I just saw a leak of the new Star Wars LEGO helmet, and it’s for the AT-AT driver. But as I was looking at it, I suddenly noticed something I had never really paid attention to before—the grey and red markings on the helmet.
That got me thinking—what’s the actual reason behind this design? Unlike stormtroopers or TIE pilots, whose helmets are uniform in color and pattern, AT-AT drivers have this weird mix of red and grey that doesn’t seem to follow a clear pattern. Is it a rank indicator? A practical function? Or just a creative choice by the costume designers?
Practical Reasons for the Markings
In real life, navigation lights on boats, planes, and even some military vehicles help identify direction, especially in low visibility. Ships and aircraft use red and green lights to indicate their left (port) and right (starboard) sides. This system allows others to quickly determine the direction a vehicle is moving—if you see a red light, you know it’s passing from right to left; if you see a green light, it’s moving from left to right. This prevents collisions and ensures smooth navigation.
Now, bringing this idea into Star Wars, a fan theory suggests that the asymmetrical red and gray markings on AT-AT pilot helmets serve a similar purpose. The idea is that these colors indicate the walker’s orientation in battle.
If Imperial troops or pilots see red, they know the AT-AT is facing one direction, and if they see gray, it’s facing the other. And if both colors are visible, it’s right in front of them—meaning they should probably move out of the way.
Aesthetic and Cinematic Reasons
Sometimes, details like these don’t have a deep in-universe explanation—they just look cool. The AT-AT pilot helmet, for example, is a modified version of the TIE pilot helmet, but with distinct red and gray markings that help it stand out visually. This follows a pattern in Star Wars, where small design tweaks are made for aesthetic or cinematic purposes rather than strict functionality.
And this isn’t just a theory—we actually have confirmation from behind the scenes. According to Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy (2014), the AT-AT driver’s armor and helmet were created by repurposing existing TIE pilot gear. Since AT-AT drivers only appeared in a single scene during the Battle of Hoth, costume designer John Mollo decided to reuse the TIE pilot suit and helmet but repainted them gray with added red decals. The book explains:
“Mollo’s choice to alter the previously black TIE fighter pilot costumes to a more Hoth-appropriate color scheme was a logical development for the Imperial rank. Repurposing costume pieces on hand was cheaper and faster than creating new ones from scratch, thus the AT-AT driver’s helmet and body armor were repainted and refinished TIE fighter pilot pieces with new insignia and decals added.”
We’ve seen this kind of design choice before. Officers in the Empire have different colored shoulder pads to signify rank, and stormtroopers in different environments get unique armor variations. George Lucas and the design team often added these elements to make characters more visually distinct, ensuring they stood out on screen while still fitting into the overall Imperial aesthetic. So while we can theorize about a practical function for the red and gray markings, there’s always the possibility that they were simply a stylistic choice to differentiate AT-AT pilots from their TIE-flying counterparts.