'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' to feature First Order vehicles inspired by original trilogy

"The Last Jedi's" AT-M6 walker was inspired by the AT-AT from "The Empire Strikes Back."Star Wars website

The upcoming "Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" will be drawing inspiration from the original trilogy in making the vehicles of the villainous organization, The First Order.

Two "The Last Jedi" rides have been introduced by "The Star Wars Show," the AT-M6 and the First Order Dreadnought. Lucas Film's Kevin Jenkins, who is the design supervisor for the upcoming film, revealed via the official Star Wars website that the creative process of designing the new vehicles involved attempting to capture the feel of the 70s and 80s classics.

"If it feels like a model and I felt like it probably could have been in the original trilogy, then I'd be happy with it," Jenkins said about creating the models for the vehicles. He and "The Last Jedi" director Rian Johnson agreed on the internal checklist for designing the models.

"That was why Rian liked some of the physical models that I was making so much," Jenkins added. "Because it made us realize that, 'You know, if this could have been around 1983 and if it feels good, then we're fine.'"

The AT-M6, short for All-Terrain Megacaliber Six, is a modification of the AT-AT walker first introduced in the 1980 film "The Empire Strikes Back." The new walker was designed to have a bulkier look and to walk like a gorilla. It sports a large canon on its back.

The First Order Dreadnought, on the other hand, took inspiration from the Imperial-class Star Destroyers of the original trilogy. It is an orbital gun platform that has a 24-point defense system. It is twice as big as the Resurgent-class Battlecruiser from "The Force Awakens."

"The Last Jedi" will surely be tugging on nostalgic heartstrings with its design of the First Order vehicles. This proves how influential the original "Star Wars" trilogy really is. "It's very hard to live up to anything that Ralph [McQuarrie] did," said Jenkins. "But if we captured a little bit of that feeling of what was done in the '70s and '80s, then hopefully we succeeded."

"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" will premiere on Dec. 15.