The 25 most iconic Star Wars movie posters of all time

13. The Empire Strikes Back advance poster

The Star Wars saga continues. Really, this poster could have just been those words. Hung in theaters in December of 1979 announcing the next chapter in the Star Wars saga, you can only imagine the buzz this must have caused people seeing it for the first time.

This would be the only teaser poster released before the promotional material for the new movie was in full swing, but it certainly made an impact. The iconic design of Darth Vader’s helmet was already one of the most recognizable images to come out of the original Star Wars movie. It was everywhere, showing up in every bit of promotional material for the movie, but as far as fans knew, the last time they had seen Vader, his entire army had been destroyed.

Now, here was a poster entirely dedicated to Darth Vader, with a title suggesting the sudden success of the villains from the first movie. Even from the very first poster, it was clear that this movie would be taking the franchise down a darker, more serious path for the second installment.  You can also see at the bottom of this poster is the line“coming to your galaxy this summer,” a reference to the original teaser poster for the previous Star Wars movie, albeit in a much smaller font this time.