While the original Star Wars trilogy contains many known Mandela Effects, few stand out as much as C3PO’s silver leg. It’s a glaring alteration that steals the focus once it’s pointed out. Where did that come from? Was it always like? And it’s not only present in A New Hope. It’s there in Empire Strikes Back. It’s there in Return of the Jedi. And supposedly, it always has been.
If you’re visiting this site, though, you probably know better. C3PO did not always have one silver leg. At least, for many of us. While we now perceive that one silver leg in our current space-time reality, somewhere out there, he still has two gold legs. We just can’t currently see it when we watch Star Wars. But, as is the case with most Mandela Effects, some evidence of his two gold legs still exists right here. In fact, it is some of the best evidence I’ve seen that we are witness to two branching realities.
In 1977, with measles on the rise in America, the Carter Administration backed a plan to increase vaccinations. Part of that plan included producing Public Service Announcements. And given Star Wars’ success, they decided to incorporate it into their public push. There’s an entire article going over the history, but here’s the most important excerpt:
Shillingford: When I got to Elstree Studios, I got one of the Star Wars sets out of the Elstree stockroom. I’d only worked briefly on the sets when I did the Making of, so I didn’t recognize the set or anything. I just pulled something out of the stockroom and said, “That’ll do,” and that was the set we used.
After that, I went to the stock room where they kept C-3PO and R2-D2 and the gold fellow was a bit dirty. I called George up and said, “George, he’s a bit grubby, shall I clean him down?” George screamed on the phone — and George doesn’t scream — “No! No! Leave him exactly as he is!” He wanted that sort of used, abused look. If I’d cleaned him up, I might have been in trouble.
The actors were both great. I’d looked after Anthony Daniels a bit when I was in Africa. He was quite grumpy then, but who wouldn’t be in that suit? I mean, he’s spent half his life in that bloody thing, so you could understand. For this commercial though, he was very pleasant. Then we put the little fellow, Kenny [Baker], into the tin can and he was just a lovely, lovely man. He was absolutely perfect, an absolute star. He kept the whole unit in laughs, and he also scared the daylights out of my mother because he tried to jump into her lap. He was wonderful.
The filming went very, very well and it only took the one day. C-3PO was recorded live on set and we only did a few takes. It all went very smoothly. I had nothing to do with the post production myself. After I shot it, I heard not a word about it.
So, given this testimony, we know that the suit that was used in the PSA was the exact suit from the film, intentionally left unaltered. Now, here is the PSA:
Notice that C3PO has two gold legs in the PSA. And yes, he’s also got them in the behind the scenes image and in the official poster for the campaign.
Remember, this is the suit George Lucas insisted remain unchanged for the PSA. It’s the same suit from the films. And why wouldn’t it be? Who would expect that they’d create an entirely different suit just for a PSA? Yet that is what you would have to believe if you’re in denial of the Mandela Effect. Because in the PSA, C3PO has two gold legs.
How can it be that if the same suit was used in both Star Wars and this PSA, one presents C3PO with a silver leg and one does not? You just read in that excerpt from an oral history that it was the same suit. They didn’t clean it up. They didn’t switch out a leg. It was the same. Only the workings of the Mandela Effect provide an answer. In one time-space reality, C3PO had two gold legs. In the other, he had one silver leg. For reasons yet to be determined, the C3PO from the reality with one gold leg inhabits the movies while the C3PO from the reality with two gold legs remains in the PSA. BUT WAIT–THERE’S MORE
And by more, I mean a second PSA. This one aired in 1980, around the time The Empire Strikes Back was released. Take a look:
That’s right. C3PO has two gold legs in this anti-smoking PSA. And remember, C3PO now has a silver leg in every movie of the original trilogy. So what do you believe? Did they make a second suit with two gold legs for this PSA? Or did they use the suit from the films?
There’s no oral history for this one. But it does not make sense that they would create a totally new or different suit for the PSA. Of course they used the one from the film. Yet it also does not make sense that the suit we see in the film has one silver leg while the suit in the PSA does not. At least, it doesn’t if you rule out the Mandela Effect.
C3PO has two gold legs. C3PO has a silver leg and a gold leg. Both possibilities exist. In the films, we see one, In the PSAs, we see another. Neither is right nor wrong. But what you see now may not be what you grew up with.