Through the History of Star Wars Posters
Star Wars is arguably the world’s most enduring film franchise. Everything got started in 1977 with the release of the film that started it all. Star Wars, now rebranded as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. At the time this film was released, there was no way to predict how wildly successful it would become, simply because nobody had ever released a film like this. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back followed, and was the most critically acclaimed film in the early years of the franchise. This was, of course, followed by Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of The Jedi. Then, in 1999, George Lucas dusted the long missed franchise off and produced three prequels to the first trilogy. The first film in that series was Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Now, things have taken off again with the explosively successful Disney production, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.
One thing that is especially notable about the Star Wars franchise is the absolutely genius merchandising efforts that has gone hand in hand with the release of this film. These efforts include the production of many official posters sold and distributed to promote and commemorate these films. There have also been a large number of unofficial posters created by artists and designers worldwide. Throughout the years, these posters have been collected and displayed by Star Wars fans and movie memorabilia geeks for decades. In fact, there is no doubt that there are rec rooms, bedrooms, and man caves today that still display some of the original posters more than 40 years later. Undoubtedly, this will continue now that the most recent film has taken off. This infographic depicts several of the best known official posters that were created for previous Star Wars film releases, along with many of the unlicensed posters. The unofficial posters that are included contain work from artists in countries such as Poland, Turkey, the former Soviet Union, Japan, and Italy. It is clear that as each movie made its way around the globe, many artists were eager to capture the stars and the action in their own way. Many of the interpretations are very interesting. It’s fascinating to see how different artists from different cultures have very distinct interpretations of each film. The varying presentations of the characters in the earlier films are especially noteworthy. It will be interesting to see how artists and designers choose to interpret the current film, Episode VII, along with the other two upcoming movies.
A Romantic Twist on a Movie Poster Classic
One of the more notable foreign posters from the first trilogy is a French, movie poster depicting Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. It takes many of the same elements from the poster that accompanied the American release, especially the image of Han Solo holding Leia in his arms. However, the artist also includes many other items in the photo not available in the original image. It is also interesting to see how the artist has opted to use reds and oranges with much more intensity than in the poster most Americans are familiar with. It should also escape nobody’s attention that Yoda is missing from the French poster. Perhaps the artist failed to predict the popularity of the character and his significance to the storyline, or maybe Yoda simply didn’t resonate with French audiences the way that he did with American audiences. This poster is definitely a collector favorite.
A Fascinating But Inexplicable Interpretation
On the other hand, collectors and fans who are interested in movie poster art that comes completely out of left field, might want to take a closer look at the movie poster distributed for the Empire Strikes back in Poland. In this poster, the artist eschews every element in the original poster including colors, lettering, characters, and composition. Instead, they use completely inexplicable imagery, which other than giving a slight nod to outer space, seems to be completely unrelated to anything in the film itself. It makes one curious as to what information the artist had to work with when they created this interpretation.
The most recent release of the latest Star Wars movie has been extraordinary. Both critical and fan response to the latest film has been incredible, and ticket sales records have been absolutely obliterated both in the United States and overseas. It is more than clear that in the past Star Wars movie posters have been an integral part of the merchandising and branding efforts of team Lucas and now the Disney corporation. Even more importantly, these movie posters have proven to be a great thing for fans who want to have a memento from the movie franchise as well as express their fandom to others. There is no doubt that movie posters will be an important part of the Star Wars franchise as new releases are produced.