Our giant countdown timer edges ever closer to December 18th, 2015 and the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

For those keeping score, as of writing, we are 192 days from release. That's 4,627 hours or 277,664 minutes.

As we've parsed through and analysed every milisecond of footage in the first trailer from a couple of months ago, we're now feeling withdrawal symptoms for any kind of new imagery or scoop on Star Wars.

All that changed a little while ago when this image came through that shows our first look at C3PO.

Check it out.

He's got a red arm. How'd that happen? Let's begin our wild, unhinged fan theorising by saying that Threepio didn't turn up in either trailer - although Anthony Daniels is confirmed to reprise his role as Threepio.

The most logical explanation is that, y'know, rust got the better of him. After all, The Force Awakens will be set almost 40 years after Return of the Jedi so it's only right that his arm might have got a bit scummy and crappy through the years.

But what if his arm was bitten off by the Sarlaac when he... returned to Tattooine? To save Boba Fett? Because, wait for it, Threepio was actually a sleeper agent that was sent by Jango Fett to keep an eye on Anakin Skywalker because he knew he was going to be giving his son, Boba Fett, a bit of work.

And, like, Threepio is actually the one that raised Boba Fett. It all makes sense now.

In that scene in Return of the Jedi when he sees Threepio and Artoo in front of Jabba, he walks over and just sort of watches them. Maybe it was jogging his memory that he was raised by Threepio.

IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW.

G-guys...? Where'd everyone go?

 

Via Twitter