⚡ R2-D2's Timeline

Prior to 32 BBY - Manufacture

R2-D2 is built by Industrial Automaton as an R2-series astromech droid with masculine programming. Canon gives no construction date, only that he existed before 32 BBY.

32 BBY - Service with the Royal Engineers of Naboo

R2-D2 is in the possession of Naboo's Royal Engineers and assigned as a maintenance droid aboard Queen Padmé Amidala's Royal Starship.

32 BBY - Repairing the Royal Starship

During the escape from the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, R2-D2 is the only astromech to survive repairing the ship's shield generator under fire, allowing the vessel to reach Tatooine. Amidala honors him personally.

32 BBY - Meeting Anakin Skywalker

On Tatooine, R2-D2 meets the slave boy Anakin Skywalker and his protocol droid C-3PO, beginning the galaxy's longest droid partnership.

32 BBY - Battle of Naboo

R2-D2 accompanies Anakin in the starfighter that destroys the Droid Control Ship above Naboo, helping end the occupation.

22 BBY - Separatist Crisis

Now in Padmé Amidala's service as a senator, R2-D2 travels with her to Naboo and Tatooine and follows Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi to Geonosis, where he and C-3PO help rescue them from the execution arena.

22 BBY - The Clone Wars begin

R2-D2 becomes Anakin Skywalker's personal astromech, flying with him aboard his Jedi starfighter for the duration of the war.

~22 BBY - Lost and recovered

R2-D2 is lost in battle and sold to the scavenger Gha Nachkt, who delivers him to General Grievous; Anakin, unwilling to lose a droid carrying unwiped strategic data, mounts a rescue and recovers him from Grievous' listening post.

21 BBY - The Senate hostage crisis

During Cad Bane's raid on the Senate Building, R2-D2 aids the response, but Bane erases the droid's record of the building's ventilation shafts — the only memory wipe, partial at that, R2-D2 ever receives.

19 BBY - Rescue over Coruscant

R2-D2 accompanies Anakin and Obi-Wan aboard the Invisible Hand to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, holding off battle droids and guiding the crippled cruiser's crash landing.

19 BBY - Fall of the Republic

R2-D2 travels to Mustafar with Padmé and witnesses Anakin's fall to the dark side, then escapes aboard the Tantive IV. C-3PO's memory is wiped to protect the secret of the Skywalker twins; R2-D2's is not.

19 BBY to 0 BBY - Service to House Organa

R2-D2 enters the service of Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, retaining full knowledge of the Jedi, the Clone Wars and the Skywalkers throughout the Imperial era.

~5 BBY - Missions for the rebellion

Working covertly for Bail Organa, R2-D2 and C-3PO cross paths with the Spectres rebel cell, including a weapons-acquisition mission that leads to the crew's first encounter with the growing Rebel Alliance.

1 BBY - Yavin 4

R2-D2 is present at the Rebel Alliance's Massassi base during the mobilization that follows the theft of the Death Star plans from Scarif.

0 BBY - Carrying the Death Star plans

Aboard the Tantive IV over Tatooine, Princess Leia Organa loads the Death Star schematics and a plea for help into R2-D2, who escapes by pod with C-3PO and seeks out Obi-Wan Kenobi.

0 BBY - Battle of Yavin

Bought by the Lars family, R2-D2 brings Luke Skywalker into the war, helps rescue Leia from the Death Star, and rides in Luke's X-wing during the trench run that destroys the battle station.

3 ABY - Hoth, Dagobah and Bespin

R2-D2 serves with Rogue Squadron on Hoth, then flies with Luke to Dagobah for his training under Yoda and on to Cloud City, where he restores the damaged Millennium Falcon's hyperdrive to allow their escape.

4 ABY - Jabba's palace and Endor

R2-D2 plays his part in the rescue of Han Solo on Tatooine, concealing Luke's lightsaber aboard the sail barge, then joins the strike team on Endor and is injured shorting the shield bunker's doors during the battle that destroys the second Death Star.

After 4 ABY - The New Republic era

R2-D2 remains with Luke Skywalker through his search for Jedi lore and the founding of his Jedi temple.

9 ABY - Reunion with the Skywalker legacy

R2-D2 accompanies Luke when he answers the call aboard Moff Gideon's cruiser to take Grogu as an apprentice, and later escorts the young Jedi at Luke's temple as he chooses between the Jedi path and Din Djarin.

~28 ABY - Destruction of the temple

After Ben Solo's fall and the razing of Luke's academy, a grieving R2-D2 is left behind and eventually enters a self-imposed low-power mode at the Resistance base on D'Qar.

34 ABY - The map to Luke Skywalker

Roused by BB-8's arrival, R2-D2 awakens and produces the missing portion of the star map, revealing Ahch-To and sending Rey to find Luke Skywalker.

34 ABY - Ahch-To and Crait

R2-D2 travels with the Resistance during the flight from the First Order, replaying Leia's original message to persuade Luke to help, and survives the evacuation of Crait.

35 ABY - The war against the Final Order

R2-D2 supports the Resistance from Ajan Kloss through the Battle of Exegol, restoring C-3PO's wiped memory afterward. He is last recorded alive and active; canon gives no death.