by Nur Hussein, staff writer

J.J. Abrams has released another video for Disney/Lucasfilm’s charity drive for Unicef, Force For Change, which invites you to give charitable donations in return for a chance to win a trip to the set and have a cameo in Star Wars Episode VII, as well as a private advance screening of the film.

In the video, we are treated with a reveal of what looks like the new X-Wing, which looks almost exactly like Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art for the X-Wing in the original Star Wars in’77. It’s sleeker, has a less bulbous tip, and the engines look like they split with the s-foils when they are in attack position.

It’s a cunning move by Abrams to re-use McQuarrie’s ideas for the film (if indeed that’s what he did and that it’s not a huge, suspicious coincidence). In many ways the look and feel of the original was almost entirely McQuarrie’s doing. The prequels’ set and vehicle design, while gorgeous, look uninspired compared to the originals (and the prequel ships look just wrong and out of place; with colors in chrome and yellow). This new ship captures the essence of the original trilogy precisely while updating the look, making it seem like a natural evolution of in-universe spaceship design.

In the (now-defunct) Expanded Universe, the X-Wing was described as being designed by the in-universe company Incom, and was a progression from an older design called the Z-95 Headhunter. Many fans on social media are speculating if the revealed new ship is in fact a Z-95, but Lucasfilm has put the matter to rest by tweeting that it is indeed a new X-Wing and not a Headhunter. 

With the release of this new X-Wing, I guess I’ll have to get yet another X-Wing Lego set.

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