Star Wars’producers pored over a number of BB-8 designs before landing on the round, roly poly robot that appears in The Force Awakens.
In a new video posted to the Star Wars YouTube channel, the film’s creators discuss the backlog of drafts they dreamt up for BB-8’s big screen reveal. “R2[-D2] and [C-]3PO are such classic characters. This droid, it needs to look and feel very different, and yet needs to be in the family of what Star Wars does,” director J.J. Abrams says.
After contemplating a bevy of models, from a winged, floating version to a tall, skinny make, they went with a simple sketch Abrams jotted on a post-it. “I always called it a snowman without a chest,” says concept artist Christian Alzmann. “From there, it was trying to give him personality and attitude by those limited parts.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on home video this week. The film has already raked in more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office.
See how BB-8 was made below.
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