Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 10 Design Secrets You Probably Didn't Know

So yeah, Starkiller Base is a fan-boy extension of the Death Star. Far from just being an ideological carry on, the design process actually reflects that in several different ways. For starters, it’s pretty reminiscent of Ralph McQuarrie’s concept art, with an open blaster hole at the central axis a direct lift.

However, in terms of overall structure, something more spiritual was used. It was concluding that the Death Star design – a sphere with a circular dish in the middle of the upper half – is so strikingly simple even a child could draw it, which was something Abrams wanted to replicate with Starkiller.

After much deliberation, it was realised that the simplest way to show the planet as a weapon was to simple slice a big chunk of it out, so that was the basic design that was used. Which is, if anything, even less complicated than the original.