As one of the few people who have been around for every chapter of the Star Wars saga to date, few actors are as well known for a single role as Anthony Daniels is for C-3PO. While he had played the part six times before, he likely knew things would be significantly different for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As it turned out, there was one change for this new generation of films that the actor really wasn’t on board with. He didn’t like the red arm.
There was one single change to C-3PO that became instantly noticeable when fans first saw him in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While the majority of his body was the gold cover that we all knew so well, one arm was not his own. Anthony Daniels told Screen Rant that the arm was the one thing that J.J. Abrams forced on him. However, Daniels doesn’t hold any hard feelings, since Abrams did eventually listen to the actor, and made a change at the end of the film.
The one thing that J.J. and I argued about was the fact that I didn’t like the red arm. C-3PO doesn’t like the red arm! Being the director he said ‘You’re gonna have a red arm.’ But have you noticed, because he listened to me, that the last frame of C-3PO waving at the Millennium Falcon was with a gold arm! And J.J. did that – [I] love it.
Anthony Daniels doesn’t explain why it was that he didn’t care for the red arm. It’s very possible that the actor feels so attached to the character that he’s spent his life playing, that he simply didn’t like to see changes made. We’ve been able to get a little of the back story on the arm from some of the companion materials, and a new comic that deals with the whole thing will be coming out shortly. Ultimately, while the arm is never explained in the film, it’s a visual symbol that a lot of time has passed, and that the missing years have been tough for our Resistance friends. All of the human characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens age, so you can tell that they are older, the arm does the same thing for the ageless droid.
For whatever reason that Anthony Daniels didn’t like the red arm, it’s great that the actor and director were able to work together and work through the issue. J.J. Abrams got his red arm throughout the film, which had the impact that was needed, and once that was done, Abrams switched the arm out, which made the actor happy. Daniels appears to be happy while he currently works on Star Wars: Episode VIII, which implies are of his limbs are remaining intact.
