TL;DR:
- Diego Luna headlines Andor, the newest Star Wars series on Disney+.
- The Cassian Andor actor grew up thinking R2-D2 had a different name.
- According to Luna, getting Star Wars lingo right can be a challenge.
With Andor crash-landing on Disney+ this fall, Diego Luna is becoming the current face of Star Wars — and of the Rebel Alliance. Luna reprises his Rogue One role for the new series, which immerses the actor (and fans) back into a galaxy far, far away. And while promoting the show, Luna recalled his own experience with Star Wars growing up. According to him, he thought R2-D2 had a different name.
Diego Luna plays Cassian Andor in the ‘Star Wars’ universe
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Diego Luna returns to the role of Cassian Andor in Andor, depicting how the character came to join the Rebel Alliance. Andor opens around five years before Rogue One and the original Star Wars trilogy, and it tackles what the Rebels were up to in the interim.
The series also dives deeper into Cassian’s history, revealing he’s from a planet called Kenari. From what Luna told the D23 Inside Disney podcast, it seems the character’s backstory will reveal why he’s so invested in the fight against the Empire. It will also explain why he has a Spanish accent, something that’s fairly unique in the Star Wars universe.
Of course, off-screen, Luna is a native Spanish speaker. And the actor opened up about how that’s impacted his experience with the franchise, going all the way back to childhood, when he called R2-D2 by a different name.
Diego Luna grew up thinking R2-D2 had a different name
During his appearance on the D23 Inside Disney podcast, Andor star Diego Luna recounted how he grew up calling R2-D2 by another name. According to the Mexican actor, fans in Mexico refer to the droid by a Spanish name, one that sounds quite similar to R2-D2.
“We call it Arturito, which means little Arthur,” Luna explained. “Because it sounds really close: R2-D2, Arturito. It sounds almost the same. So I grew up thinking that tiny droid was called little Arthur.”
It’s an endearing name for the droid, but Diego soon realized it’s not one those on the set of Andor were familiar with.
The actor laughed, adding, “And then you get to set, and you’re like, ‘We used to call him differently.’”
Of course, Luna’s had to take in a lot of Star Wars lingo since starring in Rogue One and Andor. He admitted that can be challenging, causing him to have trouble delivering certain lines.
The ‘Andor’ star says ‘Star Wars’ lingo can prove a challenge
With Spanish as his native language, Diego Luna told D23 Inside Disney that he sometimes struggles to get his lines right in Andor. The actor noted that mastering certain Star Wars terms can prove more challenging than just delivering lines in English:
“I’m sure it’s really funny to see me sometimes struggling with lines. It’s not my language. And one thing is to speak in English, and one thing is to speak Star Wars. There’s some terms and things that just can’t really come out of my mouth. It takes time. I’m sure it’s really funny to see that, but I’m not having fun.”
Judging by what we’ve seen from Andor so far, it looks like Luna is getting the hang of the Star Wars terminology, even if it’s a struggle at times. We can’t wait to see more of his Star Wars character in future episodes.
New episodes of Andor stream every Wednesday on Disney+.
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