The history of the creation of the Millennium Falcon is well known, changing the design from it’s original Colin Cantwell inspired Eagle Lander-esque look to the flying hamburger we know and love today. That original silhouette would morph into the much larger CR90 Corvette we know as the Tantive IV Blockade Runner, leaving what’s become known as the Millennium Eagle to remain a footnote in GFFA history….until now. With the appearance of the ship in the melee of vessels at Port Borgo in the second episode of Skeleton Crew Way, Way Out Past the Barrier, the Eagle is now canon and the website of the late Colin Cantwell caught up with retired ILM model maker Bill George to discuss this fascinating reversal of fortune for the original hero ship of the saga.
The truth has turned out to be a Star Wars /Space: 1999 mash-up, courtesy of now-retired ILMer Bill George. It’s a ship known as the Millennium Eagle, and it’s part of a website Bill maintains known as the Sci-Fi Air Show. (More on that below.)
ILM asked Bill to borrow the model so they could scan it. “No one ever told me who was behind the request,” he told me, “but when I was asked, I jumped at the opportunity!” I asked him if that means his Millennium Eagle is now officially part of Star Wars canon, and he replied: “I have no idea, but once a model is made, they tend to show up in other media. I’m just happy it made it into the background as kind of a ‘cameo’ appearance.”
Bill told me that the creation of the Millennium Eagle came about because “I’ve always loved the story of how the Pirate Ship design was changed as it was felt it looked too much like the Eagle from Space: 1999. My original concept was to do a mash-up of the two ships. That wasn’t hard at all as they do have similar proportions.”
He added: “The design I pulled from was the completed model of the Pirate Ship before it was redressed as the Rebel Blockade Runner. There are old photos of that particular model out there. I also used the landing gear design from the Ralph McQuarrie paintings. The look of the Pirate Ship evolved from Colin’s prototype models, but they were the genesis of it all.”
For more from Bill George, be sure to visit his Sci-Fi Air Show website to see his incredible models in an incredibly unique setting.
