Droids have always been a source of slapstick and comedy in the Star Wars universe. While fans can’t see the person operating the droid, Lucasfilm does tend to cast some well-known faces to play the occasional bucket of bolts.
Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker have already gone down in Star Wars as the most iconic droid actors, but here are some droid characters from the series that some fans may not have known were voiced by celebrities.
BB-8 (The Force Awakens) – Bill Hader, Ben Schwartz
Starting the list, BB-8 was considered iconic for Disney-era Star Wars as he was the first droid to kick off the Sequel Trilogy. Though he’s unintelligible throughout the films, the sounds from BB-8 come from comedians Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live) and Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog).
Both are credited as “BB-8 vocal consultants,” it was said that the droid’s sounds come from filtering the actors’ voices through a talkbox connected to an iPad with a sound effects app.
K-2SO (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) – Alan Tudyk
Alan Tudyk is best known for his role as Wash, the pilot in Firefly. He’s since been a good luck charm for Walt Disney Animation, having provided his voice for characters in every movie since Frozen.
For the role of K-2, Tudyk provided the voice and the motion capture. He was also said to have done improv, and you can even spot actor Diego Luna (Cassian) almost laughing after K-2 slaps him and tells him to be quiet on Jedha.
Q9-0 (The Mandalorian) – Richard Ayoade
Richard Ayoade was iconic as Maurice Moss from The I.T. Crowd. Not only was his character quirky, but he also had a very specific robotic voice that made the character instantly memorable.
Interestingly, Ayoade provides the voice for Q9-0, one of the mercenaries who worked with Din Djarin during the prison break episode The Prisoner. He also reprises the role in the second season episode The Passenger.
IG-11 (The Mandalorian) – Taika Waititi
Director Taika Waititi is known to insert himself in projects that he directs—like Thor: Ragnarok, where he plays Korg—but for Mando, he voices a more faceless character in the form of IG-11, the assassin droid who teams up with Din Djarin and eventually sacrifices himself to save Grogu.
Waititi reprised the role for the second season of Mando, but so far, it looks like IG-11’s arc is complete.
8D8 (The Book of Boba Fett) – Matt Berry
Speaking of Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows star Matt Berry—who also voices a robot in Amazon’s Fallout series—provides his voice for 8D8, Jabba the Hutt’s droid torturer who ends up working for Boba Fett when he takes over as Daimyo.
Admittedly, 8D8 didn’t get to do much other than exposition on the show, and many consider it a huge waste for a talent like Berry.
EV-9D9 (The Mandalorian) – Mark Hamill
Like 8D8 before him, 9D9 was a torture droid who worked in Jabba’s palace. Fans see him again in Mando as the bartender droid in the Mos Eisley Cantina. What’s cool is that he’s voiced by none other than Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.
Though Hamill is known to provide his voice for random characters in Star Wars, 9D9’s appearance is unique in that fans remember the first thing Luke was told in the Cantina was that droids weren’t allowed inside. Now, the bar is run by a droid, and Hamill voices him.
L3-37 (Solo: A Star Wars Story) – Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indiana Jones’ goddaughter in Dial of Destiny, but before that, she was co-piloting with Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Besides being convinced that Lando was in love with her, L3 also sparked a droid revolution in Kessell, which destroyed her body. Interestingly enough, her brain was uploaded to the Falcon, and it’s her that 3PO refers to when he tells Han Solo that the Falcon speaks in a ‘peculiar language.’
D-O (The Rise of Skywalker) – J.J. Abrams
J.J. Abrams isn’t known for self-inserts in his work, but they did find a way to get him an onscreen character with The Rise of Skywalker. As it turns out, Abrams provides the voice of the droid D-O. It was initially supposed to be a placeholder, but they decided the voice was perfect and kept it in the final film.
TODO 360 (Clone Wars) – Seth Green
Seth Green may be best known for his work on Family Guy as the voice of Chris Griffin, but Star Wars fans have him to thank for the pre-Sequel Robot Chicken: Star Wars specials.
With Green’s status in the animation industry, it was only natural that they got him to voice someone in The Clone Wars. In the show, he plays TODO, Cad Bane’s bumbling droid sidekick.
Huyang (Ahsoka) – David Tennant
Besides being the voice of Scrooge McDuck, David Tennant is an icon to Doctor Who fans as the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor. To Star Wars fans, though, he’s the voice of the Jedi training droid Huyang.
Although Huyang only appeared in two episodes of the animated show, he was a mainstay in the live-action Ahsoka series, providing Sabine Wren with all kinds of insight and training.
SM-33 (Skeleton Crew) – Nick Frost
Frost’s frequent collaborator Simon Pegg may have gotten to play an alien in TFA thanks to his connection with J.J. Abrams, and now it’s Frost’s turn to join a galaxy far, far away with the upcoming series Skeleton Crew.
Talking to People, the series director confirmed that Frost will be voicing a droid named SM-33. Watts describes the character as "a rusty old, cranky droid that sort of reluctantly helps the kids along the way… The other thing about him is that he's the first mate of a mysterious ship."
It's also worth noting that SM-33's name kind of spells out "SMEE". In Peter Pan, Captain Hook (who Jude Law also played) had a first mate named Smee.
It’s funny that Frost is able to play a droid in Star Wars. He did a skit with Simon Pegg in which the two cosplayed R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Catch Skeleton Crew when it premieres on Disney+ on Dec. 3.