Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon might be one of the most iconic ships in the history of cinema, however, the YT 1300 Corellian Freighter might have looked quite different before Lucasfilm settled on the ship’s eye-catching and recognizable design.
Generation Tech has gone on to explain the conception of the Millenium Falcon in a Star Wars YouTube video, and in it, fans get to learn more about what was supposed to be a regular utilitarian ship.
Before the name Millenium Falcon was made up during the middle of A New Hope’s production, Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) ship was simply referred to as the Pirate Starship, designated as the TD-F104, a Corellian Gypsy vessel.
Early notes for A New Hope indicated that the Pirate ship’s design would share the same appearance as the blockade runner, having a shape similar to a rocket ship.
A few iterations afterword, the design for the Millenium Falcon changed to something like the Discovery 1 of Stanley Kubrick’s Space Odyssey. To avoid imitating such a recognizable ship from, Lucasfilm’s concept designers decided to bulk up the Falcon.
However, as the design reached completion, the ship’s design ended up looking quite similar to Space 1999’s Eagle Transport. Georg Lucas wasn’t happy with the outcome of the ship, and the team had to start work on the design all over again, despite spending $25,000 on the model for the Millenium Falcon. Toying around with the idea of having a saucer-shaped ship, rumor has it that Lucas got the idea for the Millenium Falcon’s iconic design from a hamburger that he had taken a bite out of. Eventually agreeing on the side cockpit, Lucasfilm finally got the Millenium Falcon’s final design which has went on to influence other ships in the Star Wars franchise.
It might have taken the studio quite a while to get to the iconic design of the YT 1300, but we’re all pretty glad that the team took the trouble to find the perfect, original design for the ship. With a center acting as a hub where the Han, Chewie, Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) could gather together, the Millenium Falcon felt like a home.
We’ll all get to see the Millenium Falcon again once Star Wars: The Last Jedi premieres on December 15, 2017.
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