How the adorable 'Star Wars' BB-8 droid went from movie magic to real life toy

In a unique story behind the magic of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens film, Disney's top executive played a pivotal role in bringing one character to life.

New Star Wars droid BB-8 revealed as a real-life puppet

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Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger shared the history behind how the new volleyball-looking droid seen in the trailers, named BB-8, came to be after he was inspired by a toy from the startup toy company Sphero. In an interview with The New York Times, Iger explained that Sphero has been selected to participate in the Disney Accelerator program which seeks to pair entrepreneurs with Disney's senior executives.

While BB-8 was made possible with a lot of movie magic, the complicated design just wasn't practical for real-life interaction like R2-D2 or C-3PO. On set, BB-8 is a prop built on rollers and controlled by a puppeteer.

"You would see this guy pushing BB-8 around, actually controlling BB-8, but he gets the equivalent of airbrushed out," Iger told the New York Times.

"What are we going to do with walk-around characters?" Iger told The New York Times, referring to the real-life costume characters that roam the Disney theme parks. "You've got to have walk-around characters for BB-8, right?"

After playing with Sphero's smartphone-controlled robotic ball in his office, Iger thought this technology could bring the often talked about BB-8 droid to life outside the movie.

Iger said he asked Sphero if they could solve the problem, and they delivered him a real-life BB-8 prototype, which Iger said was "brilliant."

Iger then connected Sphero to Disney's consumer products division, which immediately set to work on making BB-8 an interactive toy available this holiday season. At the Star Wars Celebration event in Anaheim, director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy revealed the real-life version of BB-8.

One diehard fan who couldn't wait for the movie's release decided to make his BB-8 toy out of a Sphero robotic ball

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Iger said a much bigger version of BB-8 will be seen in the Disney theme parks around the world soon.

Bob Iger's interview at Star Wars Celebration

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The Walt Disney Company is the parent organization of both Lucasfilm and this station.