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George Lucas Reveals The Secret Narrator Of ‘Star Wars’

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 15:28 PST, Apr 22, 2016

Star Wars is popular for many reasons, but the one thing that makes it unique is the moving scrawl of text that narrates the events prior to the ones that are yet to happen in every film. The Star Wars theme that plays every time the narration text in space appears only makes the experience even more epic.

Most viewers didn’t mind the narrator text at all, only treating it as a narrative device. But a recent report by io9 revealed that the mysterious narrator in the beginning of each Star Wars film may actually be the hero in the entire saga.

It’s not just a wild speculation, either. It came straight from the mouth of George Lucas himself. There’s a consensus among Star Wars fans that every detail, however small, that comes from George Lucas’s mouth should be treated as canon. So it only follows that the secret narrator as revealed by Lucas should be treated as such too.

On the set of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas had a long conversation with animation director Rob Coleman, telling him the identity of the mysterious narrator in all Star Wars films. This bit of detail has been relayed to Chris Taylor, author of How Star Wars Conquered the Universe.

Taylor wrote about it in his article for iO9.

“The entire story of Star Wars is actually being recounted to the keeper of the Journal of the Whills—remember that?—a hundred years after the events of Return of the Jedi by none other than R2-D2.”

Shocking, isn’t it? But it all makes sense if you think long and hard about it. For one, R2D2’s presence in all Star Wars films has always been constant, especially in the saga’s key moments.

Unlike C-3PO, his mind had never been wiped at the end of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, which goes along with the idea that he has knowledge of all events from the trilogies leading up to the new one. More importantly, he alone knew where Luke Skywalker was. While he doesn’t have any knowledge of everything that transpired in Star Wars: The Force Awakens before “reboot,” a takeover by BB-8 cannot be ruled out.

Also, in Star Wars Episode IV, R2D2 was the one determined to get to Obi-Wan Kenobi despite C-3PO’s protests, maybe because he had recollection of Obi-Wan Kenobi from before. Is it because he wants to ensure that “his former master’s son rescues his former master’s daughter”? Seems like it.

Putting all this into perspective, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that R2D2 is one of the saga’s greatest heroes. R2D2’s no fighter, but with his plethora of useful tools hidden away in his stash, he was able to save every major character from certain death in all Star Wars movies. When you think about it, it has always been R2D2 who saves the day every time one of the major characters screws up. When he was caught in a deadly attack by the Death Star in A New Hope, R2D2 was able to survive.

This theory about R2D2 being the film’s secret narrator doesn’t only make a lot of sense, it also answers many lingering questions. It explains why Artoo’s memory wasn’t wiped out along with C3PO at the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith. And in many of George Lucas’s interviews, he was consistent in saying that the films were told from the beloved droid’s point of view. R2D2 connects everything – every major character and every key event.

[Photo by Matt Sayles/AP Photo]

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