Ride of the Week! Nissan Crafts Millennium Falcon Inspired Rogue

I have always felt that cars are significant characters in a film.

After all, they have an active part in moving the story along.

These days, many films are automotively-inspired and have epic chase scenes, but for the first time in a Star Wars film, there seems to be a sequence that’s as automotive as you’ll get in a Galaxy far, far away.

It’s a Landspeeder chase scene from the upcoming film “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” and it looks to be just as good or better than any Furious film. But as we cannot ride in actual Landspeeders, Nissan took it upon themselves (as a Star Wars sponsor) to create this Millenium Falcon-inspired Rogue to help create excitement for the film.

Now, they’ve done a few Star Wars cars for the last couple films and they were interesting, but this one is a bit more fun.

It’s always a challenge to create a themed vehicle for film, and I’ve done hundreds over the years. But making a car look like a spaceship is tough, since spaceships fly and cars don’t. But this Rogue is fun for a couple extra reasons.

First, it harkens back to B-films of the ’80s when they didn’t have all that much budget to build a car and resorted to tacking things on (think Metalstorm). Although, on the Rogue, it’s a bit more refined in that the paint scheme works to hide the imperfections.

Dirty, yes. They’ve added a laser-cannon turret, windshield mask and lots of cool Star Warsian details.

But the bottom line is that it’s fun. Even the interior is full of bells and whistles like the Mask car I did years ago. You definitely want to hit some switches and see what it does, which I guarantee will get you arrested.

Themed design for film is an exciting thing. But themed design can translate into many variances. Restaurants, homes, clubs, toys and many other things. Design is design, but I learned a lot when I worked at Imagineering for Disney back in the ’80s.

Themed design tells a story, and takes the viewer on a journey. It opens the door to a world undiscovered and piques the imagination, inspiring us to head forth in the anticipation of coolness. This is what hopefully Solo will bring when it opens on May 25.

I am attending the premiere on May 21, so I’ll get an early scoop for you guys. The chase scene and all. And although the Rogue will not actually be in the film, it would be pretty cool to have it at my Wheels and Waves car show here in the ’Bu. Disney, are you listening? The people wanna go Rogue.

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