Star Wars: Why C3PO has a red arm in The Force Awakens

After a perilous journey, the droid received his red arm

To many people’s surprise, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, C3PO had a red arm. (Last time we saw him, in Return of the Jedi, he had two golden arms).

So, what happened between Episode VI and VII? Luckily, Disney is happy to fill in the gaps with their Marvel comics series. Last week, the increasingly annoying droid had his own stand-alone comic.

According to Uproxx, in the comic, Threepio and a handful of other droids are sent on a mission to rescue Admiral Ackbar. Unfortunately, they get stranded on a foreign planet and to survive they must travel to the other side, making their way through rough terrain and droid-hating locals.

Writers James Robinson and Tony Harris - best known for working on 90s Superman comics - use this as a launchpad to explore the nature of droids in the universe. As you know, droids are tools used by humans, and often have their memories wiped.

However, Threepio is a protocol droid who requires a certain amount of human aspects, including emotion, but is never actually a human. It’s a philosophical issue he ponders upon and eventually he reveals he too remembers things from past lives. He then realises he wants to do things his programming won’t allow.

At one stage, the group is attacked. Just as Threepio is about to be torn apart, another Imperial droid sacrifices itself so the others may fulfil their mission. The other droid is sick of the memory wipes, of having no free will, and decides death is the only action it can choose to make.

As a sign of friendship, Threepio adopts the red arm as his own, as a reminder of unlikely friendship. And that’s coming from the film’s comic relief character.

In other Star Wars news, Disney is believed to have found their young Han Solo in Alden Ehrenreich.