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BB-9E is a minor antagonist in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. He is the archenemy to Rey's droid BB-8. He is a droid working for the First Order.
History[]
In The Last Jedi, BB-9E is seen on Supreme Leader Snoke's flagship, the Mega-class Star Dreadnought Supremacy. It is doing surveillance on the ship when it spies Finn, Rose Tico, DJ, and BB-8 disguised as First Order officials. It immediately sees past their disguises and identifies them as intruders, becoming focused and angry. It scans them and confirms its suspicions, then goes off to gather its superiors.
As the heroes try to break into a part of the ship to disable their tracker, BB-9E confronts them with its superiors, who arrest them while BB-9E looks on. They are later sold out to Captain Phasma by DJ.
Later, the Supremacy is mostly destroyed when Vice Admiral Holdo flies the Resistance ship Raddus into it at light speed. It's unclear if BB-9E was destroyed in the process or if it survived the crash.
Other Appearances[]
Star Wars Blips[]
BB-9E first appeared in Star Wars Blips, an animated series of short films uploaded to the Star Wars YouTube channel which was intended to humorously introduce characters that were to appear in The Last Jedi. BB-9E appears as the main antagonist in the episode "Hey You", where it is confronted by BB-8. Though it wants nothing to do with the other droid, it finally snaps when BB-8 antagonizes it too far, chasing it around and trying to catch it, but crashes into a wall and has its top piece fall off. BB-8 replaces it and runs, and BB-9E wakes up and begins furiously searching the ship for BB-8.
Marketing and Advertising[]
Despite his minimal screen time in the actual film, BB-9E served as a major antagonist in much of The Last Jedi's marketing, usually going up against BB-8.
BB-9E was first revealed when various sets for the Star Wars: The Last Jedi toyline were leaked on May 26, 2017. A Funko Pop box with BB-8 and BB-9E was released on August 3, 2017, also before the character was officially revealed. This would mean news of BB-9E's Funko Pop would have existed since July. The main collectible for BB-9E was released on August 24.
The character was not officially revealed until August 31, thanks to a Force Friday event that revealed merchandise of the character that would be sold at various retailers. BB-9E was featured as one of the "App-Enabled Droids" in the Star Wars Droids App by mobile app developer Sphero, released as part of Force Friday. In a commerical that was released on that day, it is shown giving a tour of the Supremacy. Two days after that, on September 2, BB-9E would make his first non-canon appearance in Star Wars Blips, uploaded on the official Star Wars YouTube channel.
Personality[]
Though it has a simple role as a First Order droid, BB-9E is programmed with a cold, sinister and treacherous personality. It hates the Resistance and desires to snuff them out (a trait shared by the rest of the First Order), but is mainly confined to simple surveillance and only gets its time to shine when intruders do come, and he also shows a sadistic and cruel demeanor when exposing its foes. This could be because it is treated as little more than a machine by the First Order, and wishes to prove its worth. To keep BB-9E subservient, they perform routine memory wipes to prevent the consequences of it becoming resentful. Its malevolent personality is due to being considerably more tragic than BB-8.
Trivia[]
- BB-9E was jokingly nicknamed "BB-H8" (BB-hate) on set.
- According to The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, the E in BB-9E's designation/name stands for ‘Evil’.
- BB-9E was expected to return as a villain in The Rise of Skywalker, though it is not returned and it is unknown if it survived the Supremacy's destruction.
- The LEGO set for Kylo Ren's TIE Fighter includes BB-9E with it. Though TIE fighters usually do not use or require droid assistance, it is possible that BB-9E also serves as a technical consultant to Kylo Ren, though this is unconfirmed.
- Despite little screen time in the actual film, BB-9E was used in a vast amount of marketing for The Last Jedi, leading it to become an unofficial mascot for that installation in the Star Wars franchise.
