'Rogue One' star Alan Tudyk talks about his droid with a 'tude

While Alan Tudyk's Rogue One character is a droid that has already been compared to the iconic C-3PO-due to his manner of speaking-there is one important distinction.

K-2SO, who Tudyk refers to as K-2, is much more physically formidable.

In fact, if one recalls the classic scene in the original Star Wars where Han Solo advises C-3PO to let the Wookie, Chewbacca, win a hologram game "'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookies are known to do that." Well, it's clear when you see him on screen, that K-2SO would have felt comfortable beating the Wookie both before and after the game, if need be!

"Yes, he is very different," said Tudyk, while talking with me at a Rogue One press event in San Francisco. "I think the Star Wars movies have always introduced new and interesting droids-I mean, BB-8 (from last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is his own character as well."

"It's just a new droid," he continued. "K-2 is a former enforcer droid, so he has the ability to enforce and be a threat if he needs to be. But he's also a product of his reprogram, which has left him a little bit more candid than the more subservient droids we've seen. He has his own opinion about things."

"There was one scene that was cut from the movie, where a soldier says, 'Droid! Get cargo and bring it up to that ridge!' and (K-2) just says, 'No. But you can do that if you like', Tudyk laughs. "He just does what he wants."

Tudyk said that although he has been a part of huge movies, from Frozen to the current Disney blockbuster Moana, he was surprised to be cast in Rogue One-and almost turned it down.

"First, I got a call from (Rogue One director) Gareth Edwards. He said he wanted to talk to me about a droid in the new 'Star Wars' and I thought he wanted to discuss it because I had done (the 2005 film) I, Robot and I knew what it was like to be a CGI robot for a film and there haven't been a lot of people who have done (that). So, I just talked to him very cordially, never thinking I would get this role."

"But he wanted to meet me," Tudyk continued. "So I went to the 'Star Wars Celebration' in Anaheim and he showed me all of his pictures and told me about the script-and it started to dawn on me that he wouldn't be showing me all this stuff and not offering something in this movie, because I knew too much! So, then he just asked very casually, 'Do you want to do it?'"

At which point, Tudyk almost turned down a 'Star Wars' movie.

"I actually gave this stipulation, like a crazy person now that i think about it," he laughed. "I would do it-except I was doing this show called Con Man about this sci-fi world and sci-fi fans gave me $2 million to make the show and I'm like, 'I'm already in pre-production. I can't just bail on this."

"Of course, if there was ever a group of fans that would have understood my putting it off, it would have been sci-fi fans to go do a 'Star Wars' movie! But luckily, I didn't have to make that choice."

While K-2SO can be humorous, he has a serious brothers-in-arms bond with Diego Luna's Captain Cassian Andor.

"He was paired with Cassian, before the movie took place, and so Cassian is a soldier and a very serious soldier working for the Alliance," Tudyk said. "He was his partner in these missions-you get a taste of those and they're dangerous and clandestine. He's a partner, in a way-but also very protective of Cassian."

"So, when these other characters start to come around, he doesn't like it," Tudyk continued. "He'd rather be with just Cassian and so he doesn't embrace them immediately-Jyn (Erso, leader of the team) especially. He thinks she's trouble. His feeling is if they all left, he'd be fine with it."

Tudyk, who has been going to comic conventions since 2003, thanks to roles in the short-lived Joss Whedon shows Firefly and Dollhouse, says he will be looking forward to answering new questions from new fans, rather than the same questions about a Firefly reunion and the like.

"I'm really excited about going to cons after this," he said. "It just means going to new cons, meeting more people. It's part of the fabric of my being at this point. It's awesome!"