Is BB-8’s Name Yet Another Reference to The Beastie Boys in Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Back in early September one of our Cantina members found an interesting connection between the name of the X-Wing pilot Ello Asty from The Force Awakens and the American hip hop band from New York City. But could there be yet another more obvious reference to The Beastie Boys in the movie that we overlooked?
First, if you missed our discussion in The Cantina about Ello Asty here’s a brief recap:
Back in July we showed you an actual photo with an alien X-Wing pilot with the production name Bullhead. Later when the toy for the character was released, it was revealed that his name is Ello Asty. Also the toy packaging showed us that his helmet has the phrase “born to ill” written on it in Aurebesh.
Back then our forum members immediately spotted the connection between the two. If you add an H and N to his name it becomes “Hello Nasty”, the name of the 1998 Beastie Boys album. Also they had an album named “Licensed to Ill”, which links with the writing on the helmet.
J.J. Abrams is a known Beastie Boys fan. He even used their song “Sabotage” in the first Star Trek film, causing some controversy since it was uncommon to use a well know popular song in such movie. Later it was revealed that Abrams used the song probably as a nod to William Shatner who had a long history of mispronouncing the word sabotage.
Could there be another more obvious Beastie Boys reference in The Force Awakens?
In an interview from a few months ago J.J. Abrams revealed that he came up with the idea of BB-8’s name himself. He stated that he picked it because of the droid’s round and bouncy look:
I named him BB-8 because it was almost onomatopoeia. It was sort of how he looked to me, with the 8, obviously, and then the two B’s.
Now this could be just a coincidence, but there seems to be a connection between BB-8 and Beastie Boys. The BB letters are no brainer, but there is an interesting fact about the number 8. That’s the number of albums that Beastie Boys released during their whole career from 1986 to 2011.
What do you think? Is BB-8’s name another reference to The Beastie Boys or is this just a coincidence?
Thanks to Keith Knapp for the heads up.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
I think you are putting too much thought into this. Couldn’t it be BEACH BALL or BOWLING BALL – 8
Or that its shaped like a “BB”?(as in BB-Gun)
Coincidence
Licenced to Ill is a kick ass album.
Please, for the love of god, no more earth references. This is a galaxy far, far away. My biggest gripe with the prequels was the aliens having earth accents and it completely takes you out of the moment. Now there are Beastie Boys references? It’s not funny or cute. Just stop already.
Just force yourself to suspend your sense of disbelief in everything your arch and STFU and stop complaining. Not everything is about you.
Wow, you deduced all of that from one post? Look at you go… Well done little fella. Here’s a pat on the head and a gold star for your stellar detective work.
Hey, if you’re okay with characters called Ello Asty will Born to Ill stamped on their helmet then more power to you. Maybe you should raise your standards a bit. Or you can keep on insulting people from behind your keyboard. That works too.
Earth accents? Do we even know what alien accents would be like? Or do you mean that everyone that speaks basic should have the same accent? Because I’m pretty sure that non-native English speakers still have a pronounced accent.
How about subtitles and speaking in alien languages like they did in the OT? Instead we get Jamaican Gunguns and Asian Nemoidians. Tell me Jar Jar would not have been less annoying if he had been subtitled? So yes, there were earth accents in there that felt terribly out of place.
You said accents, not languages. Basic is the English of the Star Wars Galaxy. It only makes sense they would speak with an accent when speaking basic.
I agree with you that the Gungans had a ridiculous accent.
But accents are different than languages.
Admiral Akbar spoke “basic” with what you call an earth-accent in the OT. I do agree, I would have much prefered subtitled aliens, but its not something that originated with the Prequels.
Yeah that’s a stretch
WOW….. are we getting a little bored with non info lately? That’s a very long reach…. lol
Big Booty – 8
Just as long as they keep all the references subtle. I never would have bothered to translate that helmet so I probably would have been better not knowing that, but as long as I never hear any real earth songs or anything I’ll be fine
The new Cantina scene will feature the song Intergalactic with a trio of rapping Biths
I thought it stood for big booty as well
Big Booty Baby
Well, at least the Shatner/sabotage pronunciation part was an interesting little factoid I never knew before …. Turns out he pronounces it Sabataage
Must be a Canadian thing?
haha, I like it
Apparently BB has a wild side
Apophenia – is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data.
Long as we don’t get alien hip hop, I think Jedi Rocks filled the campy Star Wars music quota for one lifetime.
Don’t forget about MC3PO
you sir, can drop the mic.
BB8 has the entire Beastie Boys catalog in his data banks.
Ello Asty isn’t a Beastie Boys ref… ELLO ASTY = EL OH ES TEE = L O S T
Except not. His helmet says “BORN TO ILL” in Aurebesh, which is confirmation that it’s a Beastie Boys reference.
Definitely, also a double meaning… I’m just saying everyone is getting carried away with BB ref and not seeing the LOST ref… Typical JJ with 101 meanings to everything!!
I don’t know who is right but i like it 😉
Oooor, is a B.B. King reference because the singer died in May 14, the birth date of Robert Zemeckis, who is a Spielberg’s friend, whos is Lucas’s and J.J.’s friend, and both have directed a Star wars film. And two days before of principal photography of TFA, and AOTC release date, and one day before ROTS release date (in Cannes), and eleven days before ROTJ release date and…
Nathanial Hörnblowér had all the ideas for Star Wars and everything!
I thought it was because of the texting shorthand BB for baby.
I always figured the BB just stood for ‘beach ball’ and the 8 as JJ Abrams said for the overall shape.
I like to see the Star Wars/Batman/Star Trek triangle being completed. With, next to some extreme small nods, the connection between Star Wars and Star Trek not being solid (the Tumbler is on the Falcon and Mark is voice Joker). Since I’m a fan of the Beastie Boys for a long long time, this coming in from the side is a nice surprise!
It’s the Beastie Biths