In the mid-1980’s, Paul Reubens became a part of Star Wars after he was seen playing Pee-wee Herman on television. What was this unique Star Wars role and how, exactly, did it come about?
Here’s a brief version of the story, the details of which were featured in the “Star Tours” episode of Behind the Attraction, a 2021 original docuseries from Disney Plus.
It all starts with Disneyland in the 1980’s trying to figure out how to make a new ride for Disney’s 1979 feature film The Black Hole. Once the Imagineers who were working on the project realized that The Black Hole isn’t the best family friendly idea, they convinced then Disney CEO Ron Miller to change his mind. Miller soon realized the better option would be to do a Star Wars ride, despite the fact that Disney had never created an attraction for a movie that was not a Disney product before — though, ironically, is now owned by Disney thanks to buying Star Wars from George Lucas in 2012.
After approaching Lucas about the possibility, it was clear that he was excited about it. After all, Lucas was such an early visitor to the theme park that he was there on its second day after it opened in 1955.
Eventually, they created a motion simulator ride as the main attraction of what would be called Star Tours. The ride would fit 40 passengers at a time in what was meant to feel like a transport ship in the Star Wars galaxy. The story was that the trip was filled with problems and would eventually run into trouble and ultimately find its way into the Death Star trench as featured in the original Star Wars film.
One of the uncertainties that the Imagineeers had was figuring out which character would pilot this comedy-of-errors transport ship. Originally, they were considering an on-screen character but George Lucas wanted a physical pilot on the ship so that the experience would feel more realistic. They ultimately decided that a robot would be a good idea but there were challenges, including how to make the new character likeable to the audience.
Tom Fitzgerald, Disney Imagineer at the time and later the senior creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering, explains in the TV show, “I had to make this character be a little goofy. That raises the stakes of nervousness with the audience.”
Fitzgerald also felt that having the character scream a lot would help the audience feel like the pilot was mostly incapable and therefore the ride was going to be a dangerous one. It would also help make the troubling events that happen in the ride more believable because a better pilot would theoretically not let his ship end up in so much trouble.
So, the Imagineeers created robot RX-24, better known as Captain Rex, not to be confused with Captain Rex from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
To add to the trouble of the flight, Captain Rex would tell the audience that it was his first flight.
Now, they needed someone to voice the role of the nervous robot.
Starwars.fandom.com explains, “Fitzgerald says he thought Reubens might fit the bill after seeing the comedian’s television special as the character Pee-wee Herman.”
Reubens actually already had a connection to Disney in an extremely similar role, which likely contributed to Fitzgerald and others seriously considering him for the project. Reubens voiced the robot commander known as Navigator in the Disney film Flight of the Navigator. The film was released in 1986, the same year that the attraction for Star Tours was being created.
The choice was made. Reubens was perfect for the role. Fitzgerald explained, ”Paul Reubens gave us a character that was akin to Pee-wee Herman. First day, kind of nervous, funny, and great screams.”
Star Tours opened in 1987 inside of Disneyland and the attraction remained for over two decades until they revamped it and created a new Star Tours, better known as Galaxy’s Edge, which allows visitors to fly the Millennium Falcon.
Even though the ride no longer exists, Captain Rex is still sneakily in the park as a bartender in Galaxy’s Edge, though not with any commentary that made him the galaxy’s most awkward robotic pilot.
When the announcement of the ride coming to a close was made, Paul Reubens said — while at a convention dressed as Pee-wee Herman (seen in the video above) — that he was upset but mostly because one of the perks of his voice being used for the ride was that he was allowed to visit Disneyland for free whenever he wanted to and did so often.
You can watch the movie from the original ride, and hear Reuben’s voice as Captain Rex, here on YouTube.
Reubens later reprised RX-24 in the 2014 episode “Droids in Distress” from the series Star Wars Rebels.
Published: Jun 6, 2023 04:34 pm