I’d say 90% of the feedback I’m hearing about “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is very positive. However, even the most positive reviews question the use of CGI to recreate Grand Moff Tarkin despite the actor having died many years ago. I think the shock of seeing a person they know to be dead speaking new lines is part of the problem because another CGI character is getting nothing but praise. That character is K-2SO, whose performance was done by Alan Tudyk using modern motion capture technology. Tudyk’s performance was then replaced by digital animators.
Despite his sardonic sense of humor, or perhaps because of it, K-2SO is one of the more popular characters to emerge from Rogue One. A new featurette from Lucasfilm goes behind the scenes and looks at how K-2SO was filmed and created.
K-2, as his owner Cassian Andor calls him, is a reprogrammed droid that was once a strategic analyst for the Empire. Along the way he becomes an invaluable member of the rebel team.
Tudyk remarks that K-2 has all the capabilities of a droid, but the mind of a child who says the first thing that comes into his mind. This, of course, leads to moments of hilarity. “He doesn’t think of himself as owned,” Tudyk says. “He and Cassian are a team and that allows for a lot of humor.”
What was your favorite K-2 moment in Rogue One?