Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 10 Design Secrets You Probably Didn't Know
9. The Millennium Falcon’s New Radar Dish Is From The Blockade Runner
The Millennium Falcon
was back in The Force Awakens, although things had changed a little bit. Aside
from all the sand and rust accrued by being lost by her owner, we got see a
couple of new functions – turns out hyperspace isn’t that much more difficult
that dusting crops - although biggest of all was the new, rectangular radar dish, a
replacement for the one Lando clumsily left behind in the second Death Star.
There were around 150 different versions of the dish planned, although the one that was eventually went with had a very specific link to the ship’s origins.
It's actually is the same design as the one seen on the Blockade Runner from the original movie. Not just a throwback to A New Hope, however, it’s a sneak reference to the Falcon’s origins; the first design of the ship was an elongated structure that (minus the circular cockpit) became the Tantive IV. So the dish is the ship finally getting some of its original design back!