Colin Cantwell originally pitched the design of what would become the Imperial Arrestor Cruiser directly to George Lucas,[14] for use in the 1977 movie Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, although it was ultimately discarded in favor of a completely different design.
The production crew for Solo discovered Cantwell's design while reviewing Lucasfilm's archives. Industrial Light & Magic then created a high-fidelity CG model of the vessel for use in the film.
The Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser first appeared in the Star Wars canon in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story, in an Imperial recruitment film.[6]
However, in the script for Solo, the Millennium Falcon was at one point to be captured by a tractor beam ship, which was developed into the Arrestor Cruiser.[11]
This full appearance in the film was eventually cut,[12] but the cruiser was featured in the Onyx Squadron sequence in the film's deleted scenes.