BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4)– A Boulder-based tech startup is in charge of bringing BB-8, an R2-D2 like droid in the new Star Wars, to life. And quite possibly put one in the hands of Star Wars fans everywhere.

“This is a rather unusual situation where a big media giant reaches out to a small, Boulder-based startup,” said Rob Maigret, the Chief Creative Officer at Sphero.

Sphero has been making a smartphone-controlled ball for the last four years.

“The story of the company is really the story of this ball,” said Maigret.

Disney picked Sphero to be a part of Disney Accelerator, which pairs entrepreneurs with Disney senior officials. Those officials at the time were finishing work on the latest episode of Star Wars, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

“The new Star Wars movie was well into production and they had developed a character that was very similar in form factor and to some extent in personality,” said Maigret when talking about Sphero.

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It was a match made in heaven, or more accurately, the stars.

Now the Boulder-based company will be making apple-sized BB-8s. While they can’t give details on that, they do say their goal is that fans will be able to take home a little piece of the Star Wars universe.

Maigret said this is just the beginning, “There might be a point in the near future where if I hand you this ball, it might not react well because it’s a little scared.”

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The BB-8s are expected to be on store shelves by Christmas 2015.

Additional Resources

See BB-8 onstage during Star Wars Celebration 2015 in the video clip below: