Lucasfilm may not have announced any human actors for the upcoming Star Wars sequel, but it has officially confirmed the movie's first star: everyone's favorite astromech, R2-D2.
If you're expecting the old-style in-house Artoo as seen in Episodes I through VI, however, then this isn't the droid you're looking for. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy hired two British amateur Artoo builders, Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples, to construct the next generation on-screen version of the monocular trashcan.
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Towersey and Steeples are both members of the Artoo Builder's Club, an international collective of more than 7,000 droid makers. The number of Artoo Builders that have actually finished a screen-accurate aluminum droid, however, is likely in the hundreds.
That's because building Artoo is the Star Wars equivalent of scaling Everest. It takes a very long time to machine all the parts required to make a good-looking Artoo, and almost as long to put them together. It's not unusual for an aluminum Artoo builder to spend a decade getting a droid to look screen-accurate.
"A lot of people try and just never get anywhere with it," said Chris James, a retired software engineer and member of the Builder's Club since its beginnings in 1999.
Hiring Towersey and Steeples isn't just good fan service; it also makes financial sense. The average Artoo builder spends around $10,000 constructing his droid. That may sound like a lot, but consider that Lucasfilm used to spend around $80,000 per Artoo unit.
Lucasfilm hired contractors to construct several new versions of the machine for each movie. The results generally weren't as impressive as the fan-built versions; Artoo was infamous on set for falling over and running into scenery.
Like a lot of the restless tinkerers in their club, Towersey and Steeples still aren't satisfied with their droid.
"We’re looking at drive options for reliability on all possible terrains," Towersey told Starwars.com.
To borrow a line from another franchise, then, it sounds like this Artoo is boldly going where no astromech has gone before.
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Image: Dario Cantatore/Getty Images