D2 consultant' while Jimmy Vee also portrayed the character at some scenes uncredited.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

R2-D2 will appear in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with actor Jimmy Vee took over the role replacing Kenny Baker, who retired from the role due to his age and health. Baker died in August 2016, shortly after the filming on The Last Jedi was completed.

Rogue One

R2-D2 makes a cameo appearance in Rogue One alongside C-3PO.

Canon

Legends

With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.

Other films

Along with the Star Wars films, R2-D2 makes non-canon cameo appearances in several other films, such as Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, seen flying in debris, Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the underside of the alien ship, Raiders of the Lost Ark, seen on the wall of the room containing the Ark, and in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, seen flying among rubble and debris in the sky.

Production

In the original Star Wars films, there were two R2-D2 models, one that was remote controlled and rolled on three wheeled legs, and another which was worn by English actor Kenny Baker and walked on two legs. Deep Roy (who also doubled Yoda in several scenes), served as Baker's double, in both Episodes V and VI; providing stunts and filling in when Baker was unavailable. The radio controlled R2 was operated by John Stears in A New Hope, Brian Johnson in The Empire Strikes Back and by Kit West in Return of the Jedi.

Kenny Baker, who portrayed R2-D2 in costume, was not involved in the Star Wars Holiday Special. R2 was portrayed entirely by a radio controlled unit, operated by Mick Garris (Lucas' receptionist at the time). In the credits, R2-D2 is credited as playing himself. Garris later went on to operate the radio controlled R2 at various events, including the Oscars.

There were a total of 15 R2-D2s on the set of Attack of the Clones. Eight were radio-controlled; two were worn by Baker; the remainder were stunt models that could be moved by puppet strings or towed by wires. The robotic R2s were prone to failure, particularly while shooting the Tatooine scenes in Tunisia.

Radio controlled units were extensively utilised for the Prequel trilogy, due to advances in technology, though Baker was still used in some scenes. R2-D2 had three principal operators: Don Bies, Jolyon Bambridge and Grant Imahara.

The sound effects for R2-D2's "voice" were created by sound designer Ben Burtt, using an ARP 2600 analog synthesizer, as well as his own vocalizations processed through other effects. Original props of R2-D2 and C-3PO are used as Audio-Animatronics in the queue area of Disneyland's Star Tours–The Adventures Continue attraction.

Although Kenny Baker is credited, Anthony Daniels (who portrays C-3PO) has stated that Baker did not film any scenes in Revenge of the Sith. Baker himself has said he probably only appears in footage caught while shooting the previous two movies.

For The Force Awakens, producer Kathleen Kennedy hired two fans, Lee Towarsey and Oliver Steeples, to build new R2-D2 robots for the film, after being impressed by their working replicas that were brought to Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2013.

Cultural influence

R2-D2 was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003. The Smithsonian Institution included R2-D2 in its list of 101 Objects that Made America. Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center called a security robot intended for schools and malls R2-D2's "evil twin"; William Santana Li, who co-founded the company that built the robot, said he wanted people to think of the robot as "a mash-up of 'Batman,' 'Minority Report' and R2-D2".

Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, said in an interview, "As soon as R2-D2 comes on the set, everyone goes a bit silly." He said "there is something about him that makes you feel great affection for him". In the DVD audio commentary for Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas says R2-D2 is his favorite character, and that it is intentional that R2-D2 saves the day at least once in every film.

R2-D2 and C-3PO guest starred in a series of segments of Sesame Street in 1978. The two droids were featured as presenters at the 50th Academy Awards.

R2-D2 is parodied in several episodes of Family Guy; The final scene in "Blind Ambition" where Peter Griffin receives a medal of honor after a blind Peter saves Horace's life parodies the ending in the original 1977 Star Wars. In the episodes parodying the original Star Wars trilogy, Cleveland Brown plays R2-D2's role, while Quagmire plays C-3PO.

In the Latin American Spanish dubbing of the Star Wars films, the name R2-D2 is pronounced as "Arturito".

In 2015, Hasbro released a Bop It game using the design of R2-D2 on September 4, 2015 for Force Friday. The top part of the unit (his head) becomes the 'Bop It' button, the bottom part of his head becomes the 'Twist It' and his legs are the 'Pull It'. The game is based on the Bop It Micro Series and the voice is replaced with voice recordings from C-3PO. Instead of the game saying "I'm going to sleep." before the unit shuts off, this version says "I'll just switch off for a while."

2015 Israeli sci-fi comedy "OMG, I'm a Robot!" features "Robo Joseph" – a "Jewish R2d2" dubbed by Rob Schneider.