Warning: Spoilers follow for Solo: A Star Wars StoryOpens in a new tab. Jump into hyperspace and away from this page if you haven’t seen the movie yet.
L3-37Opens in a new tab, droid, revolutionary, and friend of Lando CalrissianOpens in a new tab, is a better co-pilot than ChewbaccaOpens in a new tab. She’s self-made from astromech and protocol droid parts, and she can directly tap into the Millennium FalconOpens in a new tab‘s navicomputer to compute hyperspace routes and determine how to traverse them at maximum speed. And instead of being rebuilt after her unfortunate death in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lando incorporated L3 into the Falcon’s navigational system forever.
She’s been there all along, helping Han Solo make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs and assisting him and Chewbacca throughout their adventures in the original trilogy. C-3PO even makes a comment in The Empire Strikes Back that sure sounds like it could be in reference to L3-37. After Han and Chewie take the Falcon into the asteroid field and land inside the asteroid cave/space slug, Threepio tells Han in an exasperated tone, “Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.”
As far as I know L3 wasn’t conceived when Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote Empire nearly 40 years ago, but this is totally in reference to her, right? She’s unlike any other droid we’ve met, and I like thinking her unique attitude remained after she was put into the Falcon.
And another cool connection/Easter egg: according to Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide, L3’s “brain module began as an R3 astromech.” Her brain also includes data from an espionage droid, custom coding, and protocol droid processors. That’s a nice nod to the Star Wars Blueprints published in 2008, which mention the Millennium Falcon’s main computer features an R3-series astromech, a slicer droid, and a V-5 transport droid.
How many times do you think L3-37’s navigating skills have helped Han and Chewie get the Falcon out of a bind? Tell us in the comments.
Images: Lucasfilm
Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on TwitterOpens in a new tab.
Don’t let this be the solo Solo story you read!
- Emilia Clarke’s Wookiee impressionOpens in a new tab is something else.
- Donald Glover’s SNL sketch calls out lack of black Star Wars charactersOpens in a new tab.
- That time Harrison Ford surprised Alden EhrenreichOpens in a new tab during an interview.
[brightcove video_id=”5788333798001″ brightcove_account_id=”3653334524001″ brightcove_player_id=”rJs2ZD8x”]
