‘Star Wars’ Update: New TIE Fighter Concept Art, Plus Aaron Paul Talks ‘Star Wars’ Spinoff Rumors

With just under a year to go before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens hits theaters, the rumors surrounding Disney’s revitalized Star Wars property are flying hot and fast. The look of The Force Awakens just became a bit clearer, though, with the revelation of some previously unseen concept art for one of the movie’s iconic ships, and we’ve gotten an update on just how Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul feels about rumors that he’s bound to star in a Star Wars spinoff.

The new year brought new information on The Force Awakens, which has seen apparent leak after leak of concept art, character designs, and possibly even plot details over the past month. Still, nothing too huge has gotten out in terms of plot – unless some purported leaks are to be believed – so every morsel of information has managed to reignite fans’ interest.

The newest information to come out on the forthcoming Star Wars revival has to do with the look of the TIE Fighter, which fans will remember from the original Star Wars trilogy. We get only a glimpse of a redesigned TIE Fighter in Indie Revolver‘s leaked concept image, but it looks decidedly different from what we’ve seen in Star Wars flicks past.

Given the red accents on the TIE Fighter, the Stormtroopers standing guard, and the gangplank descending from the ship itself, it may be that this particular TIE Fighter is a special version made for a figure of galactic importance, perhaps even Gwendolyn Christie’s rumored character. There’s no telling, but the ship appears to be just the latest example of Abrams and Co.’s dedication to honoring the look of the original Star Wars while updating and expanding the mythology for a new generation.

And speaking of new generations, the internet has been all abuzz of late that the first of several Star Wars spinoffs will be a Han Solo-centered flick with none other than Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) in a leading role. The talk has ranged from Paul playing a younger Han Solo to Paul taking on another as yet unnamed character, but everyone with a WordPress account and an opinion seems just about convinced that we’ll see Paul wielding a blaster or lightsaber at some point in the future.

And just what does Paul have to say about this? The fan-favorite actor took to Twitter to comment on the recent rumors, and let’s just say that it doesn’t look like as done a deal as we might have thought before.

Who’s starting these rumors? This one is actually making me believe I have a job in 2015. Very exciting. #StarWars http://t.co/M06dSt4Ee5

— Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) January 3, 2015

All of this excitement and scuttlebutt might have spun out of the fact that Paul was picked to play Luke Skywalker in a one-night stage adaptation of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It’s likely that someone just got ahead of themselves – it’s the internet, after all – and all of a sudden we had a Star Wars–Ocean’s 11 mashup all laid out with Aaron Paul and Michael B. Jordan and a young Han Solo double crossing a young Boba Fett and… you know what, hey, this isn’t the worst of ideas.

In any case, Paul’s tweet teaches us all that it’s a bit early to get ahead of ourselves. The actual genre, plot, and script of the Star Wars spinoff are likely not yet set in stone, so it’s probably a bit early to start figuring out who’s in the cast already. It’s not set to hit theaters until December of 2016 anyway, so we’ve got tons of time to think things through and weigh tons of other rumors.

But, really: Ocean’s 11 set in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. Let’s do this, Disney!

[Lead image via Daily Mail.]