Meet B2EMO, the adorable new salvage droid in Andor

This is the droid you're looking for.

Alan Tudyk's K2-SO may not be in the first season of Andor, but the upcoming Star Wars series introduces at least one new robotic friend. EW has an exclusive look at the new droid B2EMO, the tiny salvage assistant who stars opposite Diego Luna.

Series creator Tony Gilroy tells EW that he wanted the Andor family to have a loyal companion, an ancient salvage droid who's been working with them for years. The result is the cubical B2, a rusty red groundmech who rolls around the planet Ferrix. "I said, 'Okay, I want to have a salvage droid, and I want to have a family dog,'" Gilroy tells EW. "It's an old dog. That's where we started."

"B2 is a fantastic friend," Luna adds with a laugh. "It's like the perfect droid. I have to say, it's a fantastic piece of design, first of all. The team behind it is amazing. He's so expressive. With very little, he gives you so much."

Star Wars designer Neal Scanlan and his legendary creature shop built the droid from scratch, figuring out everything from his square figure to that perfect red color. The droid itself is entirely practical and controlled via a remote, which meant Luna and other actors could share scenes with B2 and even improvise with him.

"It was wonderful to work with him because he's real," Luna says. "He's there, and he interacts with you the way you'll get to see him [on screen]. There's nothing he couldn't do that he will do in the series. It's all mechanical."

Luna, of course, is no stranger to sharing scenes with robotic costars, and as Cassian, he spends much of his screentime in 2016's Rogue One with K2-SO. But he filmed those scenes with Tudyk, who performed on set and was later digitally replaced. Here, Luna actually got to act opposite B2 in his final form.

"It was weird, to be honest, the first few days," Luna admits. "I was like, 'Holy s---!' Before, in Rogue One with K2, I was in front of a great actor. But here with B2, it was actually a piece of metal moving, but a metal that was as expressive as any actor I've worked with and as precise, too. That's another thing that is not easy. The team making him move and talk is just the best of the best."

Andor launches on Disney+ on Sept. 21.

For more on Andor, including exclusive interviews with stars like Diego Luna and Genevieve O'Reilly, listen to EW's Star Wars podcast, Dagobah Dispatch.

Make sure to check out EW's Fall TV Preview cover story — as well as all of our 2022 Fall TV Preview content, releasing over 22 days through Sept. 29.

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• Diego Luna on returning to Star Wars with Andor: 'This story matters'
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• Diego Luna's Star Wars series will follow a 'revolution-averse' Andor who's 'kind of a mess'