While the primary purpose of a movie poster is to advertise a movie, and get you to spend your money, in many cases, the movie poster can become a piece of art in and of itself. This is especially true when it comes to Star Wars.
The movie posters used to promote the movies have sometimes become as iconic as some of the movie moments themselves. These are 25 of the iconic works of art that have become some of the most memorable Star Wars images over the years.
1. The Phantom Menace teaser poster
After a decade and a half without a new Star Wars movie coming to theaters, The Phantom Menace was announced. We would all finally get to experience the first chapter of the saga.
There were rumors as to what we would get to see and more than a few images released of the movie being worked on, but this was the first official image we got advertising the upcoming movie — and really the trilogy as a whole. The image of a 9-year-old Anakin casting a Darth Vader shadow on the wall hit the world with a bang.
The shadow of Darth Vader looms over the 9-year-old Ani, just as the knowledge of where the story would eventually lead, looms over every moment of the trilogy. This was also one of the first times a photo was used as a movie poster to promote a Star Wars movie. Most of the posters for the original trilogy had been drawn. That small but very distinctive difference helped to set this poster apart and give the movies their own distinct feel right from the launching point.
It’s a powerful image, and one that sent fans into a frenzy excited for every sliver of information about the upcoming movie.
2. The Phantom Menace official poster
The art of Drew Struzan has in many ways become synonymous with the Star Wars movies, with the artist having provided posters for many of the chapters of the Skywalker saga. His most identifiable Star Wars work is probably the posters that he drew for the prequel trilogy, starting with this one for The Phantom Menace.
The lens flare visual that would tie the style of all three posters together can be seen here, encircling Anakin’s head in the dead center of the poster. While we didn’t know at the time that this would be the only appearance of Qui-Gon Jinn, it’s now nice to see how prominently the character is featured on the main poster for the movie. It probably helped that Liam Neeson was one of the most famous actors to appear in the movie at the time of its release.
The leering face of Darth Maul, partially hidden in the background yet looming over everything else in the poster, adds weight to the title of the movie The Phantom Menace. This would end up mirroring the character’s involvement in the movie — not appearing in the majority of the film’s time, yet at the same time managing to be one of the most dominating and lasting images to come out of The Phantom Menace.
3. The Phantom Menace 3D re-release poster
It’s interesting to see this poster advertising the re-release of The Phantom Menace 10 years after its first time on movie screens. It’s clear that the design of this poster is the result of the public’s reception of The Phantom Menace over the years.
While Jake Lloyd’s version of Anakin was front and center in the original posters, he’s nowhere to be found on this one. Also missing is Jar-Jar Binks (which isn’t surprising), and Qui-Gon, which is a little more surprising.
But it’s easy to see that by this point in the franchise. Darth Maul had become the breakout character from Episode I. Here he is front and center, with his now-iconic double-bladed lightsaber. While Maul was taking up the background in the original release poster for this movie, that role has now been given to Darth Sidious, who we now know to be the true person behind the movie’s title.
Also present are the podracers, which, along with “Duel of the Fates,” had become the other most well-received sequence from the first movie. The design of this poster is clearly intended to highlight how appealing it will be to re-watch both the podrace and Darth Maul in 3D as these two images literally push past the bounds of the poster.
4. Attack of the Clones official poster
This is the second poster to be released in the series drawn by artist Drew Struzan for the prequel trilogy. The focus of this poster, much like the movie, is on the relationship between Anakin and Padme. As Episode II was viewed as the most romance-heavy of the prequel trilogy, similar to how the relationship between Han and Leia really grew in the middle chapter of the original trilogy, a heavy portion of the advertising for this movie focused on the characters forbidden love.
An earlier draft of the poster featured Count Dooku, but he was removed to have the artwork focus more on the movie’s romance. Reportedly, Lucas wanted the poster to show the two characters coming together as the galaxy explodes around them.
