Building a galaxy far, far away didn’t just happen overnight. When George Lucas was forging his 1977 space epic ‘Star Wars,’ one of the most iconic ships in cinema history looked completely different on day one.
Yep, Han Solo and Chewbacca‘s legendary ship, the Millennium Falcon, was poles apart from what it is today. It was only after a sudden external conflict that Lucas and his team did a complete overhaul, ultimately bringing the most famous and beautiful cinematic piece of junk to life. Here’s everything to know about it.
The Mid-Seventies Television Conflict
Almost every die-hard ‘Star Wars’ fan knows that the man behind the original conceptual look of the franchise’s universe was none other than Ralph McQuarrie. At the beginning of the movie’s production, McQuarrie envisioned Han Solo’s signature ride as a very aerodynamic, slim, and sleek ship.
Related: Harrison Ford Wishes This Embarrassing ‘Star Wars’ Project Never Existed
However, when Lucas and the rest of his crew got to work, they found themselves competing against a British sci-fi series, ‘Space: 1999,’ which had first aired in 1975. The show featured a central craft called Eagle Transport that almost exactly matched McQuarrie’s original draft.
At that time, there was no other popular space adventure in popular culture, and releasing a large-scale movie based on the same model as a television show could have raised copyright issues. Thus, Lucas and his design team had to start their work over and develop a unique model.
What George asked of them was to create something entirely unusual and avoid copying the TV series. The artists at Industrial Light & Magic were tasked with creating an unusual look and making a ship resembling a flying hamburger.
The challenge of designing an original look without copying a contemporary television show fell to a young illustrator, Joe Johnston, who would later become the director of classics like ‘The Rocketeer’ and ‘Jumanji.’
One day, an inspiration struck Johnston when he looked at his own house and saw a stack of dirty plates, realizing that a rough sketch of a space smuggler needs a ride as worn out and defective as himself. With this weathered idea, Johnston created an iconic piece of property that would dominate toy aisles and movies for the next four decades.
The Creative Decision Redefined The Used Galaxy
Luckily, the team’s first attempt didn’t go in vain. Instead, they used the ship’s sleek original design to create the Rebel Blockade Runner Tantive IV, which Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer famously seizes in the opening scene of the 1977 movie.
In Case You Missed It: The Surprising Reason Jodie Foster Said No To 14-Year Old Princess Leia in ‘Star Wars’
And that’s how the artists managed to preserve a great idea while allowing the newly invented Millennium Falcon to remain unique. Thanks to its heavily modified design, the Falcon reflected the revolutionary franchise’s “used universe” concept, creating a believable, dirty, and lived-in galaxy.
It was quite easy for this systemic world-weariness to transform into a plot device, becoming a major part of the storytelling process through several generations. Due to its constant breakdowns, Han Solo searches for the ship’s previous owner, the sophisticated Lando Calrissian, in ‘Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.’
In ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,’ the iconic ship plays a critical role, serving as the Rebel fleet’s command ship during the Battle of Endor. Even decades later in 2018, the prequel ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ explored the ship’s pristine factory origins before Han modified it forever.
In the end, the rush for originality, driven by a television competitor, prevented ‘Star Wars’ from becoming another ordinary sci-fi production. If Lucas chose the slick narrow rocket of his original draft, the cinema would lose the priceless irony of the galaxy’s fastest ship looking like garbage.
You Might Also Like To Read: Cillian Murphy Recruited His Literal “Acting Hero” For ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’
