Anthony Breznican takes a look at and warns us to beware the evil dread of BB-9E, evil droid of the First Order over at Entertainment Weekly.
Kylo Ren doesn’t need a sidekick droid – it’s more likely to be actually kicked in a fit of wild rage.
But the First Order does have some roly-poly robots rumbling through the corridors of its fleet, and The Last Jedi will put us in contact with one sinister black and white droid: BB-9E.
The “E” is for evil. But the creation had another nickname: “BB‑Hate, as we called him on set,” says writer-director Rian Johnson.
The make is a familiar BB ball-droid unit, but the model is not. This is a variation on cute and cuddly BB-8 that is meant to evoke dread instead of warmth, with a wasp-shaped flat-top head, a low electronic growl, and a single glowing eye borrowed from HAL 9000, the malignant supercomputer from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
