Star Wars (film) inspired by the silver female robot Maria, the "Maschinenmensch" from Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis". The film was originally released in 1977 with the title ""Star Wars"". The subtitles "Episode IV" and "A New Hope" were only added to the opening crawl in subsequent re-releases. Official sources state that the change was made at the theatrical re-release of April 10, 1981. The retroactive addition of these subtitles was intended to bring the film into line with the introduction to its sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back", which was released in 1980 bearing the designation ""Episode V"". Lucas has claimed to have
C-3PO C-3PO C-3PO () or See-Threepio is a humanoid robot character from the "Star Wars" franchise who appears in the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Built by Anakin Skywalker, C-3PO was designed as a protocol droid intended to assist in etiquette, customs, and translation, boasting that he is "fluent in over six million forms of communication". Along with his astromech droid counterpart and friend R2-D2, C-3PO provides comic relief within the narrative structure of the films, and serves as a foil. Anthony Daniels has portrayed the character in ten of eleven "Star Wars" cinematic films released to