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In the original trilogy we get to see at least X-, Y-, A- and B- wing; and TIE -fighter, -advanced, -bomber and -interceptor. But in the new film all that is basically reduced to X-wing vs TIE fighter.

I'm more interested in out-of-universe explanations, what creative process led them to reduce the variety of craft in the film (in-universe is covered here: Where were the capital ships and bombers?)

Is there any behind the scenes out there that addresses this particular point?

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  • There are at least two variants each of TIE Fighters and X-Wings in TFA.
    – Rogue Jedi
    Dec 31, 2015 at 13:22
  • Indeed, where were the B-wings? They make an appearance in ROTJ to replace Y-wings, but aren't present 30 years later? Booo...
    – Ross
    Dec 31, 2015 at 13:56
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    @Ross Someone pointed out on one of my questions that most of the ship battles in TFA happen in-atmosphere, and that the X-Wing has been redesigned to be able to do that. Perhaps the other ship models simply aren't good for in-atmo battle.
    – user31178
    Dec 31, 2015 at 14:30
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    My personal guess (NOT backed up by any data) is that the marketing appeal of rare models only known to true fans is extremely low compared to a few models - compare that to centralization of lines of smartphones that's been officially going on for 2 last years)
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Dec 31, 2015 at 14:37
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    Because the Force Awakens was a bad movie... They had bad acting, bad ships, and a bad plot the wasn't even a good remake of A New Hope.
    – Rincewind
    Jun 7, 2016 at 15:19

1 Answer 1

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Just a guess, but I would say the word is Branding.

Imagine a SW films without light sabers, Millenium Falcon1, triangular Star Destroyers, X-Wing, TIEs. Sure, there were other things in the original films, but none of them (with maybe the exception of Implerial Shuttles and Fett's ship) were so easily recognizable.

Sure, there are lots of SW fans that watch the movies every few months and can say "Look, this is an A-Wing series X-900, you can tell by the exhaust design. And that hull number already appeared in ROTJ!", but the film has chosen to cater more to the big masses that have seen the film a few times and can only recognize the most iconic models.

1For the time of the last film it should be almost a century old. Show me any piece of equipment that is being regularly used a century after being fabricated (and that discounts that the MF has had some very hard beatings).

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  • Kinda makes you wonder what percentage of the Falcon is still "original manufacturer equipment". (Probably not question worthy, because I doubt any source counts frame numbers or anything like that.)
    – T.J.L.
    Dec 31, 2015 at 13:50
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    in Return of the Jedi, a great many TIE fighters were the Interceptor variant, not the one from previous movies.
    – Petersaber
    Dec 31, 2015 at 17:23
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    This answer rather responds to the question "Why does the new film show X-Wing and Tie Fighters?", rather than the question "Why does the film show nothing except X-Wing and Tie Fighters?".
    – O. R. Mapper
    Nov 1, 2017 at 20:49

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