Read more below about the pink R2 astromech droid know as R2-KT and the little girl, Katie Johnson, who inspired it’s creation… such a heartwarming story just in time for the holidays and the release of the new Star Wars film on Dec 18th.
-Matt@1063RL
There’s a little droid that’s appeared in Star Wars stories in the last couple of years, R2-KT. She’s an astromech with a special purpose: memorializing a little girl who passed away in 2005. Now, it looks like she’ll appear in bigger things.
In 2004, Albin Johnson and his wife noticed that their daughter Katie was having some trouble: she kept falling down. After a doctor’s visit, they received horrifying news: their daughter had an inoperable brain tumor, and she only had months to live. The 501st Legion (which had been founded by Johnson) rallied to his cause.
At Church, shortly after the diagnosis, he had an idea: why not create an R2 unit for Katie, to watch over her? The R2 Builder’s club began to put together a droid for the family once they learned what Johnson wanted to do, and after a suggestion from his daughter Allie, it would be painted pink, Katie’s favorite color.
When it became clear that a droid wouldn’t come together in time before Katie passed away, another astromech builder, Andy Schwartz, painted up his own and and shipped it over. Upon it’s arrival, Katie she threw her arms around it and gave it a hug, and it watched over her in her last days.
A Star Wars droid built especially to comfort a young cancer patient will be making an appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, according to The Telegraph.
After having been diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor in 2004, Albin Johnson, the father of the terminally ill Katie Johnson, who is also the founder of the 501st Legion—an organization of enthusiasts dedicated to making costumes from George Lucas’s Star Wars—decided to create a droid in honor of his daughter and to bring her comfort in her final days.
The droid, named R2-KT in order to sound phonetically similar to Katie, was built by the R2 Builders Club at the request of the South Carolina family.
The droid, which would look similar in appearance to R2-D2 except for being painted pink, Katie’s favorite color, would not be finished before her death, so R2 droid builder Andy Schwartz painted his own and sent it over to the family.
The final R2 Builders Club model was finished in 2006 and has been a staple at charitable Star Wars events since then, and the young girl the droid is named after was viewed as an inspiration to the 7,000 members of the 501st Legion.
The female droid has appeared in the David Filoni-directed animated series The Clone Wars as QT-KT, a droid owned by Jedi Master Aayla Secura (a character who appears in the prequel films).
R2-KT is also expected to make an appearance in the upcoming J.J. Abrams directed Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
“Mary Franklin of Lucasfilm asked me to pitch the idea to [Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy, and after hearing the story of our pink ambassador of hope Lucasfilm requested we ship her off to London early last year,” Johnson told GreekSpeak. “Quick repairs were made and off she went for six months.”
The R2 Builders Club will also oversee units used in the film and the 501st Legion will be consulted on costumes for the film, which will be released Dec. 18.