SPECULATION The Black X-Wing

Hey guys, been digging around the forums here for a few days - great stuff, really enjoying it. Anyway, first post here...

Just wanted to bring up something I noticed about the X-Wings in the teaser. Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but here it goes..

Most of us are aware that spy shots were taken of the black and orange/red X-Wing at the RAF base a few months ago:



If you look at the recently released trading cards from the teaser you'll see that the X-Wing pilot "Poe" (Oscar Isaac) has a black and red helmet - but this particular shot for the card was taken with the windows fogged up on the side of the X-Wing:

(It's also interesting that it says "Poe Dameron in HIS X-wing".. which might be a hint that there is something unique about it)


If you watch the actual trailer you'll see that the fog/moisture on the windows fades away and you can see that the engine housings are a dark color past the silver nacelle trim (just like in the spy shot above):



If you look at the X-Wing and pilot from the Force for Change promo with JJ you'll see that the engine housings are a lighter grey color and the pilot has a white helmet:



You can also see the spy shot of a pilot (Adam Driver?) with normal white helmet:



Throughout military aviation history it's been common for helmets to be themed with the squadron liveries (e.g. USN Jolly Rogers):



All I'm getting at is I believe the scenes in the trailer that flip from Oscar's character to the X-Wing formation skimming over the water aren't directly connected, as I believe his character "Poe" is flying the black X-Wing. If Adam Driver is also a pilot.. maybe the fact that he doesn't have his own unique X-Wing simply means he isn't as experienced and/or accomplished as Poe.

Even though the sound connects in the trailer scene, I believe this was done through editing. If you notice when Rey speeds off on her speeder the first close up shot have objects attached to the side of her speeder, and the shot where she is zooming off there is nothing attached to the speeder - which makes me think those scenes aren't connected either.

So maybe Poe is an experienced squadron leader - an awesome pilot - and has a sweet unique black X-Wing?
Maybe this means that he is more of a Han Solo type character and will focus on his piloting skills rather than force abilities.

Also...I'm surprised they're even calling them X-Wings, these birds are clearly radically different than the traditional X-Wings. I bet they'll be called something different when it's all said and done.. Super X-Wings, X-Wing Advanced, or X-Wing MkIIs.. something along those lines.

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! Really enjoying the site!

And @Viral Hide , thanks for sharing!

This is all just speculation of course, but it does make sense to me. In the picture that Viral Hide posted you can see more clearly that the X-Wing has 2 blue/grey stripes on each side. (Do you think those stripes are blue or grey? it's hard to tell..)

I definitely think this particular ship could be Blue Leader even though it's red and black. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think there were several ships in the Battle of Yavin and ROTJ that belonged to squadrons with different color names but were in fact different colors themselves.

I don't think the rebellion is going to be too concerned about the ships matching the squadron color name, especially in a time of war - and I'm sure the ships are often reassigned to different squadrons. Maybe this ship was pulled from a unique Blue Angels / Thunderbirds type elite group?

I've heard a few theories that the black ship will belong to a sith - to me that just seems a little silly.. "I'm going to destroy you all and rule the galaxy! But first let me paint my X-Wing all fancy..." and keep in mind that it was just sitting a few feet away from the grey/blue X-Wing at the RAF base on the same set.

Also, the red/orange trim on the housing can be seen in the photo above but can't be seen in the other photo I posted from further away. It's possible that it could be inset between the silver and black part which hides it in the trailer (although it does look like a piece of this trim can be seen if you look closely in the trailer)

 

Had some fun with photoshop this morning