It Now Seems There Is A Debate Over The Gender Of Adorable ‘Star Wars’ Droid BB-8

If there’s one thing screaming for debate, it’s the gender of a fictional robot, right? That seems to be what is happening online, and not on social media either. Nobody can seem to give a straight answer on whether Star Wars: The Force Awakens little ball of bolts, BB-8, is a male or a female. Worse yet, it seems like the kind of thing that could easily turn into internet outrage in a heartbeat.

If we go back to this November 2nd article in the Telegraph, we will note that BB-8 is a female. Or it is generally thought to be a female by folks involved with production on The Force Awakens, despite Dave Chapman and Brian Herring — the puppeteers behind the droid — referring to it as “he.” Not the case according to sources that talked to Telegraph:

But now, a source close to the filmmakers has told the Daily Mail that BB-8 is definitely “a she” – and that the decision was a deliberate attempt to appeal to the female half of the Star Wars toy market.

“There’s never been a strong female robot in any Star Wars film,” the source said.

“JJ [Abrams] was determined to make BB-8 cute and strong – and female. They want to appeal to girls as much boys, who have traditionally been the fan base. She’s going to be one of the breakout hits of the film.”

So that seems like it is pretty much clear, right? BB-8 is a female, the first female robot in the Star Wars universe. Nice way to go back to the roots of the droids in the series and their inspiration in Metropolis. But what’s this? Entertainment Weekly, and by extension Slash Film, have more information regarding BB-8’s gender in Star Wars:

During the design phase, it was up for debate whether this character would have a male or female personality. “I’m still not sure, dare I say, whether BB-8 is male or female,” Scanlan says. “BB-8 was female in our eyes. And then he or she became male. And that’s all part of the evolution, not only visually, but in the way they move, how they hold themselves.” (It’s not clear a gender-type has ever been specified, but as of now everyone working on the movie calls BB-8 a “he.”)

That’s Star Wars creature lord Neal Scanlan talking to Entertainment Weekly about BB-8, throwing a bit of a monkey in the wrench of that whole “first strong female robot” stuff.

It has seemed to spawn its own bit of debate among numerous publications around the Internet, discussing the value of gender identity in a robot and joining in with the much larger — and more visible — absence of a real, living, human female from the film’s merchandise. Then over at Vulture we have the opposite, where it seems that whatever gender we want to believe is what matters in the end. As Nate Jones put it, “Would you ask that question about a person?” And really, it’s an odd thing to ask. You might do it to a kid at some point, especially if you’re an estranged uncle who just showed up to babysit for a wild weekend of giant pancakes and bowling trips. But you’re normally not going to go about asking someone if they’re a boy or a girl.

I’m not entirely sure this is a debate that truly has an answer, or one that has a hefty weight attached to the story we’ll experience in The Force Awakens. It might mean something to kids, who can believe what they want to believe. If the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus get play for close to a decade with children, BB-8 can be whatever they want him/her/it to be.

(Via Telegraph / Vulture / Screen Crush / Entertainment Weekly / Slash Film)