In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it looks like Kylo Ren will trade his faux-Darth Vader helmet for a retro-imitation of Darth Vader’s TIE Fighter. A new photo of a toy TIE Figther teases the design of the would-be Dark Lord’s new ride.
On May 7, fan site Making Star Wars discovered a photo of a new toy from The Last Jedi which is thought to be an image of Kylo Ren’s personal starfighter. This image comes from a German online retail site advertising pre-orders for a line of unreleased Hot Wheels Star Wars toys. To be fair, there’s no direct confirmation from this image or from Making Star Wars that this is 100% for sure Kylo’s new ship, but based on the design, it seems likely. Everything about the First Order apes the design of the original Galactic Empire with minor upgrades. If this new TIE Fighter doesn’t turn out to Kylo Ren’s, then it’s possible it could belong to Benicio Del Toro’s mysterious “Man in Black” character.
In Star Wars lore, a TIE Fighter gets its name from the fact that it has “twin ion engines” which, bizarrely, are not a reference to the iconic solar-paneled wings. Chronologically, the first curved wings on a Star Wars ship that looked like a TIE Fighter were found on Darth Maul’s Sith Infiltrator in The Phantom Menace. This eventually evolved into the Jedi Starfighters in Revenge of the Sith and Darth Vader’s curved-wing TIE Fighter in the original Star Wars. The split-wing design is mostly reminiscent of the TIE Interceptors from Return of the Jedi.
So far, audiences haven’t seen Kylo Ren piloting a starship by himself, though it stands to reason that with Anakin Skywalker for a grandfather, Luke Skywalker for an uncle, and Han Solo for a father that he’s inherited some fighter jockey skills. Will Kylo dogfight with Poe Dameron in the The Last Jedi in this slick new fighter? Only time will tell.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi will be out in wide release everywhere on December 15, 2017.
See also: Darth Vader’s Unaired Scenes for Star Wars: Underworld TV Show
