The Original Script For 'Star Wars' Reveals That R2-D2 Had English Dialogue
As kids, many of us wondered what R2-D2 would sound like if he could talk and what all his beeping was about . Well apparently, we were close to actually knowing. In early drafts of A New Hope, Artoo does not have the beeps and boops, but rather actual lines of dialogue. Yes, once upon a time, R2-D2 was going to talk. How would this have gone, and what was it like? This is that story.
Films go through various drafts and ideas. It is important to remember that, and A New Hope out of any of the Star Wars films was the film with the most versions of itself, going through iteration after iteration. Characters like Anakin and Darth Vader were separate, Skywalker was Starkiller, and the Emperor was just some regular dude. R2-D2 talking was one of these many ideas. However, in many aspects, the character remains the same. His role in the actual story is mostly just remarking on what’s going on, and in some iterations of the script, the main heroes don’t even bother to meet the droids until later on in the movie. A reversal of what would eventually happen in A New Hope, where we follow the droids from the very beginning of the movie. He does still manage to maintain a lot of the droid's spunk, especially his witty banter with the early versions of C-3PO. Mostly just small insults and other things. Although sometimes the dialogue comes off as quite long-winded, once calling Threepio a philosopher, although not as a complement.
However, it is strange to think of Artoo as a character who can talk at all. It’s a testament to the conceptual ideas of George Lucas that despite him talking in earlier drafts, the character of R2-D2 still remains the same. His relationship with C-3PO still maintains that comedy duo element that so many Star Wars fans have come to know and love over the years. He is still an astromech droid that gets into X-Wings to help the character of Luke out in times of need. The only difference really is just that he can talk.
However, there was a good reason for R2-D2 to not talk, and it’s something that remains the reason fans love him. By not having him talk, fans have a certain amount of ownership of the character.
One of the fun things about R2-D2 is his beeps and boops. The fact that no one in the audience quite knows what he says, and is able to mostly make it up in their own head. There is something quite fun about that, having a certain amount of ownership of the character. Kids can make up in their own imagination what sort of witty remark or wise piece of advice he is saying, or just imagine that he’s saying something rude. Whatever a child thought R2 D2 was sort of theirs to interpret as they saw fit. By having him talk, it slowly gets rid of that sense of wonder and awe that can be so endearing about the character
For the curious, though, to see the display of him talking can be found mostly in a comic book adaptation of one of the earlier drafts of Star Wars called The Star Wars, where in the character who would become R2-D2 talks. He is not designed to look exactly like the R2-D2 we know, giving the comic a sense of a strange alternate universe or what if, had Star Wars gone in many different directions before reaching its final form that we all know today. While strange in concept and execution, would it have worked in the film? It is a bit hard to say, as comics are not films at the end of the day.
In the end, we got an R2-D2 that beeps and boops, and because of that, he is one of the most iconic non-human characters of the 21st century and beyond.
Source(s): CBR