Colin Cantwell’s Imperial Class Star Destroyer design is ‘just so unique,’ says production designer James Clyne
“Oh his contribution is everything,” production supervisor James Clyne replies when asked about Colin Cantwell’s contributions to Star Wars. “Sure, McQuarrie and Johnston should get immense credit as well, and let’s not forget the production designers Norman Reynolds and John Barry, but because Colin was the first, he literally started with a blank canvas. He kicked off the entire aesthetic of Star Wars!”
In particular, he points to Colin’s initial take on what would become the Imperial Class Star Destroyer that thundered overhead at the beginning of Star Wars: “It’s just so unique and, more importantly for me, a bit strange. In the best way possible. Too often designers want to just design something cool, but Colin seemed to be looking for some kind of deeper meaning.”
In fact, he loved the design so much that he was the one who pulled it out of the Lucasfilm archive while serving as the Design Supervisor on Solo: A Star Wars Story. He recalls: “The script called for a medium-sized Imperial cruiser but we didn’t have one in canon, as far as I knew. So instead of making something up I pitched to the directors, ‘What about this design?’
“And I showed them Colin’s sketch, along with a bit of a history lesson of who he was and how that design influenced the original
films. They loved it and we got to work ‘uprezzing’ the design and the eventual final CG model. Great fun art directing that asset!”
“[Colin’s] contribution is everything … He kicked off the entire aesthetic of Star Wars!” — James Clyne, Lucasfilm designer
Unfortunately, the ship ended up as a quick cameo, with a scene featuring Han Solo crash-landing in its hangar bay after a mission gone awry cut from the final film. Clyne says he was “pretty gutted, honestly,” by that decision, “but working on a film of that size, you get used to the idea of things changing, getting cut, etc. It’s the nature of the beast.”
However, as many fans know, the ship ended up with a starring role in “The Daughters of Ferrix,” the 11th episode in the first season of the TV show Andor on Disney+. It was given the official name Cantwell-Class Arrestor Cruiser. “I had a sneaking suspicion that it would end up somewhere in some future space battle!” Clyne says. “So cool it did!”
An illustrious career in Star Wars, Star Trek, and more
Clyne has had a long career in the movie industry, starting in the late 90s with work on Galaxy Quest and Mystery Men (both released in 1999). Along the way, he has worked in the art department in Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Avatar (2009), and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), among many other films.
As a visual effects art director, his credits include Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), among other films. He recently wrapped production design on Jurassic World: Rebirth, which is planned for release this year, and is prepping a currently untitled Star Trek prequel film that doesn’t have a release date yet.
Like many of us who grew up in the 1970s and 80s, Clyne’s childhood was steeped in the science-fiction and fantasy films of that
era. He recalls: “Having the good fortune to be a kid during the release of those seminal 80’s films certainly had an impact on me, no doubt. Sure, there was George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, but also Ridley Scott, John McTiernan, James Cameron, and John Carpenter! However, it wasn’t until later in college that I learned there was a path as an artist in making a living working on films. Up until then I had no idea how movies were made!”
Clyne attended UC Santa Barbara and was inspired by many master painters while studying fine art. Asked for his inspirations, he replies: “Oh where to I start? Probably John Singer Sargent is the most inspirational mostly due to his use of rendering light and shadow. But also Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne because those early Impressionists were such bad ass revolutionaries in the painting world — sticking it to the establishment.”