Since almost the very beginning, Star Wars has been as much about the toys as it has been about the films themselves. Now, the toys are giving us a glimpse of what the films have in store. A German retail website recently put a collection of spacecraft toys up for pre-order and among them we got our first look at what appears to be Kylo Ren's personal TIE Fighter. It's the one at the bottom of the image below.
A few months ago we started to hear rumors about a special TIE Fighter that Kylo Ren would be piloting in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The ship was described as being "pill shaped," similar to the TIE Strikers seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Based on the description and the concept art that we've seen, this TIE fighter certainly looks to be the one that we've heard about. German website Mikado first published the image, though the company seems to have taken it down, likely because someone realized a spoiler had been dropped.
One thing that we can't tell from the image is the actual size of the craft. All three of these models are built to the same scale, so the Star Destroyer is the same size as the standard TIE Fighter. The actual hull of Kylo Ren's ship actually more closely resembles the Star Destroyer, I can't help but wonder if Kylo's craft will actually be much larger than your standard TIE Fighter. It certainly appears to have more going on inside than simply the cockpit, though it's difficult to tell from this angle, since all we really have a clear view of is the wing.
Exactly how the new TIE Fighter is part of the story is not really known. It's possible that Kylo Ren always had this craft and just never had need of it during Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Alternatively, it could be that he will have the craft constructed during Star Wars: The Last Jedi. If he plans to go after Rey himself, a safe assumption, he'll need a way to do it. Kylo Ren's idol, Darth Vader, had his own special TIE Fighter, so of course, Kylo would want his own as well.
It's hard to believe that originally, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was going to be released in just a couple of weeks. It was originally set for Memorial Day Weekend before being pushed back to December due to changes in the script. We're still over half a year away from the movie's release now, but as more Star Wars products, like toys, get released on the market, we'll certainly be gaining more insight into what is coming for the film when it arrives in theaters this December.
