Syfy’s Robot Combat League Impresses Robot Afficionado George Lucas
George Lucas likes robots. That seems like an obvious statement, right? Mechanized automatons have figured prominently in many of his most well-known films, especially the Star Wars franchise (not so much American Graffiti). But even a man who, as far back as decades ago, spent a great deal of time envisioning the future evolution of robotics was taken aback by how far the technology has come, especially as it relates to the upcoming Syfy series, Robot Combat League.
You get the general idea behind the show from the title. It’s framed as a competition where a pair of robots duke it out, directed by a team of human controllers and engineers. If this sounds similar to the Hugh Jackman movie Real Steel, that’s because it is pretty much the exact same thing.
Lucas’ daughter, Amanda, is one of the human contestants on the show, which is hosted by professional wrestler, and author, Chris Jericho. When Lucas stopped by the set, the level of sophistication and technology of the robots impressed the tech-savvy filmmaker. Talking to Showrenity, Jericho recounts the meeting:
George Lucas came down. His daughter’s one of the contestants. She’s an actual MMA fighter [holding a 5-1 professional record]. And I asked him what it was like to see his vision from forty years ago come to life like this? And he said that the fact that technology has gotten to this point blows his mind.
You know you’re doing something right if George Lucas praises your robots. After all, the man gave the universe R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Jericho also goes on to joke about his, and the show’s, role in the impending robot takeover of humanity: “And now that we have fighting robots, in twenty years they’ll probably destroy the human race. Just remember that you saw them on Syfy first. This is where Skynet starts…”
So now we know, when the shit hits the fan, blame Syfy and Chris Jericho.
