In season three of The Mandalorian, an old character comes to the foreground and takes a much bigger role in the franchise than before. No, it’s not Bo-Katan, it’s actually a droid, R5-D4.

The red and white astromech belongs to mechanic and swindler Peli Motto on Tatooine, and has appeared in several episodes already, but this season he’s given more to do when Peli lends (rents) him to Din Djarin for his mission to Mandalore. R5 proves vital to Din’s survival after he’s captured by the Cyborg ‘Crone’. When Grogu goes to get help from Bo-Katan, it’s R5 who flies the N1 to Kalevala. Without the little red droid, Din would have been bled dry and left for dead in the mines.

All of this is, of course, very important, and it’s likely R5 will show up more in the coming series, but his real heroics actually came a lot earlier than that, in fact, he was in the very first Star Wars movie, later titled A New Hope.

At the beginning of the movie, R2-D2 and C-3PO are stranded on Tatooine after the Empire attacks Princess Leia’s ship. They’re soon picked up by Jawas who stop at a moisture farm to sell droids, including R2, C-3PO, and R5-D4 who has been with the Jawas for four years. Owen Lars chooses 3PO as a translator and wants R5 as well. As the red astro rolls forward, he blows his motivator, leading to Owen choosing R2 instead. It’s also this scene where Luke mistakenly calls R5 an ‘R2 unit’.

While it might seem like this is just a badly maintained droid, Rae Carson’s story ‘The Red One’ in From A Certain Point of View reveals that R5 blew his motivator on purpose to stop the two droids being separated, as R2 had convinced him that the fate of the galaxy lay in his hands.

This is a classic example of what Star Wars does best: taking a minor background character and making them an important part of the story later on. It also shows R5 to be selfless, willing to spend years more with the Jawas so that R2-D2 can finish his mission. As Leia put it “Never underestimate a droid.” How true.

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