‘Star Wars’ Spoilers: Writer Talks R2-D2 Awakening Deus Ex Machina in ‘New Hope’ Clone

Major Spoilers: Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a near perfect film. Which wasn’t hard because they it’s basically a newer New Hope. When the movie isn’t “borrowing” from A New Hope or taking a little bit from Empire, The Force Awakens relies on tired film cliches, telegraphing a completely transparent plot. And when that isn’t enough, the writers turn on the Deus ex machina in order to lazily hand over the film’s MacGuffin. In this case the god machine takes the form of R2-D2, or as we like to call him DX-MNA. Now, the clone’s copy and pasters are opening up about the reasons behind taking the easy way out.

Recently, screenwriter helper Michael Arndt spoke to reporters about the film, and why they chose to wait on R2-D2’s awakening (via Entertainment Weekly):

“The whole movie is a series of character introductions. You want all your character introductions to be A-plus. You want to give each person their moment. Even the Millennium Falcon. That was [producer] Bryan Burk’s idea. They’re running to get a ship, it blows up, and you turn and there’s the back-up --the Millennium Falcon.”

You know because after six films and four decades of marketing we need to be re-introduced to the most iconic character from the franchise even if it means cheaping the plot. Nice move guys.

Arndt had a chance to avoid the whole Deus ex debacle, but sadly missed out, as he added:

“I had originally written R2 and C-3PO showing up together, and [Co-Writer Larry Kasdan] very intelligently said, ‘You want to keep them separate from each other. And of course I’m like, ‘No, no, no, Larry. You don’t get it at all!’”

So just how did Artoo get this information you ask? Well Arndt has answer for that, adding:

"We had the idea about R2 plugging into the information base of the Death Star, and that’s how he was able to get the full map and find where the Jedi temples are."

What do you think about Arndt’s comments? Did you like R2-D2’s introduction in the film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

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