Most of us probably don't think much about the names given to our favorite Star Wars characters, especially the droids. However, it turns out that their names are more than just a simple designation. For instance, Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak has revealed that R2-D2's name was something George Lucas came up with while working on A New Hope.
Szostak has been busting Star Wars myths all month on Twitter starting with the reveal about Darth Vader (you can read about that here). One of the more recent myths he discussed was the rumor that Lucas took Artoo's name from a term he heard while sound mixing tracks for the film American Graffiti.
"In The Making of #StarWars, Lucas recalled that, when mixing THX 1138, someone yelled out 'R2D2' for 'Reel Two, Dialogue Two' and he jotted the name down," Szostak wrote. "The actual 'R2-D2' reel that Lucas spoke of turned up at an April 2018 Skywalker Ranch screening for American Graffiti, saved by the film's sound designer Walter Murch."
As it turns out, Lucas didn't really have a name set down for Artoo at first. Luckily, a simple call during sound mixing gave the droid its now-iconic name.
Although it started out as an abbreviation for 'Reel Two, Dialogue Two', R2-D2 would eventually mean Second Generation Robotic Droid Series-2 in the Star Wars Universe. The astromech droid would end up being one of two characters (the other being C-3PO) that have appeared in nearly all Star Wars movies (excluding Solo: A Star Wars Story).
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