Struzan clearly achieved the “explosion” look with the signature lens flares that would appear in all three of his prequel posters. Of course, the other bit of imagery that leaps from the page is the full-body shot of Jango Fett decked out in his Mandalorian armor. While the expanded universe had given us plenty of Boba Fett stories by that point, his presence on the big screen was still one that was very much shrouded in mystery. The visual of someone who appeared to have unmistakable ties to the fan-favorite character was something else that was constantly present in the buildup to Episode II.
5. Attack of the Clones IMAX release poster
There was once a time where IMAX movies were seen mostly as a novelty. The massive screen and immersive sound system weren’t really designed to play blockbuster movies, but instead were to let the viewers experience incredibly detailed nature documentaries.
Movies that were shown in IMAX theaters were about underwater life or the exploration of the jungle. These theaters were more often than not attached to a museum of some sort and were usually viewed as an extension of the museum, and whatever documentaries the theater was playing were seen like a premium exhibit of the museum.
That all changed when it was announced that Attack of the Clones would be getting re-released on IMAX screens. This poster was the perfect announcement for such an event. A giant Yoda towering over the city gave the impression that getting to watch Star Wars on such a massive screen for the first time would be an event worthy of remembering. The poster even calls the release of the movie “The IMAX Experience” to fully convey what an event this was going to be.
Of course, loyal Star Wars fans noticed that the IMAX version was actually missing scenes because IMAX projectors at the time couldn’t play anything longer than two hours, meaning the IMAX version is actually the shorter version of the movie. Still, getting to see a 70-foot-tall Yoda on the IMAX screen was something worth remembering.
6. Revenge of the Sith teaser poster
This poster was the first official tease from Lucasfilm of the final chapter in the prequel trilogy. It signaled the climax of the story we’ve been building to ever since we all saw that image of a young boy casting a Darth Vader shadow before the first movie even came out.
This poster is clearly inspired by the visuals of the Phantom Menace teaser poster. Again, we have an image of Anakin Skywalker with his future as Darth Vader unmistakably looming over him. While it was a shadow in the earlier poster, this time Darth Vader appears in Anakin’s cape. The helmet of Darth Vader takes up so much more real estate on the poster this time around, with Anakin almost being pushed to the side by the almost overwhelming presence of Vader.
Visually, this puts us further down the path toward Vader, as his presence on the poster is not only unmistakable but is the point of the entire poster. Not to mention the only part of Anakin that we get a good look at is his eye that is sporting a new scar, one that wasn’t there in the last movie, and one that we don’t have an explanation for.
The jump from Episode I to Episode II gave us a new actor to play Anakin, but this poster makes it clear that even if it’s the same actor this time around, this isn’t the same Anakin that we had at the end of the second movie.
7. Revenge of the Sith official poster
This is the third and final poster in Struzan’s series of prequel posters. The visual collage of characters and scenes from the movie revolves around the most iconic image of the inevitable clash at the climax of this movie, and in many ways, the central conflict in the entire six-chapter story of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
We’d been hearing about the epic duel between Obi-Wan and the newly christened Darth Vader for decades by the time this movie was released, but this poster featured the first official image of the two former friends dueling.
Everything else in the poster revolves around something that we’d never seen before: two blue lightsabers crossing in battle. It drove the point home of the tragedy that this movie was being set up to be. Yes, we knew where everything would end up thanks to Episodes IV, V, and VI, but the story of Revenge of the Sith was going to be one of personal tragedy and strife.
Just like Darth Maul in the poster for The Phantom Menace, this time the image lurking in the background, yet looming over the entire image is the inhuman mask of Darth Vader. It’s an image that has become completely tied with the story of Star Wars, and even with it only appearing a few minutes in the film, its presence on the poster for the movie spoke volumes.
8. Star Wars advance poster
This was the first time the public ever saw the title Star Wars. Shipped to theaters to be hung in the lobbies in December of 1976, it’s hard to imagine that this poster would end up announcing an ongoing saga that is still going strong over forty years later.
