R2-D2 Star Wars: Who He Is, Who Plays Him and Where He Appears

R2-D2 is an astromech droid who first appears in Star Wars (1977), where he carries the stolen Death Star plans for Princess Leia. He is credited in the films under that single name, and fans also write it as R2D2. In Return of the Jedi the credit reads "R2-D2 / Paploo", which means Kenny Baker is credited for the droid and for a second character, Paploo.

His first appearance is Star Wars (1977), released in the US on May 25, 1977. In that film Rebel spies steal the plans to the Empire's planet destroying battle station, the Death Star, and Leia Organa is captured by Darth Vader. Before the capture she hides the plans inside R2-D2 and attaches a plea for help. He escapes to the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, and a farm boy named Luke Skywalker ends up with both of them.

That opening gives R2-D2 an unusual job for a supporting character. He is the courier of the whole plot, because the message that sends Luke toward Obi-Wan Kenobi lives inside him. The 1977 film runs 121 minutes, and the droid's cargo is the reason its first act moves from Leia's captured ship to a Tatooine farm.

The droid is a puppeteered and performed character rather than a voiced one, and the credits reflect that: the cast lists name a performer, Kenny Baker, instead of a voice actor. Baker is credited at billing 7 in Star Wars (1977), 8 in The Empire Strikes Back, 13 in Return of the Jedi and 11 in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. The credits place the droid in ten films in all: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

R2-D2 is not a single-era character. Counted by release, his films run from 1977 to 2019. Counted by story order, Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace comes first in the chronological order and Star Wars (1977) seventh. The Star Wars timeline shows where each of his ten films sits.

R2-D2 carries the Death Star plans in Star Wars (1977), witnesses Anakin and Padmé's secret wedding in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, and reveals the rest of the map to Luke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Across the ten films he appears in, his role is usually to hold something the story needs.

In Star Wars (1977) he carries the plans from Leia to Tatooine. Later the rebels study those plans and find a weakness, and Luke fires his torpedoes into the exhaust port so that the Death Star explodes. The droid's cargo therefore sits at the center of the film's outcome. Production began on March 22, 1976 in Tunisia, according to the official Star Wars site, which lists problems with the droids among the early difficulties of that shoot. The BFI's Sight and Sound adds that the Tunisian stretch lasted about two and a half weeks before the crew moved to Elstree, where all nine stages were used.

Kenny Baker is credited as R2-D2 again in The Empire Strikes Back and in Return of the Jedi, where the credit pairs the droid with Paploo. In the plot of Return of the Jedi, Luke, Leia, Lando and the droids work to free Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt's palace, so the droid belongs to a rescue team rather than to a lone errand. The rescue nearly succeeds but the heroes are captured, which sets up the desert pit sequence.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace also credits Baker as R2-D2, at billing 11, directly after Anthony Daniels, who is credited there as the voice of C-3PO. That film was released in the US on May 19, 1999, and the story it tells comes first in chronological order. Here Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi flee a Federation attack, rescue Queen Amidala and run the blockade, but their ship is damaged and has to be repaired on Tatooine.

In Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, released May 16, 2002, he and C-3PO are the only witnesses when Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala secretly marry on Naboo. The ending of that film also places the wedding right after Anakin has been fitted with a mechanical arm, so the droids stand beside him at the moment the Clone Wars begin.

The droid is also credited in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, the film in which Anakin becomes Darth Vader, and in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the story of the team that steals the Death Star plans and leads directly into the 1977 film. His ninth credit is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, released in the US on December 15, 2017, and his tenth is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, released in the US on December 20, 2019, the film that closes the Skywalker saga.

In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, released December 18, 2015, Rey travels with Chewbacca and R2-D2 to find Luke, and R2-D2 wakes up to reveal the rest of the map.

Compared with his 1977 job, the later films shrink his plot function and widen his company. In the first film the whole story pivots on what he holds. By the prequels he is a witness, and by the sequel film he is a keeper of the final piece of a map whose first fragment Poe Dameron had hidden in his own droid, BB-8. That echo is deliberate in structure if not in any stated intent: in both films a droid holds the information that sends the heroes to a missing mentor figure, Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977 and Luke Skywalker in 2015.

R2-D2's closest ally is C-3PO, and the two droids travel together from Star Wars (1977) to the Naboo wedding in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. In the 1977 film they escape to Tatooine together, and the cast list places Anthony Daniels as C-3PO at billing 6, directly ahead of Kenny Baker as R2-D2 at billing 7. In Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Daniels is credited as the voice of C-3PO and Baker follows him at billing 11.

His first human ally is Leia Organa. In Star Wars (1977) she hides the stolen Death Star plans inside him and attaches a plea for help before Darth Vader captures her. The trust is practical: she picks the droid as the safest place to keep the plans.

Luke Skywalker comes next. On Tatooine the farm boy ends up with both droids and finds Leia's message, which is meant for the hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi. In Return of the Jedi, Luke, Leia, Lando and the droids work together to free Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt's palace, so R2-D2 is part of a team rather than a lone courier.

Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker are the other pair the droid is tied to. In Attack of the Clones, R2-D2 and C-3PO are the only witnesses when the two secretly marry on Naboo. Darth Vader is the character who links the two ends of that relationship: Anakin becomes Vader in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and Vader is the one who captures Leia in the 1977 film.

In the sequel trilogy, Rey and Chewbacca are his companions. At the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey, Chewbacca and R2-D2 set out to find Luke after the droid wakes up and reveals the rest of the map.

R2-D2 is credited in ten films and no death is recorded in any of them. The Force Awakens (2015) ends with him waking up and revealing the rest of the map to Luke Skywalker, after which Rey, Chewbacca and R2-D2 set out to find Luke.

The ending also frames the droid as a keeper of information rather than a fighter. The Resistance has destroyed the First Order's giant base and Han Solo is dead, so the droid's map is the next step in the story.

Seen against the other films in the series, that is a distinctive outcome. Several comparable story-carrying characters do not make it to the end of their films. In Rogue One, the team that steals the Death Star plans on Scarif dies, and Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor are killed when the Death Star fires on the base. The plans are passed to a smaller ship and then to Leia, who says they carry hope. In Star Wars (1977) R2-D2 is the vessel that completes that same delivery, and he is not lost along the way.

He also outlasts the wars around him. In Attack of the Clones he stands at a wedding as the Clone Wars begin. In Return of the Jedi the Empire is broken, and the Death Star is destroyed with the Emperor aboard. In The Force Awakens a new war has started and he is still working.

The Force Awakens closes on Rey finding Luke, and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), the latest of his ten films by release, is where his credited run ends.

If you want to see where he fits in the story as a whole, the Star Wars timeline lays out the events in story order, and the Star Wars movies in order guide gives both viewing orders.

The best R2-D2 moment, as a matter of opinion, is his introduction in Star Wars (1977), when Leia Organa hides the Death Star plans inside him. Everything that follows in that film, from the escape to Tatooine to the attack on the station, depends on that one handoff, and it happens before the audience has met most of the cast.

Second, again in opinion, is the wedding in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Anakin has just been fitted with a mechanical arm, the Clone Wars are starting, and the only people at his secret marriage to Padmé on Naboo are two droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. The scene is quiet against the battle that precedes it, and it gives the droid a role as a witness to the saga's turning point.

Third is the rescue plot of Return of the Jedi. Luke, Leia, Lando and the droids work to free Han Solo from Jabba's palace. The plan nearly succeeds and the heroes are captured, but it shows R2-D2 as part of a team in a heist-style sequence, a different job from the lone courier of 1977.

Fourth is the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, when R2-D2 wakes up and reveals the rest of the map to Luke. It links the original film to the sequel trilogy: in 1977 the droid holds the message that sends Luke to Obi-Wan, and in 2015 he holds the final piece of the map that sends Rey to Luke.

Fifth is the role he plays in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, where the credits include him. That film ends with Leia receiving the stolen plans and saying they carry hope, which hands the story straight to the droid's first scene in 1977. These rankings are opinion; the facts behind each moment come from the films' plots and credits.