It's official: There's a new R2-D2
Watch out, Threepio: there's a new R2-D2 in town.
Scottish actor Jimmy Vee is the guy inside everyone's favorite astromech droid in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Lucasfilm has confirmed to Mashable.
Vee replaced Kenny Baker, the original Artoo from 1977 through 2015, when The Last Jedi was filmed in the UK and Ireland last year. Baker was 81 and infirm at the time; he died during filming.
Vee's casting in the Force Awakens sequel was something of an open secret. Not only did UK tabloids say that Vee would be stepping into Baker's shoes as early as December 2015, but Vee himself has been retweeting Star Wars-related tweets from his fellow cast members, including Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill, for more than a year.
His agency tweeted an announcement Monday afternoon; Lucasfilm's confirmation makes it official.
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Vee is probably best known to nerds for his role in Doctor Who. He played a red, tuxedo-wearing alien who insisted on being called by his full name, Bannakaffalatta, in the Christmas episode "Voyage of the Damned," starring alongside Kylie Minogue and David Tennant.
He also starred in the movie Pan as Lofty, and Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone as an uncredited Gringotts goblin.
As with Kenny Baker, Vee is only required in scenes where Artoo is two-legged. The three-leg version of the droid is remote controlled.
Topics Star Wars
Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of 'How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,' and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast 'Pull to Open.' Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.
