C-3PO in Star Wars: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

C-3PO is a gold protocol droid in Star Wars, played by Anthony Daniels, who first appears in A New Hope (1977). That film, directed by George Lucas, sends him to the desert planet Tatooine with R2-D2, where a farm boy named Luke Skywalker ends up with both of them. You can read more about the film on our A New Hope page.

The credits use two forms of his name. In most films the credit reads "C-3PO", while The Phantom Menace (1999) and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) read "C-3PO (voice)". Daniels is billed for the voice in both of those films, so the same performer sits behind every version of the character in the record.

If you are new to the droids, R2-D2 is the other half of the pair. In A New Hope, Princess Leia hides the stolen Death Star plans inside R2-D2, and Kenny Baker is the actor credited with him in the original films. Our R2-D2 page covers him in full.

The film that introduces him was made on a small budget by later standards. Box Office Mojo lists A New Hope at $11 million, and it opened on May 25, 1977 in 32 theaters. Compared with the later films in the saga, such as The Last Jedi at $317 million, the droid first appeared in a far smaller production.

C-3PO appears in eleven Star Wars films, from A New Hope (1977) to The Rise of Skywalker (2019), usually alongside R2-D2. In release order he starts in A New Hope, where he and R2-D2 flee to Tatooine and R2-D2 carries the plans that set the rebellion's attack in motion. Production context: filming began on March 22, 1976 in Tunisia, and the official Star Wars site notes problems with the droids on that shoot, while the BFI reports about two and a half weeks of location work there. The desert escape he makes on screen was filmed in conditions that were hard on the equipment.

In The Empire Strikes Back (1980), directed by Irvin Kershner, he flees the Rebel base on Hoth in the Millennium Falcon with Han, Leia and Chewbacca. The ship has a damaged hyperdrive, the group crosses an asteroid field with Darth Vader in pursuit, and Han then takes them to Cloud City, run by his old friend Lando Calrissian. At the close of that film, Luke, Leia, Lando and the droids watch the stars and decide to go after the frozen Han. Return of the Jedi (1983), directed by Richard Marquand, opens with the droids among the group working to free Han from Jabba the Hutt's palace. Across the three original films his billing holds steady, sixth in A New Hope and fifth in both sequels.

The prequels fill in the earlier years. He is credited as "C-3PO (voice)", billed tenth, in The Phantom Menace (1999). In Attack of the Clones (2002) he is one of two witnesses, with R2-D2, to the secret wedding of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala on Naboo. That film was captured fully digitally, according to the official Star Wars site, which makes it a different working world from the 1976 desert shoot. He is credited as "C-3PO", billed eighth, in Revenge of the Sith (2005), and as "C-3PO (voice)", billed fourteenth, in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008).

He returns for the sequel trilogy, billed eleventh in The Force Awakens (2015), tenth in The Last Jedi (2017) and seventh in The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He is also credited in Rogue One (2016), the eleventh film, which falls between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi in release order. There his name sits further down the cast list, below the leads. In my reading, the pattern in the credits is that his billing is highest in the 1980 and 1983 films and climbs again in the final film of the saga. To see where each film sits, use our star wars timeline or the star wars movies in order guide.

C-3PO's closest relationship is with R2-D2. They share the Tatooine escape in A New Hope and the wedding of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala on Naboo at the end of Attack of the Clones, where the two droids are the only witnesses.

The pairing works differently in different films. In A New Hope, R2-D2 holds the plot's key object, because Leia hides the Death Star plans inside him, and C-3PO travels with him. In Attack of the Clones the pair do not carry anything; they simply stand in the room for a moment the saga treats as private. In The Force Awakens, R2-D2 is the one who, at the end, wakes up and reveals the rest of the map to Luke, while C-3PO is credited eleventh in the cast. That is my comparison across the films, not a claim from the credits.

In the original films he moves among Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo and Chewbacca, with Lando Calrissian joining from The Empire Strikes Back. You can follow those characters on our pages for Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo and Chewbacca.

In the sequel trilogy he is credited alongside Leia Organa, played by Carrie Fisher, in all three films. Our star wars characters hub links to every main figure.

C-3PO is not destroyed or retired in any Star Wars film on record; he is last credited in The Rise of Skywalker (2019), directed by J.J. Abrams, where he is billed seventh.

No film in the saga records a farewell for the droid. The Rise of Skywalker ends with Rey defeating Palpatine, Ben Solo giving his Force power to revive her, and Rey burying the lightsabers on Tatooine, and none of that closes the droid's story.

C-3PO's best moment, in my opinion, is the Naboo wedding in Attack of the Clones (2002), where he and R2-D2 are the only witnesses. It is the saga's neatest reminder that the droids see more of the story than any human character does. It also closes a film that ends with the Clone Wars beginning, so the quiet scene sits beside the largest battle the series had shown to that point.

My second pick is the flight from Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. He is aboard the Millennium Falcon with a damaged hyperdrive while the group crosses an asteroid field, and Han then takes everyone to Cloud City. Few scenes in the saga put so much pressure on one small crew, and it is the film where he has his highest billing after the first one, fifth.

Third is the original escape to Tatooine in A New Hope, because it is where the droid pair and the whole saga begin. That sequence was shot in Tunisia in 1976, and I rank it third because it is a setup scene, not a payoff. If you are new to the films, start there with A New Hope, then follow the pair forward.