"They Made BD-1 For Real": Viral Videos Celebrate Disneyland's Newest (& Cutest) Droids

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A new set of viral videos have revealed Disneyland’s latest droids, with Disney Imagineers turning their skills toward making a real-life version of the lovable BD-1. First making his appearance in the hit 2019 videogame, BD-1 was the former droid of the late Jedi Master Eno Cordova before coming into the possession of Cameron Monaghan’s Cal Kestis. In January 2022, the popular droid design made its first live-action franchise debut in episode 5.

Now, new videos being posted to social media from Disneyland’s Galaxy Edge have revealed the BD units have been added to the park’s growing roster of automated characters.

A video posted to Twitter by Disneyland News Today reveals a trio of bipedal BD units roaming the park’s attraction.

Meanwhile, another video reposted by Dan StarWars Centralized expresses his excitement for seeing BD-1 brought to life, while Disney Dan Becker’s original clip shows the diminutive droids interacting with a park cast member.

First announced in 2015 following Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in a record-breaking $4 billion deal, Disneyland’s themed park attraction first opened in 2019 to massive crowds and considerable acclaim. Depicting the outer-rim world of Batuu, the attraction would include several familiar franchise sights including the iconic Millennium Falcon and a host of characters from the various corners of the hit franchise.

However, the recent addition of BD units to the park marks not only the introduction of a fan-favorite droid design, but an impressive feat of engineering and technical wizardry. While other commonly featured droid types such as the R-series Astromech units could rely on far simpler wheel mechanisms to allow them to navigate the park, the BD unit’s bipedal