When the first ever trailer for J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens debuted last year, it gave us our first look at one seriously awesome new vehicle: a speeder driven by Daisy Ridley’s character, Rey. Well, today we got an even better look at the cool new transport, as it is currently parked on the convention floor of San Diego Comic-Con. Check it out!
Situated as the main showcase of the large Star Wars display on the floor, fans were not only encouraged to take photos, but could even line up for a chance to actually sit on the thing. Below you’ll find another angle on the speeder, pictured from the front angle.
So what is it about Rey’s speeder that’s so damn cool? It’s hard to really put a finger on it, but certainly a major factor is the fact that it just so perfectly fits the principal Star Wars aesthetic. While it’s typically the bad guys that have the shiniest, sleekest vehicles and technology (the Empire surely has a whole lot of money), the truth is that all of the hero ships look scrappy and beat up. The "piece of junk" Millennium Falcon is, of course, the most perfect example of this, but the truth is that Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing wasn’t in the greatest shape either. Rey’s speeder fits right in with both of them.
Taking the opportunity to really capture some of the details of the ship, I also took a close-up photo of all the metal scraps that Rey has collected in the net that hangs off the side. Sadly, there’s nothing really recognizable, and it basically looks like a pile of scraps, but it’s still pretty cool nonetheless.
The presence of this big sack of junk makes a bit more sense when you know a few more details about Rey and where she lives in the Star Wars universe. She is a scavenger from the planet Jakku – which has been shown in the trailers for The Force Awakens as being kind of a giant, sand-covered junkyard for old spaceships (including one humungous Star Destroyer). Rey is presumably going to take all of the parts in the net and either sell them, or use them to build something brand new.
We’ve only seen very brief footage of Rey’s speeder in action, but we will surely be seeing a lot more of it in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. December 17th can’t get here soon enough.
