So iconic is George Lucas' ex-favourite character that countless other makers of science fiction have chosen to include him in their own films, often in ways so subtle that most of us don't even notice. R2 has been popping up in other films since the year the first Star Wars film was released, with his first cameo seeing him hanging from the underside of the mothership in 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Since R2 wasnt the pop culture icon he is today back in the late 70s, this was more of a pre-nod from director and friend Steven Spielberg, who saw how massive Star Wars would become before George Lucas himself. Spielberg also referenced his good buddy's work in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, with tiny hieroglyphic versions of R2-D2 and C-3PO appearing briefly over Indie's shoulder in the Well of Souls. That's not all though - R2 has even appeared on screen in Star Wars' historical rival. J.J. Abrams was determined to shoehorn some Star Wars into his films years before he signed on to direct The Force Awakens, even if the film at hand was his Star Trek reboot. R2-D2 can be seen in both Star Trek (2009) and the sequel Into Darkness (2013), as part of the wreckage after the USS Enterprise warps to Vulcan and as part of debris from an explosive decompression as the USS Vengeance attacks the Enterprise respectively
