One of the great gifts of the Star Wars universe is its array of colorful characters. The first movie succeeded because of its ambition, but also because it filled its strange world with characters that audiences wanted to pay money to spend time with. One of the most vividly drawn characters in the world of Star Wars is C-3PO, the colorful droid that rarely feels comfortable in any situation he’s placed in. Although he ultimately plays a central role in the demise of the Empire, he does so pretty reluctantly.
The history of C-3PO is explored in the prequel trilogy, but we certainly don’t learn everything we could about the droid. C-3PO is a pretty handy ally, even if he only ever does the right thing with a great deal of reluctance. 3PO knows hundreds of languages, and Anthony Daniels, the actor who plays him, has been a ubiquitous presence in the Star Wars universe. Not many actors can make a career out of playing a single character, but Daniels pretty much has, and that’s to his enormous credit.
C-3PO is an iconic character, and Daniels is at least partially responsible for that. After all, he's the man in the suit.
Here are 16 Things You Never Knew About C-3PO.
C-3PO and Vader Only Share One Scene
We know from the prequels that Anakin Skywalker is C-3PO’s creator, so it’s slightly surprising to realize that Anakin and C-3PO only share a single scene in the original trilogy. That scene comes near the end of The Empire Strikes Back, when Han is frozen in carbonite. The two don’t exchange any dialogue, and C-3PO wouldn’t have known who Vader was anyway, but Vader certainly could have recognized his creation.
Of course, part of the point of Vader’s character is that he has repressed every element of his former self. He’s transformed himself into a menacing new monster - part man, part machine. It’s just like Obi-Wan said - he’s no longer Anakin Skywalker.
C-3PO is a remnant of that life, something he probably never expected to see again. Still Vader was focused on the task at hand, and on luring his son over to the dark side. Of course, it was ultimately Vader who would be reminded of who he used to be, and save his son in the process.
He's a Master Pilot
Although he rarely gets the chance to use this skill, C-3PO is apparently an extraordinarily gifted pilot. The world of Star Wars is filled with pilots of incredible skill, and it seems to be a trait that Skywalkers are particularly equipped with. In fact, most speculation suggests that Anakin was the one who taught C-3PO how to fly, and he was likely a quick learner, considering his advanced mental faculties.
We only get to see C-3PO fly a couple of times throughout the films, but all indications from the expanded universe of content around Star Wars suggest that the character is an ace pilot. Pilots are something of a focal point for the Star Wars films.
George Lucas definitely thought flying was pretty cool. Even the droids, characters that don’t ordinarily get a chance to be cool, get a chance to fly with the pros. C-3PO is a talented pilot, even if he rarely gets a chance to prove it.
He Gets the First Line in the Original Trilogy and the Last in the Prequels
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, in the grand scheme of things, C-3PO is a fairly minor character. He’s integral to the plot of the first film, but after that, he’s mostly relegated to comic relief, and to varying degrees of effectiveness.
But part of the point of Star Wars is that it’s a mistake to overlook the little things. After all, the entire trilogy begins because someone on the Empire’s Star Destroyer fails to shoot down an escape pod containing R2 and C-3PO because there are no life forms on board.
It’s in this same spirit that C-3PO gets the first line of the original trilogy, and the last line of the prequels. That may not be entirely expected, but it makes perfect sense.
In Star Wars, C-3PO’s line is “Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness.” In Revenge of the Sith, his last line is “Oh no!” when he discovers that he’s about to have his memory wiped.
His new red arm
There was some speculation around C-3PO’s red arm in The Force Awakens. It was the kind of detail that felt like something out of the original trilogy. It was never directly addressed. It just spoke to the time it had been since we had last seen these characters.
We ultimately learned that C-3PO wears the arm in memory of a droid who saved his life in the years between the original trilogy and the time when this new trilogy is set.
Every member of the Resistance team that C-3PO was with died on the mission, and he lost an arm as well. The story is actually a fairly moving reminder of the costs that come with waging a war, even for droids that have been around in for many previous wars.
C-3PO has seen plenty of dark, terrible stuff, and the limbs he loses serve as a reminder of the life that he’s led. He may seem like a butler, but at this point, he’s a butler who’s fought in three separate wars.
