Rumor: What is BB-8 Hiding?

By: Dominic Jones

It's safe to say that the teaser trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens captured the imaginations of fans around the globe.  One of the new elements of the trailer that seems to stand out above the rest when it comes to public consciousness (other than the "broadsaber") is the new droid BB-8.  A new report suggest that there is more to BB-8 than meets the eye.  As usual, there's a chance this could be false but if you're trying to avoid all The Force Awakens spoilers stop reading now.  This is your official SPOILER ALERT!

Our friends over at MakingStarWars.net got a look at some concept art of the droid and reveal that he has a secret compartment.  But it's what's inside that is really exciting.  Inside this secret compartment is the lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker (and Anakin Skywalker before him).  According to Jason Ward at MSW the concept art is described as follows,

On the outside of the orange circle there is a secret panel that opens up. It appears to be the kind of place you would have to know where to look to access it.

Frame 1 shows the white panel outside the orange circle opened up. Inside there is a small grey keypad type interface. It looks to be about the size of a garage door opener. It has two buttons on the bottom. A red dial, and two white switches which reside below a green LED screen about as big as a classic basic calculator’s screen. What does this panel do?

Nothing! That’s right. The panel does nothing. It is a faux panel. Frame 2 shows us the panel as it is  lifted to reveal a secret compartment for storing something. There’s a round hole inside it but we can’t see exactly what it is. It can be anything.

The final panel shows the Anakin Skywalker/Luke Skywalker ligthsaber popping up from it! The laser sword doesn’t come out all the way out, just enough for a hand to retrieve and pull it out like King Arthur with Excalibur. Okay, maybe not that epic, but it is a pretty cool hiding place.

This does sound like a cool hiding spot and begs the question of what else BB-8 is hiding and what else they can do?  Astromech droids in Star Wars, starting with R2-D2 and continuing more recently with Chopper on Star Wars Rebels, have a history of having many hidden abilities.  This hidden compartment seems to indicate that BB-8 will follow suit.

As always this is just a rumor until confirmed or denied by Lucasfilm or Disney.

Source: MakingStarWars.net

 

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