'The Force Awakens': See C-3PO Reveal Unprecedented 'Calamity' to BB-8 in Holographic Message
Last week’s trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was notable for not giving us any shots of the elder Luke Skywalker. But also MIA from the clip was another Star Wars longtimer: C-3PO.
The hapless golden protocol droid, played by Anthony Daniels, has been a fixture in the galaxy far, far away since 1977. In fact, Threepio and his astromech buddy R2-D2 are the only characters to have appeared in every big-screen episode and TV spinoff. And while he didn’t get any face time in the new trailer, C-3PO just popped up somewhere else: In a panicked holographic message transmitted to BB-8.
The snippet, which you can see above, was beamed to the Sphero toy robot this morning and appears to come from The Force Awakens, since C-3PO is sporting the red arm from the new movie’s toy line. Here’s C-3PO’s message in full:
Oh my, this is a calamity. I have never needed your assistance more than at this moment. R2-D2, you are a genius.
The transmission, the first dialogue we’ve heard from C-3PO from the new film, indicates that he is with Artoo at some point. We still believe that’s Luke patting the droid in the second teaser, so does that mean C-3PO is sending out an SOS based on something happening to Luke? Does C-3PO somehow know BB-8? Or, because the ball droid hitches a ride on the Millennium Falcon, is Threepio transmitting to Han and Chewie? The odds are approximately 3,720 to 1 that we’ll be speculating about the message for another 51 days.
[Update at 4:20 p.m. PT: There has been a second transmission today, this one featuring R2-D2 whirring and clicking… something.
If anyone is fluent in astromech, please send along a translation in the comments.]
What we do know is that while Goldenrod is prone to histrionics, he also has his moments. After all, he’s the one who rescued Artoo from the Jawas, sniffed out the Empire’s presence on Cloud City, and saved our heroes’ bacon (literally) from the Ewoks.
C-3PO will also be the subject of a one-off Marvel comic — part of the “Journey to The Force Awakens” series of novels, comics, and video games — that explains how he wound up with his new arm and is due out in early December, just before The Force Awakens hits theaters on Dec. 17.
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