Aston Martin tie(fighter)s up with Star Wars

But what if Aston Martin could export its brand image, and maybe even its vehicles, to a galaxy far, far away? Would that be feasible? What does it all mean? Well, we’re not sure, but the company has announced it is joining a year-long celebration with Disney and Lucasfilm to mark 50 years of Star Wars.

In case you’re wondering, yes, Episode IV – A New Hope first came out all the way back in 1977. And started a whole fresh era of nerd-dom in the process.

How is this going to work? Is there another podrace scene, or something?

We’re not entirely sure. Maybe Aston is going to design a new starship for the Star Wars cinematic universe, although it might not want to do precisely that as its German rival Porsche has already hyperspaced into that nebulous marketing zone – working with Lucasfilm in 2019 to create the Tri-Wing S-91X Pegasus Starfighter.

So maybe we’ll see a landspeeder in a future movie or streaming series, wearing a suspiciously familiar winged emblem. Or perhaps those useless Storm Troopers (honestly, they can’t shoot for toffee) will get seriously uprated speeder bikes with which to chase down the Ewoks; you know, using a 4.0-litre biturbo V8 and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

But we’re hypothesising. All Aston has said so far is “this unique collaboration will celebrate the artistry of British ultra-luxury craftsmanship and cinematic storytelling through a series of activations and collaborations across the anniversary year”.

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Furthermore, Finbar McFall, global director of marketing and SVO at Aston Martin, added: “For 50 years, Star Wars has demonstrated the extraordinary power of design and storytelling to inspire generations around the world.

“At Aston Martin, we share the same commitment to creating products and experiences with distinctive character and lasting emotional resonance, making this a natural and exciting collaboration.”

That adds nothing. Are there any teaser images or anything?

Not really, apart from a couple of stills and even a 19-second YouTube video, these featuring a scant amount of imagery, visuals and sounds of the Star Wars canon, along with the logos of both entities side-by-side.

But it’ll be fun thinking things up while we await further announcements from Aston Martin on this subject, sometime in early 2027.

Remember Elon Musk’s ridiculous sci-fi reveal of the Tesla Roadster, with it driving upside-down and rocket-propelling itself through the air over parked cars? Think that. Yet a bit classier, courtesy of Aston’s heritage.

Has Aston, or any car company, done anything similar before?

Aston itself is not afraid of creating vehicles for different mediums. Earlier this year, it revealed the digital-only Dreadnought military vehicle, designed for use in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 video game.

As for Star Wars affiliations, Nissan has done a variety of concept cars themed on the legendary film series, which is not as daft as it first sounds. In North America, it sells the X-Trail as the Rogue, so when the 2016 installation of the cinematic universe was revealed to be Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, you can imagine what that led to next: the Nissan Rogue Star Wars Edition. Yes, really.

(Oh, and by the way, Rogue One is THE best Star Wars film of them all – yes, including The Empire Strikes Back – because it is as bleak as [expletive deleted].)

And to finish our sci-fi-film/British-carmaker-based-in-the-West-Midlands theme, back in 1995 Land Rover came up with the brilliant City Cab machines which were used in Sylvester Stallone’s Judge Dredd. These were based on 101 Forward Controls, fitted with Range Rover 3.5-litre V8s.

They were about the best thing in that film, incidentally, because Sly’s version is utterly dreadful. You should instead watch Pete Travis’ Dredd from 2012, which is magnificent and truly deserved a full, ongoing franchise, all installations involving Karl Urban being a psychotic, brooding asshat in a law-enforcement suit…

Ed: We’ve cut the rest of Matt’s wittering on as he started to go even further off subject. We do apologise.