In the world of Star Wars, droids are a part of everyday life. They can be work colleagues, friends, political allies, and even tools of war. And in a galaxy filled with artificial intelligence, R2-D2 is arguably the most important of all the droids (sorry, Threepio), having lived through every Episode of the Star Wars saga. This grand tradition continued in the latest installment, The Force Awakens. After being in sleep mode for most of the film, R2-D2 joined Rey and Chewy on their quest to find Luke Skywalker. But in an alternative universe far, far away, there’s a version of the film where it was BB-8 who rolled himself into the Millennium Falcon and not everyone’s favorite bleep-blooping droid.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Rian Johnson revealed that he was the one who asked TFA director J.J. Abrams to swap the droids in those final moments.
Keeping R2-D2 in the navigator’s seat was unquestionably the right decision. Star Wars is a world where legacy is everything, and seeing Rey and R2-D2 together echoed the original trilogy and the prequels in all the right ways. Shadowing Luke and his father before him added even more fuel to the fires around Rey’s parentage, giving fans a hint of the gravitas of her mission. I mean, if R2-D2 has been asleep since Luke disappeared but wakes up only to join Rey on her quest, it MUST be important, right?
Besides: it’s nice to think that Luke will have someone he can trust by his side again.
So what do you think? Should Rian have given BB-8 his time to shine? Or would the galaxy’s bravest warriors all have fallen apart without the dulcet beep boops of R2-D2? Let us know in the comments!
Images and GIFs: Disney/Lucasfilm
