[HYDRAULIC DOOR]
- You cannot make
a Star Wars movie
and not have stormtroopers.
[ENERGY IGNITES]
- Assemble all squad.
[BLASTER FIRE]
- Stormtroopers.
They're just iconic.
[THUMPING]
[BLASTER FIRE]
I would argue it's one
the most recognizable
designs in all of cinema.
[ELECTRICITY]
- On my command.
[TENSE MUSIC]
- They're the first bad guys you
really meet in the entire saga,
starting with "A New Hope."
[RUMBLING]
The moment I remember
most is them blasting on
to the Blockade Runner, just
wiping out the rebel fleet
troopers that are there.
[BLASTER FIRE]
- They were terrifying, but
also super cool, super clean.
- Ralph McQuarrie is the
grandmaster of concept design.
I mean, he worked so
closely with George.
And he distilled down the
essence of what George wanted.
It was just to create an
image that was frightening.
And I loved what he
did with the helmet,
because he basically turned
it into a very stylized skull.
- They looked like skeletons.
They looked like death.
[TIE FIGHTERS SOARING PAST]
- Here they come.
- When Ralph had designed
the stormtrooper,
he was thinking that this would
be a zero G outfit that you
could take out into space.
[LASER FIRE]
But we never really saw that
until we saw the TIE pilot,
meaning that the front two hose
connections were actually used.
[X-WING SOARS BY]
And so you actually started
to connect all those design
elements to realize that,
oh, the stormtroopers
actually had multiple purposes.
[LASER CANNON FIRE]
And the idea that
stormtroopers would actually
custom fit their armor
to the environment
was just a brilliant solution.
[VADER BREATHING]
- The scout troopers
from "Return of the Jedi"
had to be more flexible
and more mobile to climb
around these environments.
So it would make sense that
there was more soft material.
[SPEEDER BIKE ENGINE]
- The biker scouts
don't wear camouflage.
They should.
But they don't.
[SPEEDER BIKE ZOOMS PAST]
Cause the Empire doesn't
even care if they get shot.
It's showing arrogance,
which inspires fear.
- And what I liked is the
new take on the helmet.
Cause it still kept the idea
of a very terrifying mask.
But instead of a
down frowned mouth,
it now became an
open mouth screen.
[SPEEDERS ZOOMING]
[ENGINE REVS]
[DARK MUSIC]
[BLASTER FIRE]
"Rogue One" was
unique in the sense
that it was going to
interpret the imagery
of the original trilogy.
[ALARMS]
We wanted to create a new
class of stormtrooper, which
were death troopers,
the elite of the elite
of the stormtroopers.
Tall and lean, and
powerful and fast.
And some of that power
was in the proportions,
but was also in the details.
For instance, we
took the cheekbones
and made them longer so
they almost look like fangs.
[RIFLE FIRE]
[EXPLOSION]
[MARCHING]
And we were exploring
some other ideas
for creating
stormtroopers specific
to different environments.
[HYDRAULIC DOOR]
[DROID SQUAWKS]
When we were approaching
the shoretrooper,
we thought, how
about if we create
a very specific stormtrooper
that fit on Scariff.
- Troopers!
- And at the end, the final
design of the shoretrooper
was a blend.
- Just a little bit
of scout trooper.
There was a little bit of
classic stormtrooper in there.
And there was the little
bit of color, which you
take from the clone troopers.
- Master Yoda, all forward
positions are advancing.
[WISTFUL MUSIC]
- When I was working with George
on designing "Episode II,"
George wanted to
connect the Jengo
Fett Mandalorian helmet with
the classic stormtrooper design.
The clone trooper was
actually going to be
the bridge between the two.
[LASER FIRE]
- And what George and I
tried to do with "Clone Wars"
was bring a sense
of individuality
to these clone troopers.
They started painting
their armor uniquely.
And they started to take
on different attitudes
and personalities.
[SHIP SOARS OVERHEAD]
[DIGITAL STATIC]
When the Empire
takes over then, you
take that wash of color, icons,
and logos on their helmets,
and you completely
strip it away to have
the classic stormtrooper.
Working on "Rebels," we had
the classic stormtrooper.
We just tweaked the
armor a tiny bit
to move it a little more back
to Ralph McQuarrie's look.
[BLASTER FIRE]
Trying to honor it and tell
the story in a classic sense.
[SHIPS SOAR PAST]
[ENGINE SOUNDS]
[FUTURISTIC MUSIC]
- The design for the
First Order stormtrooper
was an interesting challenge.
- The idea was to ask, how do
you take the spirit of what
the stormtrooper was
and feel like there
was an evolution within
the timeline of the world?
- And if you think about
it, the clone troopers were,
let's say, in our timeline,
1920s and 1930s design.
The classic troopers
were probably 1970s.
And so the First Order then
perhaps could be contemporary.
The First Order troopers
have new upgraded materials.
[LASER CANNON FIRE]
Aesthetically, we also wanted
a little bit more streamlined.
- FN-2187, submit your
blaster for inspection.
[HEAVY BREATHING]
- Yes, Captain.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
- Captain Phasma is one
of my favorite designs.
The only thing we did was just
changed her surface material
and made it chrome.
- They put the helmet on me,
and I looked in the mirror.
I think I just
giggled quite a lot.
[LASER FIRE]
[SLAM]
It was great that they had
not feminized the armor.
[ELECTRICITY]
She can be in this
position and be female.
[BLASTER SHOT]
- In "Rise of Skywalker" we
have new troopers that are
completely different in design.
The materials, the
color, the lines,
there was something
about the aesthetic of it
that just felt absolutely right.
I cannot wait for people to see
the work that everyone's done.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[SHIP SPEEDS BY]
[BLASTER FIRE]
[SPEEDER BIKE ENGINE]
[BLASTER FIRE BARRAGE]
- Hey, stop right there.
[BOOM]
[DIGITAL STATIC]
