While Star Wars has always been a family-friendly franchise (at least, for the main installments), there has apparently been some R-rated content right under everyone’s noses the whole time–and Star Wars itself confirmed it.
Despite having ‘war’ in the title, Star Wars has been appropriate for people of all ages–with even child murder being done in a tasteful-enough way to avoid that dreaded ‘R rating’. However, that isn’t to say Star Wars hasn’t delved into some pretty heavy topics (including the aforementioned child murder). In the first movie, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, the main character’s aunt and uncle are gruesomely killed while another main character’s entire planet is obliterated followed by the total annihilation of a fully-staffed space station the size of a small moon. In the first movie alone, literal billions of people die–and that’s not even close to the final kill-count when considering the rest of the series. In fact, there isn’t even just one war in Star Wars as the prequels go into the Clone Wars while the original films depict the Galactic Civil War, and that’s not even counting the sequel trilogy. Basically, there’s a lot of death, but even with all those lives lost, the franchise has never gone above a PG-13 rating. So, what is it that could push Star Wars over the hump and into R-rated territory? Well, it all comes down to a single droid who has been a fan-favorite for decades: R2-D2.
In Star Wars #13 by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato, Luke Skywalker has crash-landed on a planet after attempting to down Darth Vader’s ship as well. The resulting crash left Luke in a weakened state, which is exactly how Doctor Aphra and her droid, Triple-Zero, find the future Jedi Master. Luckily, Luke Skywalker wasn’t alone as he was with R2-D2 who was doing everything they could to look after the unconscious Rebel until he woke up. When Aphra and Triple-Zero approached, R2-D2 released a slew of beeping sounds in an effort to keep the villains at bay. While R2 was speaking a language readers can’t understand, Triple-Zero was more than familiar with the droid’s speech patterns and responds to the noises R2 is making by saying, “My, what language. He certainly is a foul-mouthed little astromech”.
What’s even funnier than the fact that R2-D2 is apparently just cursing-up a storm throughout the kid-friendly Star Wars movies–as confirmed in this issue–is that this isn’t the first time Star Wars has done this. In another Star Wars comic issue following the Knights of Ren (Star Wars: Crimson Reign #4 by Charles Soule and Steven Cummings) one of the members of the Dark Side-worshiping team is speaking a language readers can’t understand, but another character who speaks what readers can interpret as a human language comments on their team member’s foul mouth. Apparently Star Wars either really wants its characters to act as though they’re in a Quentin Tarantino film, or the franchise loves hiding profanity in plain sight.
The idea that R2-D2 is regularly spewing profane language isn’t a new one, though this issue is the first time that particular theory has been confirmed. Even in the original trilogy, C-3PO’s reactions to some of R2-D2’s beeping has led many fans to believe that the droid is secretly using foul language on a regular basis–which is absolutely hilarious given that R2-D2 is such a draw for children given the Star Wars droid's playfully mischievous personality and somehow cute aesthetic. Based on the confirmation fans got in this issue, if R2’s language was translated into one that could be understood by fans, then R2-D2’s marketability would quickly drop as Star Wars would go from family-friendly films to an R-rated series–an outcome that would be absolutely hilarious given the absurd reason for it.