Disney has partnered with Japan’s All Nippon Airways and painted at least one of the airline’s newly acquired Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners to look like R2-D2.
This isn’t the first time a blockbuster movie franchise has teamed with an airline for a flying billboard. Air New Zealand painted several Boeing 777s and 747s for director Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies.
But ANA is hyping its new livery like it has no prequel, saying it “marks the first time a Star Wars character will appear on the exterior of a commercial aircraft.” The company haslaunched a new website—complete with theme music—dedicated to the R2-D2 jet, which it says will fly on international routes this autumn and is part of a five-year “Star Wars Project” that “will connect Japan to the global market.”
