Friends for over 25 years, working on numerous projects starting with the iconic The Force Unleashed in 2007 and through a slew of animated series and projects both inside and outside of the Star Wars galaxy, David Coillins and Sam Witwer have built a working relationship that has thrilled the hearts, minds and ears of the Star Wars galaxy, and speaking with the official site Collins discussed that relationship, his work on their latest collaboration Maul – Shadow Lord, and his new role as the voice of Spybot, a character Collins is clearly relishing.
Nearly 20 years later, Collins and Witwer are playing off each other once more as devoted droid Spybot and dark sider Maul in Maul – Shadow Lord, where Collins also serves as sound supervisor.
The journey to defining Spybot’s voice was “interesting,” recounts Collins. There is an immense legacy of droid sounds over nearly 50 years of Star Wars storytelling, including astromechs, protocol droids, and battle droids. “I thought a lot about the older droids in Star Wars that have been around forever: Chopper, BB-8, and of course, R2-D2,” says Collins. “Because there were actual lines of dialogue in parentheses in the script, it needed to sound like gibberish but also be understandable. So, I went into the booth and I tried all kinds of different accents and what ended up coming out was this almost homage to Peter Lorre.”
That voice works well within the setting of Maul – Shadow Lord, which mostly takes place on the new world of Janix. “I was watching the first episode, which is very noir-inspired, and that sort of accent started coming out. Suddenly I started growling and speaking gibberish. But then it became funnier if he was actually commenting on things or making plot points clearer.”
Collins’ proximity to the post-production process was also key to the further development of the character. “Because I was actually mixing the show, I would also just pitch new lines later in the process,” says Collins. “I was always trying to get reactions from [executive producers] Brad Rau and Athena Portillo. Spybot just took on a life of his own as this kind of Hidden Fortress junkyard dog. He’s just a little jerk, but he’s so fun.”
