Star Wars Just Quietly Added A New Vehicle To Canon — And It's Awesome
What if a podracer and a landspeeder were combined?
A sci-fi world is only as good as its vehicles, and Star Wars has tons of them. From the escape pod that Darth Vader used to get away to the Millennium Falcon to the Imperial Star Destroyer, there are plenty of cool ships and gadgets for fans to break down, study, and build in LEGO (if they have enough room). But this list is ever-growing, and now includes the hover cradle from The Mandalorian and the Halcyon from the ill-fated Galactic Starcruiser from the Disney Parks.
But a recent Star Wars video game is adding some new vehicles, ones that open up a whole new world within the galaxy’s once-time favorite sport: racing.
A new feature on StarWars.com introduces a number of new racers to choose from in the upcoming video game Star Wars: Galactic Racer, including the skim speeders, a brand-new ship to canon. These sleek racers were originally created for smuggling, but they’re also useful on the track, especially when it comes to going around sharp corners. “Galactic League founder Darius Pax introduced the skim speeder to the racing scene, and it fit right in,” the report says. “Like all repulsorcraft, skim speeders make use of repulsorlift generators to nullify the force of gravity, paired with turbine thrusters and fuel for high-powered propulsion.”
Podracing may be a set piece from The Phantom Menace, but this proves that there’s more to this sport than what’s shown there. The skim speeder is one of four different vehicle types you can race in the new game — landspeeder, speeder bike, and podracer are the other three — and this one is a combination of a land speeder and a podracer.
We thought we knew what all the racing vehicles in Star Wars looked like, but the Skim Speeder is completely new to canon.
Just as Galactic Racer expands on the world of the 1999 game Star Wars Episode 1: Racer, these ships expand Star Wars culture by showing the true breadth of the racing scene. But don’t expect this racer to remain in video game canon. Just as TV characters appear in games, new elements added to video games could pop up somewhere else, perhaps even in one of the upcoming movies.
Motorsports may seem like a minor part of the Star Wars universe as a whole, but remember, it was Anakin’s racing skills that allowed him to pitch in during the Battle of Naboo. Even the most frivolous parts of Star Wars culture may, in fact, become important later, and vehicles are the perfect opportunity for this.
