Rebel Fleet — Ship Designs

Johnston’s fleet designs for Return of the Jedi expanded the visual vocabulary of the Rebel Alliance. Where the original film had a handful of ship types, Jedi required an entire armada. Johnston’s approach was to create ships that felt kitbashed and improvised — consistent with the Rebellion’s scrappy aesthetic — while ensuring each vessel had a unique silhouette recognizable in the chaos of the Battle of Endor. These production drawings served as blueprints for the model shop at ILM, where each ship would be built by hand.