As Star Wars revelations go, it is not exactly “Luke, I am your father!” But a nugget of detail surrounding the closely-guarded plot for upcoming Star Wars film The Force Awakens appears to have slipped through the net - thanks to merchandise for the space opera reboot which shows C-3PO sporting a replacement red arm.
Interesting can via Mexico.... pic.twitter.com/L2YW5mKibJ
— Marc Zachacki (@SWzahack) June 5, 2015
The protocol droid, who will once again be portrayed by Star Wars veteran Anthony Daniels in the new instalment, is pictured alongside old comrade R2-D2 and newcomer BB-8 on what appears to be an official The Force Awakens drink can. It’s the second image to emerge of C-3PO sporting a red arm after similar photographs of a Star Wars-branded table hit the web last month.
The Star Wars movies have regularly witnessed C-3PO in various states of disembodiment. He lost a limb to a Tusken Raider while trying to find R2-D2 in the Jundland Wastes in 1977’s Star Wars and was briefly completely dismembered during a visit to Lando Calrissian’s Cloud City in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. In fact, limb dismemberment is something of a general Star Wars trope, with Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader (twice) and Samuel L Jackson’s Mace Windu all losing body parts over the course of the six movies. The usually golden C-3PO himself is also shown sporting a silver leg in parts of the original trilogy.
Fans should only have to wait a few months to find out exactly why the droid has a new red arm in The Force Awakens. Abrams’ film, which is predicted to be 2015’s biggest movie at the global box office, debuts on 18 December.
The new limb is not the only canonical shift to have taken place recently in the Star Wars universe. Last week it emerged that Han Solo, the charismatic space smuggler portrayed by Harrison Ford, may have been married during his romance with Princess Leia in the original trilogy. The revelation was made in the sixth issue of Marvel Entertainment’s new Star Wars comic, which introduces a woman purporting to be Solo’s wife, Sana.
