TIE Fighter - Origin and Design

Origin and Design

Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Colin Cantwell created the concept model that established the TIE fighter's ball-cockpit and hexagonal wing design for A New Hope. Initially given a blue color scheme, the TIE fighter models for the first Star Wars movie were grey to better film against a bluescreen; TIE fighters in the next two movies shifted back to being a muted blue. Sound designer Ben Burtt created the distinctive TIE fighter sound effect by combining an elephant call with a car driving on wet pavement.

Combat scenes between TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon and Rebel X-wings in A New Hope were meant to be reminiscent of World War II dogfight footage; editors used World War II air combat clips as placeholders while Industrial Light and Magic completed the movie's special effects. The Jedi starfighter, created for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, was designed to bridge the appearance of the Jedi starfighter in Episode II: Attack of the Clones and the TIE fighter design from the original trilogy. Dark Horse Comics' Sean Cooke designed the TIE predator in Star Wars: Legacy, set 130 years after the events of A New Hope, to appear both reminiscent of and more advanced than the original TIE fighter.