star wars - What was the inspiration for the design of R2D2?

Looking at R2-D2, I can't think of any robots I've seen in science fiction that vaguely resemble R2D2's design. So, my question is What was the inspiration for the design of R2D2?

Answer

George Lucas apparently admitted that the inspiration behind the "look" of R2D2 was the trio of Huey, Louie, and Dewey from Doug Trumbull's film Silent Running, which was released five years before A New Hope.

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Los Angeles Times, 5 Dec 1977

...The drones, by the way, proved to be director George Lucas' inspiration for his own stubby robot, R2-D2, a fact that he admitted to [Doug] Trumbull when he approached him about contributing to Star Wars. Trumbull, however, turned down the assignment because he did not want to repeat himself by returning to another space opera...

Also this interesting tidbit:

According to a August 14, 1981 Hollywood Reporter article, Universal sued Twentieth Century-Fox, claiming that the droid "R2-D2" in Star Wars was an infringement upon the design of drones Huey, Dewey and Louie. Judge Irving Hill of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles dismissed the case before trial, however, stating that "no one has a monopoly on the use of robots in art," and that the robots in question were not similar. Universal appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeals also dismissed the case.

(Source for Excerpts)

Comments

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