There are no images of lightsabers, no spaceships, no Darth Vader, or Death Star, and really no images of any kind. In fact, you can see that the design of the Star Wars logo on the bottom of the poster isn’t even in its final form.
Lucas had the design adjusted slightly, particularly the “W,” before the release of the final movie. Yet, even without any of the imagery that has become synonymous with the Star Wars franchise, the poster is still striking.
With a few choice words, printed in a massive, bold font, the tagline of the poster is designed for you to be able to read them across the lobby of a movie theater. In a theater full of busy, overstuffed posters, relying on exciting visuals, or the faces of major movie stars, a poster with one giant sentence has to stand out and draw you closer to find out exactly what the poster is advertising. Imagine standing in the theater lobby in 1976 imagining what a “Star Wars” could possibly be and what adventure might be in store.
9. Star Wars official poster
This poster is probably one of the most well-known images to represent the Star Wars movies and is one of the most famous poster designs in history. The image of Luke holding his lightsaber to the sky with Princess Leia beside him has appeared again and again.
While Leia’s location is clearly meant to invoke the image of the pulpy adventures “leg cling” pose, it’s worth noting that even for the original posters for Star Wars, Leia is on her own, holding a blaster, and just as ready to get involved in the action as Luke.
This poster is actually based on an earlier test poster for the movie, with one of the biggest updates being that in this version of the poster, Luke and Leia are actually modeled after the actors that portray them. (No photo references were provided for the designers of the original test poster.) From the now-iconic tagline at the top of the poster to the raw energy of the lightsaber reaching past the confines of the poster in multiple directions, this poster treats the movie it’s advertising as the biggest thing to come to the screen. The tiny X-Wings on the left side of the poster work together to make a massive armada of spaceships.
Everything about this poster seems to focus on how grandiose the idea of Star Wars is going to be.
10. Star Wars official poster II
While the previous Star Wars poster did a lot of playing with the negative space on the poster, this advertisement for Star Wars took the opposite approach by trying to put everything in the movie somewhere on the poster.
You’ve got your three main characters, all with blasters in hand taking up the center of the poster. Darth Vader is once again looming over the top of the image, brandishing his lightsaber with an early design of the Death Star towards the top of the poster as well. In adaptation to these characters you have Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO, and R2-D2, and Grand Moff Tarkin also crammed in around the three main heroes.
TIE fighters and X-Wings cover the poster along with a Y-Wing as well, to make sure as many different ships as possible are represented. A scene from the moisture farm on Tatooine even makes an appearance, tucked in behind Leia.
It’s interesting to note that despite being the most famous face in the movie at the time, Alec Guinness is given a relatively small amount of real estate on the poster, and even less is given to Peter Cushing, one of the few other actors who would have been recognizable to a wide audience at the time. It’s clear that the big selling point is the action, adventure, and the spectacle that Star Wars is bringing to the big screen.
11. Star Wars 1978 re-release poster
Star Wars was obviously a runaway success, and this poster was created to advertise the movie being re-released into theaters one year later in 1978. The now-familiar image of Luke and Leia swinging across the chasm is the biggest image used to advertise the re-release.
While the original posters for Star Wars wanted to focus on the epic scale of the universe being created, this one strikes a tone that focuses on the adventures of these characters. Where one is inviting you to explore a new world, this style is inviting you back to have fun with the characters you’ve already fallen in love with.
The poster is designed to look worn. The frayed edges not only harken back to the pulp inspiration for the film but are also a way to play with the idea that the poster has been hanging in a movie theater for quite a while, a nod to how long the movie was successful and dominated the box office. This is actually the first time that Drew Struzan was the artist for a Star Wars poster, making this one a milestone as his art would go on to become some of the most familiar to Star Wars fans. This is also reportedly the favorite poster of the film’s director George Lucas who had a print of this poster hanging in his office.
