Every good Star Wars movie or TV series has a new droid for us to love. It’s basically a fact. And Star Wars: The Acolyte is no different. The Acolyte will introduce us to an adorable new droid called, Pip. According to Star Wars‘ official description of Pip, Pip is “a handheld repair droid with a wide array of tool attachments, has a chipper, can-do personality. The pocket-sized droid is always eager to help, often suggesting just the right tool for the task at hand.”
Who Is Pip the Droid?
We love him already! And what a fun change that this Star Wars droid is handheld. It’s sure to set Pip apart. We can’t wait to see which of The Acolyte‘s characters befriends this new droid as he continues his adventures.
Pip the Droid in The Acolyte
In The Acolyte‘s first episodes, we learned that Pip belongs to Osha, a former Jedi Padawan who walked away from her training to become a mechanic instead. Pip performs all kinds of tasks for Osha such as welding and syncing into other tech systems to learn more about their vitals and glean other useful information. It looks like the Pip droid can do it all when it comes to fixing and tinkering.
Pip’s Heroic Sacrifice in The Acolyte
In The Acolyte‘s fifth episode, Pip the droid was a true hero. Osha had to sacrifice him to save Jedi Master Sol and herself from the evil Sith Lord Master, who was revealed to be Qimir. Luring Umbramoths with Pip’s flashlight, Osha successfully managed to engineer a plan to defeat the Sith Lord, at least for now. Osha attached flashlight Pip to Qimir and the Umbramoths, attracted to the light, swooped in and carried him far away. But at what cost?
Happily it seems like Bazil the tracker rescued Pip from the forests of Khofar. Hopefully, this means Pip and Osha will have a happy reunion soon. We love how The Acolyte used Pip the droid to remind us that in the Star Wars‘ world, even the most unassuming creatures can have big impacts.
More About Pip
You can also check out Pip the droid in the cool featurette highlighting Star Wars‘ designers and makers. You can see Pip appear around the 30 second mark.
Creature & droid FX creative supervisor Neal Scanlan and his team additionally share that Pip was inspired by “retro gaming consoles, the Sony Walkman®, and the pencil cases of their youth.”
Scanlan notes, “I am rather pleased with Pip as a design because it’s the first handheld pocket droid that we’ve been involved with… We tried to choose a kind of late ‘70s to mid ‘80s design ethos. We also looked at things like Tamagotchis and those sorts of toys that people loved. You gotta keep Pip alive, you know! He’s not just this thing.”
Additionally, Star Wars homages in the form of stickers can be seen on Pip the droid’s form, including a homage to Loth-cats and other elements of Star Wars. The designers reveal that they tried to keep Pip’s parts to a minimum but still wanted him to be able to show emotions and personality. Scanlan offers, “You want to connect to him. You want to be able to see some emotion, you know, human emotion. His little aerial antenna can retract and go backwards or forwards depending on if he was sad or excited. He actually ended up with as much electronics in him as any other droid we’ve ever made. He’s compatible on a technological level. You had to be able to take his head off and use his head as an independent tool. And you could have many bodies. You could have the drill and the Swiss Army knife version. You could have the version that did your hair for you in the morning. You had the welding version. Probably even more than BB-8, I think that designing Pip with Leslye [Headland] was the most thorough investigation into a droid that we’ve ever done.”
Originally published on May 8, 2024.