STAR WARS' R2-D2 Almost Appeared In THE LEGO MOVIE
The LEGO Movie creators Phil Lord and Chris Miller originally wrote a prominent role for R2-D2, but the fan-favourite little Star Wars Astromech droid never made the final cut of the film. Hit the jump to find out why.
One of the many highlights of Warner Bros.' The LEGO Movie was when Han Solo, C-3PO and Lando Calrissian arrived in the Millennium Falcon, but another Star Wars character was supposed to appear in the film. Screenwriters/directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller recently revealed that they wrote a major role for R2-D2 in their first draft, but they weren't able to obtain the rights to the character from Disney.
“He was a Batman-level character,” Miller told Yahoo. That's saying quite a bit as Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Will Arnett) had a lot of screen time in the film. He was a Master Builder and Wyldstyle's boyfriend that helped Emmet on his quest.
Lord added, “We figured we could get R2-D2 because his voice wasn’t a human being.”
When Miller and Lord began writing The LEGO Movie script they weren't concerned about which characters where owned by which studios. They wanted to bring characters from various studios into one movie like Who Framed Roger Rabbit did, but they couldn't overcome a copyright hurdle with R2-D2. “A kid doesn’t have lawyers that won’t allow the toys to play together,” Miller explained.
Don't worry, we'll see plenty of R2-D2 when he next appears in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“The LEGO® Movie,” the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO® adventure, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (“21 Jump Street,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”), it stars Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day, with Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman.
The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.