Movies - TV
R2-D2’s Star Trek Cameos Aren’t Really Referencing Star Wars
By WITNEY SEIBOLD
In 2009, filmmaker J.J. Abrams, an openly unabashed "Star Wars" fan, was hired to reboot "Star Trek." Abrams admitted that he took the opportunity to pay homage to another movie.
Producers George Lucas (“Star Wars”) and Steven Spielberg have been friends for years. They have played homage to each other in many of their blockbuster films.
Lucas included E.T. aliens in a “Star Wars” movie, E.T. was dressed as Yoda, and in Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," R2-D2 hanging from the mothership's hull.
"He was also in this movie. He's been in all the movies I've directed,” Abrams said, clarifying the R2-D2 cameo was not a Star Wars reference but an homage to "Close Encounters.”