It’s 5:17 PM where I am right now. I’ve been revising the script for a video all day and wanted to take some time to write this article.

Earlier today, I received news that Tony Dyson, the man who brought our beloved R2-D2 to life, has passed away. And as I thought about it, I began to remember my first time watching Star Wars, and seeing Artoo rolling away from Threepio. I began to feel nostalgic, I thought about some of the BTS footage I’d previously seen of how Artoo came together and I remember being amazed by the entirety of the process. It was something that inspired me and motivated me to do some of things that I do today.

It is now 5:34 PM and I have just stood up to look at the sunset. It was nothing short of a Luke Skywalker moment.

Sometimes I ask myself, what exactly makes Star Wars what it is today? And today is a day where I feel like I have an answer to that question. You see, it’s not about the special effects, or the actors, or one man’s vision. It’s about people coming together to tell a great story that reflects upon the struggles and triumphs that we as a species have faced since the dawn of humanity. This collaboration, this collective of an institution in which people create, and re-create things in cooperation with each other in order to reach milestones in the art form of visual storytelling, is vital to our continuity. These are the stories that we will tell our children, and our childrens’ children.

Some may have viewed Tony Dyson as a someone who played a small roll in the scheme of it all, but I believe that each and every person involved with the production of these films, is crucial to the machine overall. Without Tony, it wouldn’t have been the same.

Thank you Tony Dyson, may you rest eternally as one with the Force…