EG-9

EG-9 was an ancient labor droid who was mainstay of Mos Espa spaceport on the desert planet Tatooine.^[1] It was working on a moisture vaporator shortly before the annual Boonta Eve Classic podrace^[2] of the year 32 BBY.^[3] EG-9 was cobbled together from at least three different models of droids, including a salvaged Temirca droid head with a broken antenna, a Montoro serving drone body, repair worker arms, and wheels scavenged from a Verpine G9 droid. It was given an orange paint job with silver highlights for maximum visibility, and had gray photoreceptors. EG-9 had a broken antenna attached to the left side of its head.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

EG-9 was originally created for the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. However, its short,^[4] humorous scene, while scripted^[5] and included in early cuts,^[4] was left out of the final version of the film.^[5]

The Star Wars Legends reference book Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary, written by David West Reynolds^[6] and released on May 26, 1999,^[7] used an image of EG-9 to depict an unidentified droid,^[6] which later appeared, unnamed, in Podracing Tales, an online comic published on StarWars.com on December 19, 2000.^[2] This droid was only explicitly identified as EG-9 in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary, a revised edition of Star Wars: Episode I The Visual Dictionary written by Jason Fry^[1] and released on January 16, 2012,^[8] making the character canon within the Legends continuity.^[1]

EG-9's likeness was again recycled as the Trade Federation MED-47 medical droid featured in the 2001 video game Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds.^[9]

Deleted scene[]

"They must be important if the Viceroy sent one of those useless protocol gearheads to greet them."
"A Republic cruiser! That's trouble…don't you think?"
"I'm not made to think."

―PK-4 and EG-9, in a scene deleted from The Phantom Menace^[10]

EG-9's deleted scene from The Phantom Menace was included in Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace Illustrated Screenplay,^[10] released on May 3, 1999,^[11] which also featured a storyboard of the scene from the Lucasfilm Archives.^[10] An animatic of the scene, dubbed "Trash Talking Droids," was later included in the 2011 Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set,^[12]

The scene features EG-9 stationed aboard^[10] the Trade Federation flagship Saak'ak. When the Republic cruiser Radiant VII^[1] arrives carrying Jedi ambassadors Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi shortly before the Invasion of Naboo, EG-9 and fellow worker droid PK-4 watch the docking bay from a nearby hallway. PK-4 assumes the Jedi are important when Viceroy Nute Gunray sends TC-14,^[10] whom the droids^[5] consider a "useless protocol gearhead," to greet them. When EG-9 notices the Jedi's ship belongs to the Galactic Republic, he asks if PK-4 thinks it could mean trouble, to which the other droid responds that he is not made to think.^[10]

PK-4 and EG-9, in a storyboard of a deleted scene from *The Phantom Menace*

With regards to Star Wars Legends, Lucasfilm considered the deleted scenes of the prequel trilogy films to be canon, unless they conflicted with story details from the films themselves.^[13] EG-9's deleted scene shows the droid to be part of the Trade Federation,^[10] which The Phantom Menace establishes has no presence on Tatooine,^[14] while The Phantom Menace: The Expanded Visual Dictionary states that EG-9 is a "mainstay" of that desert planet.^[1] Given these conflicting elements, this article treats EG-9's deleted scene as non-canon.