Star Wars: The Force Awakens Inspired by Ralph McQuarrie Concepts
The fingerprints of Ralph McQuarrie, the original Star Wars triology’s visual architect, can be [...]
The fingerprints of Ralph McQuarrie, the original Star Wars triology's visual architect, can be found all over the new teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
SlashFilm has gone through Friday's debut trailer, and found that several of the film's cues were taken from the concepts McQuarrie cooked up way back in the 1970s. Indeed, it seems that director J.J. Abrams is using McQuarrie's visual bible as his own Force in crafting The Force Awakens.
1) The Original R2-D2 Returns
McQuarrie's original design for R2-D2, a half-domed operating system atop of a rotating sphere, was passed for the "trashcan" look that fans recognize today. However, it looks like McQuarrie's design is getting a second life with the new droid introduced in the Awakens trailer. Abrams' version definitely emphasizes the design's sphere, but the idea of a roller-droid remains intact.
2)Flame-Sabers
In the original drawings of Star Wars' weapon of choice—the lightsaber—McQuarrie envisioned the swords like blades of fire, far less constricted than the light beams that eventually made it into the films. It doesn't look like The Force Awakens will completely go back to that form, but the lightsaber shown in the trailer looks far more fiery than anything we've seen in the past.
3) Rebel Chic
The goggles that Daisy Ridley's character rocks in the Force Awakens trailer have similar shape and size to those found in McQuarrie's original character concepts. In fact, those goggles once belonged to a female version of Luke Skywalker (or at the time, Starkiller) that George Lucas had penned in an early draft of A New Hope. Lucas then asked McQuarrie to draft some designs for his lady Star Killer, making way for the goggles we finally see today.
SlashFilm caught several other great comparisons, which you should check out on their website.
Just how deep into McQuarrie's archives will J.J. Abrams go? We'll find out on December 18th, 2015, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters.