We all love the Rebel briefing scene — the tension, the music, the glowing red wireframe of the Death Star. But if you’ve ever really looked at that display, you might’ve noticed something weird: the giant planet-killing laser is firing from the middle of the dish.
Hold on. Didn’t we see it fire from the top hemisphere during Alderaan’s destruction?
Yeah. We did.
So what happened? Did the Rebels get a bad 3D model? Was the Empire messing with their blueprints? Or did someone on the effects team just fudge it and hope nobody would notice?
Well… people noticed. And there’s a whole weird little story behind this tiny visual mistake that’s stuck around for decades.
The Rebel Plans Were Based on McQuarrie’s Original Vision, Literally
If you’ve ever paused during the Rebel briefing scene in A New Hope and thought, “Wait… isn’t the Death Star’s superlaser in the wrong place?” — you’re not wrong. The massive dish appears to be centered along the equator in the holographic schematics, rather than positioned above the “waistline” like it is on the final film model. But this wasn’t a mistake. It was intentional — and deeply rooted in the earliest visual development of Star Wars.
The visual seen in the Rebel war room was actually based on Ralph McQuarrie’s original concept art. In McQuarrie’s early design, the Death Star’s superweapon is indeed located along the equator, and this version made its way into official artwork and matte paintings early in the film’s production.
This was later confirmed in The Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual, which states:
“Imperial Schematic Design System Data, obtained by a rebel agent from a military communications complex on Galvoni III after the Battle of Yavin, yielded schematics for a concept ‘Death Star’ with a superlaser cannon located on the sphere’s equator.”
As for a better look at that design, it refers to the very first Death Star concept art by McQuarrie — which was rendered as a matte painting. That version shows the laser dish directly on the equator, and it served as the primary visual reference for the CG display used in the Rebel base.
So what ended up in the film wasn’t an error, it was a reflection of that concept design. Larry Cuba, the computer graphics pioneer responsible for the animation, used McQuarrie’s matte painting as a direct reference for the schematic. At the time, the finalized physical model of the Death Star — with its now-iconic off-center laser dish, wasn’t yet available or locked in.
This behind-the-scenes detail was later highlighted by visual effects artist Todd Vaziri in a 2017 blog post, where he broke down how early concept art directly shaped the CG animation seen in that scene.
Bonus: Behind the Scenes of the Death Star Schematic Animation
So now we finally have a clear answer as to why the Death Star looked “wrong” in the CGI schematic — and the truth is, it wasn’t a mistake at all. But what makes it even cooler is getting to see how that scene came together behind the scenes. Below, you can check out the process of how the iconic Death Star plans were created for the Rebel briefing.
