What’s The New Imperial Ship In 'Star Wars: Andor'?
Image Source: YouTube
Star Wars is known for its exciting, effects-laden space battles. It’s also known for its iconic ships and their familiar yet simple shapes. The Empire is defined by its fear-inducing TIE Fighters and dreaded Star Destroyers. The sight of their kilometer-long wedge-shaped monstrosities instills fear into the staunchest rebel. To maintain that fear, The Empire recycled that design into other large capital ships, such as the Interdictor-class Star Destroyer: a ship that can pull other ships out of hyperspace. A similar craft was seen in the newest episode of Star Wars: Andor, but what was it, and has it appeared in other material?
There haven’t been many space battles in Star Wars: Andor, so fans took notice when one occurred in the latest episode, “Daughters of Ferrix,” the eleventh episode of the series. It looked somewhat familiar with its wedge-shaped hull and stark white color against the blackness of deep space. However, what set it apart were the enormous tractor-beam dishes attached to its fuselage, one on its bow and one on either side. Much like the Interdictor, the Arrestor cruiser aimed to trap suspicious ships and use its ion cannons to incapacitate them.
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The Arrestor cruiser might be a new ship, but it has a long and storied history in Star Wars. The Arrestor cruiser is a Cantwell-class ship. The name Cantwell might sound familiar to some as it’s named after Colin Cantwell, one of the first modelers to work on Star Wars in the 1970s. Cantwell submitted several ship designs as requested by George Lucas, such as the X-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Fighter, Star Destroyer, Imperial Cruiser, Death Star, Landspeeder, Sandcrawler, Millennium Falcon, and T-16 Skyhopper. Cantwell also worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Colin Cantwell recently passed away in May 2022, so this is a nice nod to one of the OG Star Wars modelers.
Image Source: Wookieepedia (Colin Cantwell showing George Lucas his early models for Star Wars)
Although this is the first time the Arrestor cruiser is seen on screen, it’s not the first time it’s been in Star Wars. The Arrestor cruiser first appeared in a deleted scene from Solo: A Star Wars Story. In the scene, a new Imperial recruit named Han Solo flew his damaged TIE into an Arrestor cruiser, causing him to get reassigned to Mimban. The ship also appeared in the Solo novelization. It’s well-known that no design for Star Wars ever gets thrown away. Perhaps it’s not suitable for a particular project, but it could work for something else in the future.
The Cantwell-class Arrestor cruiser was manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards upon request of the Department of Imperial Justice and the Imperial Navy. The ship’s wedge tip was at the stern, unlike the Imperial-class Star Destroyers. In addition, the inverted triangle frame ended halfway along the hull, leaving the front half of the ship with a long and narrow bow. This design makes the ship appear to be moving in reverse. Cantwell-class vessels were equipped with three turret-mounted twin heavy ion cannons (one port, one starboard, and one ventral) and twelve light laser cannons (three forward, three port, three at starboard, and three aft-mounted). At 800 meters long, it’s about half the length of an Imperial Star Destroyer.
Image Source: StarWarsNewsNet
Arrestors had two large docking bays situated amidships, each housing a squadron of starfighters (24 fighters in total) as well as shuttles and TIE Boarding Craft, which allowed the ship’s complement of stormtroopers to board a captured craft. The Arrestor and Interdictor had similar roles, and it’s unclear which one the Empire favored; however, at 600 meters (200 meters less than the Arrestor), the Interdictor was deemed vulnerable in battle and taken out of service by the Battle of Yavin. Size matters when it comes to the Empire.
It’s always fun seeing new ship designs in Star Wars, especially when their origins go way back to the beginning, which shows respect for what has come before. In “Daughters of Ferrix,” Luthen Rael uses his ship’s secret weapons to escape the grasp of an Arrestor, but not all are so lucky.
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