The 25 most iconic Star Wars movie posters of all time
By Joel Leonard
15. The Empire Strikes Back special edition
This is the center poster of the special edition trilogy “three posters as one poster” image. The center point in this poster is not only the intentional focal point for the Empire Strikes Back poster, but really for all three posters. Notice how the image seems to explode outwards towards you. Ships are flying away from the center point on the poster in all directions. Some are going left, some are going right, and some seem to be pointed straight towards the viewer.
Obviously, the second movie in the original trilogy is the one that is most centered around the Empire. The Empire is in the title, and many of the most memorable battles in the film would be considered Imperial victories. With that in mind, this poster is somewhat unique among Star Wars posters as it features exclusively villains and their ships. Vader and Emperor Palpatine are the only characters to appear on this poster and, except for a single snow speeder, almost hidden in the bottom right corner, the spaceships featured on this poster are all Imperial as well.
This poster leans into how dominant of a presence the Empire is in this middle chapter of the trilogy as it takes over every corner of the poster where there isn’t room for anything else.