A Long Time Ago, Paul Reubens Played A Beloved Star Wars Character

With the sudden passing of actor Paul Reubens after a private battle with cancer, the outpouring across the country and the world has been comforting, to say the least. Reubens will always be most associated with Pee-wee Herman, the character he created and developed when he was a part of the world-famous comedy troupe The Groundlings during the late '70s. As Pee-wee became more entrenched into our own cultural fabric and "Pee-wee's Playhouse" hit the airwaves every Saturday morning, a generation of '80s kids fell in love with him.

With Tim Burton's "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and its sequel "Big Top Pee-wee," Reubens carved out a franchise of his very own during the same decade where the original "Star Wars" trilogy completely dominated the box office. For fans of George Lucas' space opera, Reubens wasn't just known as the lovable, eccentric children's host from television. He was also the voice of Rex, or RX-24, in Disney's incredibly popular theme park attraction, Star Tours.

After lending his vocal talents playing Max, the alien spacecraft in Disney's "Flight of the Navigator," Reubens came on board Star Tours as a pilot droid who took passengers on an interactive trip through multiple planets, eventually getting caught up in a battle between the Rebels and the Empire. It was the start of a long-lasting friendship between Reubens and "Star Wars" which came full circle when Rex officially became part of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge over forty years later.

When Rex debuted on Star Tours in 1987, curious kids and nerdy adults were introduced to a fully realized audio animatronic character that they could practically reach out and touch. The ride itself was a motion simulator, but RX-24 was there accompanying you on the ride, making him one of the few characters in Disney Parks at that time that was occupying the same physical space with you. Add Reubens' voice to the character, and it's no wonder that fans were so taken by the droid as they sped along with him on a mini-adventure across the galaxy.

Rex was so popular, in fact, Disney brought the character back in the sequel ride, aptly named Star Wars: The Adventure Continues. In 2019, it was happily announced that Reubens would be returning as DJ-R3X, a new, updated iteration of RX-24 (aka Captain Rex) for Disney's Galaxy's Edge. Any park attendees that have walked into Oga's Cantina in Galaxy's Edge have surely seen DJ-R3X spinning Jawa hip-hop tunes and dropping "Star Wars" references and one-liners in-between tracks. Reubens even wrote some of the dialogue for the part, adding his own twist to the character. In the original Star Tours ride, Reubens also added his own cadence with that instantly recognizable signature laugh and a few other accents that are unmistakably inspired by Pee-wee.

If you're wondering how Captain Rex went from being a high-flying pilot to moonlighting as a DJ on the planet Baatu in Galaxy's Edge, Lucasfilm story group member Matt Martin has you covered (via Peewee.com):

"The short story is Rex flunked his way out of Star Tours, and eventually through some misadventures, he found his way to the Rebellion in the final battle of the galactic civil war, the battle of Jakku. In an epic TIE Fighter chase, he ends up crash landing on Baatu. There he is rescued by the local droidsmith Mubo, where he is repaired and made into a DJ for Oga's cantina."

Perhaps no line from "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" is quoted more often than: "I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel." In a fitting although fleeting tribute to that classic piece of dialogue, Rex has a cameo in season 1 of the animated series "Star Wars Rebels," in the third episode, "Droids in Distress." Once again, Reubens would provide the voice of the original Star Tours pilot appearing alongside C-3PO, R2-D2, and everyone's favorite cut-up droid, Chopper. 

Appearing as a Lothal protocol droid in the episode, the design of Rex was originally based on early conceptual art from artist Ralph McQuarrie when he was hashing out the look of C-3PO, according to StarWars.com. Albeit brief, the inclusion in "Rebels" was another way to keep Rex and Reubens' contributions alive and thriving inside the "Star Wars" universe. 

Now that DJ-RX3 has what is hopefully a permanent home at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, fans of Reubens have a way to pay their respects to the late actor in a wholly unique way. For most of us, Reubens will always be remembered for the joy he brought as Pee-wee Herman, but there's still plenty of love to go around for Rex, who has suddenly become a much more poignant part of "Star Wars" history after the actor's passing. It will be interesting to see what Disney and the Imagineers will do with Rex as a character to possibly honor Reubens in the future. For now, fans can listen to DJ-RX3's latest playlist pumping through the speakers over at Oga's Cantina on Baatu. Maybe Rex will prove to be a better DJ than a pilot, after all.