It’s been a hot topic among die-hard Star Wars fans for quite a few months now. Ever since a leaked picture of C-3PO on a can of soda and the cover of a child’s chair made its way onto the internet, people have been debating the color of everyone’s favorite protocol droid’s arm. Was it a case of bad lighting? Was is Photoshopped to spark debate? Well, thanks to a Star Wars: The Force Awakens display at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con, we now have confirmation that C-3PO does in fact have a red arm in the film.
As you can see from that tweeted photo, the red arm is in full view. Now the question becomes, how or why does he now have a red arm? The last we saw of C-3PO in Return of the Jedi, he was happily celebrating the Rebel Alliance’s victory over the Empire in the Battle for Endor…both arms still attached and gold-plated.
There are several explanations for the red arm. One being that 3PO is over 60 years of age, and after what he’s been through, it’s not that much of a stretch to think that his gold-plating has chipped away. Or, perhaps he lost his arm during a mission and a new one was scavenged from a scrapped R-3PO (same model as C-3PO but entirely red), although C-3PO’s new red arm looks more matte red than the shiny red from the R-3PO model.
Regardless of how he got it, at least we know that he does, and now that debate can be put to rest. I would hazard a guess that once September gets here, and The Journey to the Force Awakens (The series of new canonical literature that will connect Episode VI to Episode VII) begins, we may get some back story as to what actually happened, through a comic book or new novel. One can hope.