12. Star Wars: A New Hope special edition
In 1997, Star Wars was re-released to the big screen. This already felt like a big deal as there was a whole new generation of fans that had only seen their favorite movies on VHS at that point. But to make the whole event feel like an even bigger deal, the entire trilogy was released over a span of three months, with each movie getting its own month to return to the theaters.
To commemorate these new versions of the Star Wars movies, Drew Struzan was commissioned to create three posters, one for each movie. What he did was design a poster for each film, but doing it in a way where they all three thematically worked together to create one massive poster to represent the entire trilogy.
This is the first of the three posters and the one that would be the farthest left if you placed all three posters side by side. Notice how all of the action seems to be moving outward, from the right to the left. All of the spaceships featured on this poster are moving from right to left across the image. Even the stars that fill in the negative space on the poster appear to be moving across the image. The coloring of this poster draws inspiration from Tatooine, with the hotter orange and white colors taking up the bulk of the image and the faces of the three heroes that we’ve all come to know and love.
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.
14. The Empire Strikes Back official poster
In many ways, The Empire Strikes Back is the most romantic of the original trilogy, as this is the movie where the relationship between Han and Leia is really explored. That tone is evident in this first official poster for The Empires Strikes Back, often referred to as the Gone With the Wind poster.
Drawing unmistakable inspiration from the classic Gone With the Wind poster drawn for the 1967 re-release of the movie (the Gone With the Wind poster you’re picturing in your head right now) this poster has the romance of the movie in full display. Just like the main poster for the previous Star Wars movie, the characters on this poster don’t take up a lot of space, but instead let the negative space help set the tone the poster is trying to convey.
In this case, the bottom of the poster features the unforgiving world of Hoth, a stark difference from the “wonders of space” feel from A New Hope. While memorable, this poster was quickly criticized by actor Billy Dee Williams for not having the only African-American actor in the movie appear anywhere on the poster, despite having a substantial role in the movie. Updated posters were quickly shipped out to theaters, and every subsequent poster for the movie, up through the 1981 re-release, featured Lando somewhere on the poster.
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.
16. Revenge of the Jedi poster
The teaser poster for the final chapter of the original Star Wars trilogy has a fascinating backstory. Drawn by Drew Struzan, this poster featured a massive portrait of Darth Vader overshadowing Luke and Vader locked in their final duel. It’s a striking image, and while the coloring of the lightsaber blades of Vader and Luke could have just been reversed for a stylistic choice for the poster, it does hit at the inner conflict both of the characters would be experiencing in the movie.
Yes, this was a good image to announce the coming of the third (and at the time) final chapter in the story of Star Wars. Unfortunately, if you notice towards the bottom of the poster, it displayed a title that might not be familiar to Star Wars fans. For a period of time, the working title for this movie was going to be Revenge of the Jedi (as opposed to Return of the Jedi). Supposedly, George Lucas had always intended to call the final film Return of the Jedi, but changed the title when screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan suggested that “Return” was too weak of a word for the title.
The movie was called Revenge of the Jedi, but was changed back when Lucas decided that Revenge simply wasn’t a Jedi trait, and the title didn’t make sense. Unfortunately, the decision to return to the original title not only came after Struzan had already designed the teaser poster, but in fact, came after the posters had been shipped to theaters. The now incorrectly titled poster was recalled, but several copies of this poster still exist in the wild, and it’s become quite a collector’s item among Star Wars fans.
17. Return of the Jedi official poster
Like the movie it advertised for, this poster promises fans the greatest hits of what they already love about Star Wars, combined with brand new adventures. The center of the poster is dedicated to the four biggest characters from the franchise, from Darth Vader, to Luke, to Han Solo, to Leia.
This setup is basically a promise this movie is going to have everything you want to see in a Star Wars movie. Yet, as you take in more of the poster, there’s a lot of new or unexpected elements as well. To the left, we have a set of aliens that we’ve never seen before. Plus there’s a creature that looks similar to Chewbacca but is unmistakably different in the spot of the poster where you would think Chewbacca should be. Plus, as you start to take in more of the image, there are notable changes to the main characters, particularly to the costumes of Luke and Leia.
