The Big Picture
- Chopper, General Hera Syndulla’s astromech companion, speaks in full sentences, unlike other astromechs in Star Wars.
- Creator Dave Filoni voiced Chopper himself in Star Wars Rebels because no other voice actor could get the character right. He continues to voice Chopper in Disney+’s Ahsoka.
- Chopper’s ability to speak is a mystery, but knowing Filoni plays the role adds depth to the character’s mischievous and argumentative personality.
One of the great mysteries in Star Wars is how characters are really able to understand and talk to some droids. We can’t know for sure, but there’s a droid in Ahsoka whom we can almost understand, and that’s General Hera Syndulla’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) own astromech companion, C1-10P — aka Chopper. In Episode 2 of the series, “Toil and Trouble”, the two of them banter while chasing a ship off Corellia, and we can almost hear Chopper say things like, “Take them down!” and “Hera, did you go through my stuff?”
Whenever we see someone talking to an astromech, it’s always weird to hear all their beeps and boops be answered with something utterly trivial — like, is that really all the droid said? Fans of Star Wars Rebels have always enjoyed listening to Chopper “speak,” and now we hear it even more clearly in Ahsoka. We’ve always known that he isn’t a regular astromech as he can do things no other droid of the kind can. He’s smaller, has a lot of missing parts, and has two small arms that allow him to actually fight (in his own way, but still), so speaking isn’t really that surprising. What is surprising is how he’s able to speak.
Who Is the Voice of Chopper in Star Wars?
This had been a mystery for Rebels fans for a long time. Over the four seasons of the animated series, Taylor Grey voiced Ezra Bridger, Freddie Prinze Jr. voiced Kanan Jarrus, Vanessa Marshall voiced Hera, Tiya Sircar voiced Sabine Wren, and Steve Blum voiced Zeb Orrelios. But everybody could tell that Chopper actually speaks, so who voiced him? Well, after the series finale, creator Dave Filoni clarified it: he voiced Chopper himself.
During a Q&A held right after the Rebels finale, Filoni explained the whole history of how and why he wound up taking the job of voicing Chopper for himself. There were multiple attempts to have him played by actual voice actors, but no one could get it right until Filoni stepped in and did it because they had to deliver a first short for Disney to watch. According to him, the secret to playing Chopper is that the droid is a “likable jerk,” a role he believes he’s good at (“Ask my wife,” he said to everyone’s amusement). He didn’t intend to keep the role, though, but, once they screened the short, Disney CEO Bob Iger mentioned how he liked Chopper, so Filoni immediately thought: “Well, now I’m stuck!” (And he really was — Filoni continues to voice Chopper in Ahsoka!)
That was a secret until the credits rolled for the Rebels finale, but there was actually one person who knew the truth, according to Filoni. He mentioned that once, at a Star Wars Celebration, a little girl asked him who played Chopper, and he didn’t even flinch: “I absolutely told her the truth, and she never said anything. I think probably because it was disappointing.” The kid kept the secret, which, for him, is part of what Star Wars is about: “Kids are smart that way, they make promises and they keep them. That’s why they get Star Wars, why they understand it.”
Unfortunately, though, there isn’t an in-universe explanation for Chopper to “speak” the way he does, nor an official translation for his lines — there are countless “subtitles” for episodes of Rebels and Ahsoka online, though, and they all get at least the gist of what he’s saying. What’s known is that he’s a very old astromech who has fought for the Republic in the Clone Wars before coming into the Syndulla’s service — he has one of the highest body counts in all of Star Wars, actually. What’s fun about knowing that Filoni is the one playing him is that we know Chopper to be mischievous and argumentative precisely because of his wartime past, so we can’t help but imagine Filoni himself doing his muffled lines with all that in mind.
Is Chopper the Only Droid in Star Wars Who “Speaks” Like That?
There are many different types of droids in Star Wars, each with its own way of communicating. Gonk droids, for example, just move around saying “gonk”, and that’s it. Astromechs are usually limited to their beeps and whistles, and protocol droids come with a fully operational vocabulator because communicating is literally their purpose. There are other types of droids, like Huyang (David Tennant), who’s an architect droid, but the most popular are astromechs and protocol.
Astromechs aren’t really made for communicating, though. Their job is usually to perform maintenance in starships and buildings — that’s how R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) started in the Skywalker Saga, as one of the astromechs aboard the Nubian ship of the Royal House of Naboo in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. So the only language they are actually capable of expressing is called Binary, which is the universal language for droids. They can convey emotions through their limited range of beeps and whistles like R2 himself usually does, but nothing more. Humans, in turn, are just so used to hearing and having to deal with droids that understanding Binary is almost second nature.
We do meet another astromech who can make a little more sense to average human ears, though. One of the central characters of the Sequel Trilogy is BB-8, who makes his debut in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Officially, he doesn’t have a voice, but Ben Schwartz and Bill Hader are credited as vocal consultants for this role, and both of them confirm their involvement, saying words and making sounds into a soundbox for director J.J. Abrams to adjust using an iPad. Schwartz even explains he read actual lines for the character, which were later adjusted, too. This does a lot to make BB-8 such a likable and relatable character for the audience because it’s easier to identify at least whole sentences and phrases compared to R2’s usual Binary, for example.
Of course, with R2, the beeps are even funnier because we know he curses a lot. We know this because Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) tells him to “watch the language” in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. Funny as it is, though, this joke only exists because another character has to tell us what R2 said, which may get a little boring after a while. Binary is a tool that does a lot in terms of worldbuilding, but it also makes the audience reliant on other characters’ reactions as the only way to understand. It’s a pity because R2 seems to have some killer comebacks. So does Chopper, but at least he is easier to understand, as we’ve seen.
#Chopper #Easier #Understand #R2D2
