Rian Johnson Reveals the Big Change to Poe Dameron's 'The Last Jedi' X-Wing

09/07/2017 08:29 pm EDT

To the delight of some and dismay of others, The Force Awakens tapped into many familiar Star Wars elements, both with its narrative and its themes. Set years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the film also featured familiar looking ships, but writer/director of The Last Jedi Rian Johnson revealed to Empire that Resistance pilot Poe Dameron's ship has a few tricks up its sleeves of which the Rebellion would surely be envious.

In the magazine's cover story, they explain, "The X-Wing, according to Rian Johnson, has been specially modified by Resistance engineers, with a temporary accelerator pod affixed to the aft section. According to The Last Jedi director, the pod, when primed, increases Dameron's speed, allowing him to outrun First Order cannon emplacements. It's just a temporary boost and will burn out quickly but it's enough to get beyond the barrage of turbo laser fire from First Order Star Destroyers such as the one depicted in the image."

From this description, it sounds like Johnson took a page from the Fast and the Furious playbook to give the X-Wing a boost of NOS when the situation turns dire.

This is only the latest in a string of announcements about improvements to familiar ships that will be featured in The Last Jedi.

Earlier this week, we learned details of Supreme Leader Snoke's Mega Star Destroyer, known as the Supremacy. The Supremacy is the only ship to be considered in the "Mega" class, a moniker it certainly deserves, reportedly measuring 37 miles in width.

In August, we caught glimpses of two additions to The First Order's artillery, the AT-M6 and the First Order Dreadnought.

The AT-M6 looks quite similar to the AT-ATs that were introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, but it has received an upgrade in firepower. The new vehicle continues the tradition of being capable of covering all terrains, earning its name of "All-Terrain Megacaliber Six."

The First Order Dreadnought, while not as large as Snoke's Supremacy, measures out to be over 25,000 feet long, which totally dwarfs the standard Star Destroyers that are only 5,000 feet long. Both of these ships, however, are nothing compared to the Super Star Destroyer, which is over 60,000 feet long.

The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15.

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