His original name
Part of the fun of the Star Wars universe comes from the strange specificity of the names. Han Solo isn’t exactly a name you’d hear every day, but it works in part because it feels foreign. These names didn’t just come to Lucas out of the blue. Like everything about the original Star Wars, they were both carefully considered and kind of insane. Initially, C-3PO’s name was just C3, and R2-D2’s name was A-2.
While both of these names probably would have worked well enough within the story, they’re far more generic than the longer names that Lucas and company ultimately went with. C3 feels very clinical, very bland. C-3PO has a much better ring to it. It’s the kind of combination of letters and numbers that you want to repeat over and over again.
It’s little touches like character names that make Star Wars and its universe feel so carefully considered. So yes, those extra two letters do matter.
His Right Leg is Part Silver
C-3PO spends a lot of time in the desert. That wouldn’t be hugely important, except it means that he’s often surrounded by a color very similar to the metal that makes up most of his body. It would be easy, therefore, to assume that C-3PO’s entire body is gold in color. What many fans don’t know is that one of C-3PO’s legs is actually silver. His right leg from the knee down, to be precise.
The silver on this leg shows the wear and tear that 3PO has been through, and is part of what makes the world of Star Wars feel so wonderfully realistic. 3PO isn’t a computer generated creation. Instead, he’s got specific details that constantly remind you that he has a history that predates the beginning of the first film. Of course, that history was explored in-depth in the prequels, to mixed success.
Still, it’s details like this that have made Star Wars what it is. In this universe, every detail means something.
An Old Suit Was Repainted for the Prequels
If it wasn’t evident from their titles or their stories, the prequels actually take place before the events of the original trilogy. In The Phantom Menace, we learn that Anakin Skywalker actually created C-3PO, and that his memory was eventually wiped so that he would have no recollection of what happened to his former master. Because C-3PO is a younger, less battle-worn droid in the prequels, his armor looks newer, as though it has just been put on him.
Instead of deg him a new suit, the production designers on the prequel trilogy decided to take an old suit and simply repaint it. As a result, this suit looks almost exactly the same as the suits he wore in the original trilogy. C-3PO is, of course, a different color for a large part of the prequel trilogy, but in spite of that difference, using the same suits made it easily apparent that it was the old character that we’d grown to know and love.
Daniels Broke the Costume the Day Before Shooting Began
Star Wars was a famously difficult shoot for a huge number of reasons. They were shooting in the desert, and Lucas expected many of his actors to dress up in elaborate costumes. Anthony Daniels was one of those actors, and he didn’t try on the C-3PO suit until the day before production was set to begin. When he put the suit in, the inside the left leg shattered, and began to stab Daniels every time that he took a step.
It may have been a good idea for Daniels to try on his costume ahead of the day before shooting, but it seems like everything worked out okay in the end. Still, this story speaks to the haphazard way that almost everything about that first film came together.
It’s insane to consider what Star Wars became, knowing just how humble its beginnings really were. Anthony Daniels didn’t even have a suit that wouldn’t break until the day production started, but he managed to make it work anyway.
Daniels Couldn't Sit down in the Suit
You really have to ire everything that Anthony Daniels had to endure in order to create C-3PO. Not only was he forced to wear an unbearably awkward costume on eight different shoots over 40 years, he was also stuck in a suit that didn’t allow him to sit, at least on the first film. Instead, whenever Daniels wasn’t shooting but had to remain in costume, he would simply have to lean against a board for rest.
There are some scenes when C-3PO is seated, but for those, the costume had to be partially disassembled. Numerous camera tricks were also employed to make it look as though C-3PO was sitting when he really wasn’t. This would have been an enormous challenge for Daniels, who couldn’t even take proper breaks from shooting when he was in costume. His ability to handle those kinds of conditions speaks to his overall dedication to the role.
A Puppet in The Phantom Menace
Anthony Daniels has been involved in every Star Wars film in some capacity. For most of these films, he’s actually inhabited the heavy C-3PO suit, one that he is probably quite accustomed to him these days. Even so, Daniels stepped out of the suit for the first film in the prequel trilogy, in part because there are large chunks of the film where C-3PO’s wiring is exposed, and it would be hard to hide a human underneath it.
Although Daniels continued to provide the voice for C-3PO, in The Phantom Menace his movements were created through puppetry. Puppetry was also used for Yoda in the film, although this was the last time the character wasn’t rendered with digital effects.
Still, what matters most about 3PO is his completely distinctive voice, which he retains thanks to the vocal work of Daniels, who makes him feel like an incredibly specific creation.
