A Retro Starship Based on Early STAR WARS Concept Art Will Appear in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

We already know that Solo: A Star Wars Story will feature a very different looking Millennium Falcon that is inspired more by the original design from artist Ralph McQuarrie. Now there's another starship inspired by a retro design from 1974 that will be appearing in the film. This new ship is called the Arrestor Cruiser, and fans noticed that there's a Solo toy for it.

This is an early Star Wars design from concept artist Colin Cantwell, who is the guy responsible for designing the X-Wings, TIE Fighters, Death Star, and several other ships in the film. 

After the fans started calling it out, Cantwell confirmed that the new ship is actually based on his design, which he points out is an early design for the Star Destroyer. He also includes a side by side image showing the toy that features the updated design of the ship. In the posts below, the artist talks about the design of the ship and collaborating with George Lucas on them.

There are no details on what the ship will be used for or how it will be utilized in the story but it's pretty awesome to see that the creative team went digging into some early concept art and pulled this out to use in Solo.

The creation of the #Stardestroyer - I asked George about the scenes. We had a few words in which he described the scenes. I then asked "Is it bigger than Burbank?" to determine the size of the Imperial Cruiser and the opening scenes of the movie. The hatch concept was developed in terms of the need of actual scenes later in the movie. In the opeing I was describing something WWII-ish of a concept with a gunner in the fuscelage. The ship was designed with a lot of thought on what the viewer would experience related to the massiveness of the ship. This involved thinking of things and creating relationships between all of the ships and their interactions with each other. George and I also discussed several other topics in which I asked qualifying questions. This gave me enough information to start designing the ships. It also gave him the information to continue with his work. I was separate from George for most of that time and worked on the final products alone. I started by creating what had to be in the middle and things were added on and so forth. I basically designed this ship and other ships around the function and the impact of the ship on the viewer. The sequence of function and the emotion and it had to feel like it was already there. When starting on a ship, I never did know what it would look like by the end. PS - those fighters in the concept illustration were the original imperial attack ships. I didn't create the #TIE until much later. See the other concepts at www.cantwellcollection.com

A post shared by Colin Cantwell (@colin_cantwell) on Feb 13, 2018 at 3:58pm PST

Very exciting! #solo will feature my original concept for the #stardestroyer. I absolutely can not wait to see her on the silver screen. See this 1974 concept and others at www.cantwellcollection.com and even purchase autographed copies (if there are any left). #royaltiesplease #arrestorcruiser #starwars #colincantwell Questions I've heard so far - What are the radar dishes for? Originally anti-ship / space-to-land lasers, now likely tractor beams. Did I know ahead of time? Nope. News to me Am I getting a payday? Very unlikely unless you all buy prints on my website Why did I make such an ugly ship? Can't please everyone. The ships talk to me and mostly design themselves. I did help redesign her later on, but this concept still holds a special place in my mind

A post shared by Colin Cantwell (@colin_cantwell) on Feb 19, 2018 at 10:26am PST

Via: Inverse