Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a favorite of many Star Wars Enthusiasts, but few noticed that it introduced one surprising problem with X-wings that persists to this very day. 2016s Bug one was monumental for many reasons, but the biggest is that it was the triumphant return to the original trilogy era of Star Wars In live action. It brought so many things back, like X-Wings, AT-ATs, Imperial Storm, and more, all realized with modern technology.
In bringing the familiar elements back, some necessary changes had to be made by Industrial Light & Magic. Because all of the once-physical models had to be translated into computer-generated ones, some things were changed in terms of scale or modeling specifics. One change to the monumentally iconic X-wing Starfighter was a mistake — and it’s persisted since 2016.
Rogue One made one subtle change to the X-wing design
The wings no longer interlock
A post on X by user RgroseA It turns out that before the creation of a new X-wing model for Bug oneThe Starfighter actually has much more asymmetrical wings. On the back of each wing, near the engine, there are protrusions on both the top and bottom wings. When the starfighter’s S-foils open, they become immediately visible, clasping like two teeth when the S-foils close.
The Bug one Model, however, features the same exact placement of this protrusion on both the top and bottom wings, making the design physically impossible. As pointed out by RgroseA in the same post on X, the practical props made for Bug one Didn’t have this issue, meaning it’s likely a modeling oversight. Despite this, the models have continued to be used for years, so this physical issue now appears in The Mandalorian And further.
Will Star Wars ever move back to the original X-Wing?
New ship models are not created as often
It doesn’t look like the issue will be fixed anytime soon Star Wars Projects have proven to us. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker And Andr Both in particular show us that ILM likes to reuse its ship models – as seen in the Exego Citizens fleet and the Ferrix junkyard. In both of these settings, familiar ships from all over the modern Star Wars Projects make appearances.
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In reality, however, the change is incredibly minor, and will likely only be noticed by very few except the most hardcore Star Wars Enthusiasts. The reason behind the lack of change is likely because it is much cheaper and easier to reuse the highly detailed and beautiful models for future projects, especially for television. The whole concept, of course, is no different than a modern version of the classic Star Wars Tradition of reusing props from previous projects, Bug one included.