C-3PO is and always has been an enormous fixture in theStar Warsuniverse. He and R2-D2 hold the distinction of being the only characters to appear in all eight of the live-action, theatrically released movies in theStar Warscanon, which is a pretty big deal. Though his part inStar Wars: The Force Awakenswas relatively small, it was clear some changes had been made to his character. For one, he had ared arm, which was pretty easy to spot. Especially since he drew some attention to it in true C-3PO fashion. But there was another, much more significant change made to the character for the new movies that was less clear on the surface.
The officialStar WarsTwitter account likes to share fun orobscure factswith fans from time to time. Most of the time, these aren’t overly significant or they are things that quite a few hardcore fans are already aware of. Today, the account decided to share one of these facts, and it had to do with everyon’s favorite protocol droid. It turns out that C-3PO made good use of his time betweenStar Wars: Return of the JediandStar Wars: The Force Awakensby learning a few new languages. Roughly a million of them.
“By the time of The Force Awakens, C-3PO has upgraded his programming to include over 7 million forms of communication.”
In the original trilogy, it was revealed by C-3PO himself that he was fluent in more than six million forms of communication. This is a skill that we have seen him use time and time again, like when he has to talk to the Millennium Falcon inThe Empire Strikes Backor when he and R2-D2 roll up to Jabba’s palace to chat with Jabba the Hutt inReturn of the Jedi. Hopefully we will get to see him show off some of these new languages he learned inStar Wars: The Last JediorStar Wars Episode IX.
Perhaps it was just so he could keep up with some of the newer model droids in the galaxy, but it isn’t clear if there was a distinct reason for the massive upgrade to C-3PO’scommunication skills. That is something that could be addressed in an upcoming movie or somewhere in the expanded universe. It was revealed in theC-3POMarvel comic book last year that he sports the red arm in memory of a droid that sacrificed itself to save him during a mission for the Resistance. Nothing is unimportant in theStar Warsuniverse. Even the little things.
There aren’t a lot of franchises that warrant discussing minutia such as this, butStar Warsis its own thing and something like this is worth knowing for much of the more hardcore fan base. We will next seeAnthony DanielsasC-3POin directorRian Johnson’sStar Wars: The Last Jedi, which is set for release on December 15. Hopefully he’ll have a little more to do this time around, especially since he has all of those fancy new language skills to put to use.
