Hal Hickel And Alan Tudyk Reveal K-2SO's Secret History
04/05/2017 01:03 pm EDT
For nearly 40 years, Star Wars fans had grown accustomed to celebrating only two droids of note, R2-D2 and C-3PO. There were many more mechanical accomplices seen throughout the movies, comics, and animated series, but those two occupied the most amount of space in our hearts. When The Force Awakens debuted in 2015, fans quickly fell in love with BB-8, giving R2 and Threepio a run for their money. The field of lovable droids grew even further with Rogue One, where audiences met K-2SO, a former Imperial droid with a sarcastic sense of wit who had embraced the ideals of the Rebellion. Two integral behind-the-scenes figures that brought the droid to life were actor Alan Tudyk and Animation Supervisor Hal Hickel.
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When speaking with Comicbook.com about the film's upcoming Blu-ray release, Tudyk and Hickel revealed how they developed K'2's backstory that was only briefly touched upon in the film.
"The backstory was pretty limited. Knowing that he was in the Empire, he was sort of reborn when Cassian gave him his reprogramming. He was enslaved, in a way. He was more of a stoic character. He had to follow orders," Tudyk explained. "Basically, he just scurried around. He did lots of security stuff. He had a big bunch of keys that hung off his belt."
Hickel joked about the extent of his capabilities, implying he was relegated to "Imperial shopping malls."
"Once the memory wipe came into play, that's what I really latched onto for the character, as far as he could just speak his mind, whatever came across his circuits," Tudyk noted. "A lot of that was in the script, and then Gareth really encourages the actors to take it and move it even farther beyond."
In addition to the character's narrative backstory, K-2's look had to reflect his beginnings.
"In fact, you glimpse another enforcer droid in the Imperial facility and we had him look really spotless. No paint chips or anything, whereas K-2 is all scratched up," detailed Hickel. "We actually considered whether they might even completely remove the Imperial insignia on his shoulder. We decided to keep it, it's kind of scratched up, but you can still see it. We figured the Rebels are kind of rough and tumble and they're not going to be too precious about it."
He added, "We did give it lots of history, scratches and dents, to really communicate that he had seen a lot of action with Cassian."
Which droid is your favorite in the Star Wars universe? Let us know in the comments!
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