Today is August 9th, 2020, and it has been 15 years since the passing of Katie Johnson, the daughter of 501st Legion founder Albin Johnson. 

After Katie was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, her sister, Allie, was inspired by the scene from Attack of the Clones where R2-D2 is standing guard over the sleeping Padmé.  Allie imagined Katie having her own astromech nearby to keep her safe.  The idea gained traction, and eventually the R2 Builder’s Club created a life sized version of just such a droid.  R2-KT stayed with Katie until she passed in 2005.

In honor of Katie and the efforts of her father in founding the philanthropic 501st Legion, Hasbro teamed up with Lucasfilm to create this action figure of R2-KT, which debuted at SDCC in 2007.  $100,000 was raised for the Make-a-Wish foundation.  The figure is in special packaging, and includes a “baseball” card of Katie.

R2-KT made several short appearances in Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars animated series.  Later, there was an arc involving “D-Squad”, a group of droids serving the Republic on a secret mission.  R2-KT was originally supposed to be one of the droids, but the creative team felt that viewers might be confused thinking it was R2-D2 in disguise.  Instead, they create a “stand-in” called QT-KT, who was also pink but had markings that were more distinctive.  This droid was a nod to Katie as well. 

R2-KT did make a few cameos on D’Qar in The Force Awakens.  The astromech can be seen in the background in several shots of the Resistance base