Alan Tudyk will forever be known as Wash from the short-lived, but much loved, TV series, Firefly. But since then, the actor and voice performer has become part of many other film universes. Most of his work in recent years has been as a voice actor and in that role he's made regular appearances for Walt Disney Animation Studios and he was even the voice of Iago in the recent live-action version of Aladdin.
However Alan Tudyk's most popular role of the last few years is probably another outer space based character, the droid K-2SO from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. For May the Fourth, the voice actor combined his two galactic roles into one great scene, where K-2SO reenacts what is probably Wash's most popular moment from Firefly. Check it out.
The scene us actually the introduction of Wash in the Firefly series. We see him in the pilot's chair of the Serenity playing with his toy dinosaurs. The dialogue in the clip is exactly what we hear Wash say, only this time, it's K-2SO, and instead of playing with dinosaurs, he's got Stormtrooper action figures. Because apparently, even within the Star Wars universe, merchandise is a thing. I suppose it's the equivalent of playing with green army men in real life?
It's a funnier scene, if only because K-2SO is not a character you'd expect to see playing with toys. Or at least, he'd make very sure nobody caught him doing it.
If you liked the clip, you can thank Industrial Light & Magic. In a tweet posted by ILM director Hal Hickel, we learn that animator Maureen Seng, who was also an animator on Rogue One itself, is the one who created the digital short.
I'm certainly not the first person to say it, but it's still remarkable just how popular Firefly is for a TV show that didn't last a complete season nearly two decades ago. Even if you're not directly familiar with this scene, odds are you know it by reputation. It's a moment that gets frequently quoted and meme'd. It's also surprising how it seems literally nobody has ever gotten over what happened to Wash in Serenity.
While we're not likely in store for more Firefly anytime soon, we are going to get more K-2SO. Alan Tudyk has been confirmed to return as the voice of the sardonic droid in the new Disney+ series that will follow Diego Luna's Cassian Andor in a period prior to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Of course, the truth is that's about all we know about the show at this point, and with production on that series stalled out along with everything else, it might be some time before we learn any more.
At least one of Alan Tudyk's characters will return, despite having met an unfortunate fate in their previous big screen adventure.