It’s easy to see that even though the characters might be familiar, the movie is poised to be an all-new adventure. This poster is able to use its limited space to build an amazing amount of anticipation for the final chapter in this trilogy.
Contrary to popular belief, Luke’s lightsaber blade as seen on this poster was not colored blue to hide the reveal of his new green blade. In fact, for most of the production of the movie, Luke’s newly constructed lightsaber was expected to be just as blue as his original one. However, it was decided very late into production that the blade should be green to better stand out against the blue sky of Tatooine during the fight on Jabba’s Sail Barge. Though, by the time the decision to change the lightsaber color had been made, most of the promotional materials, including this poster (and at least one teaser trailer), had already been released.
18. Return of the Jedi special edition
This is the final poster in the series that was created for the 1997 special edition releases. As it is the third and would sit on the far right if all three posters were to be placed side to side, for this poster all of the action is moving from left to right.
Sitting opposite of the New Hope poster, this is the poster where every spaceship is heading from left to right, with the stars in the negative space of the image doing the same to really create the illusion of dynamic movement. What’s interesting to note is, because these three posters really function as one giant poster, no character appears as a floating head more than once anywhere on the three posters. Because Luke, Leia, and Han are all on the poster for A New Hope, they don’t appear in floating head form for the rest of the posters. Instead, the characters featured here are ones we haven’t seen featured on Special Edition posters yet, including Chewbacca, Yoda, and Jabba the Hutt.
Where the poster for A New Hope featured the harsh colors of a desert planet, and The Empire Strikes Back poster featured the cool blue color pallet of a frozen Hoth, the green coloring that bathes this poster draws inspiration from the planet that is most identified with the final chapter of this trilogy, Endor.
19. The Force Awakens teaser poster
This was it. By this point, we knew that there were going to be more Star Wars films. Disney had bought Lucasfilm. A new trilogy had been announced. We knew that this was coming. But for people who had been waiting for the Star Wars saga to progress past Return of the Jedi for 30 years, there was nothing that could compare to the first official poster for Episode VII.
One of the most minimalistic posters ever released to promote a Star Wars movie, just the Star Wars logo advertising a brand new Star Wars movie carried a tremendous amount of weight. No other movie would ever be able to have the impact of this where just the title of the movie would be able to carry the weight of the announcement poster with nothing but a star background behind it.
Even with nothing more than a few words, this poster still caused Star Wars fans to break down the poster, analyzing it from every possible angle. This was the poster that announced the title of the new Star Wars movie, something that resulted in literally millions of blog posts and YouTube videos trying to guess what the title meant, or comparing it to the titles of the first six movies. This poster would also give us the title format that would come to appear in the sequel trilogy with the title appearing between the “Star” and “Wars” in the traditional Star Wars logo.
20. The Force Awakens D23 poster
While Drew Struzan, who was mostly retired by this point, would not be drawing the posters that would represent the sequel trilogy the way he had done for the prequels or the special editions of the originals, it still seemed right that his art would at some point represent the new Star Wars movies.
This poster was a limited release only to people attending the Disney convention D23. What’s really fascinating about this poster is how much it doesn’t look like a standard movie poster. Today’s movie posters tend to have the construction down to a science, and it’s easy to see how movie posters follow trends that have been successful in the past. The avoiding of the popular trends makes this poster feel like a real piece of art, not to mention the fact that it’s a return to a drawn style of poster rather than the composition of photographs that have become so popular in modern movie poster creation.
While most of the poster is taken up by characters that are new to the franchise, we still get several familiar images including Han Solo in the corner and a squadron of X-Wings and a squadron of TIE fighters on either side of the Light Side/Dark Side like that Rey makes up going down the middle of the poster. In a clever bit of design, Struzan manages to get both the sun of Jakku and the sun of Takodana on one side of the poster, evoking memories of the twin suns of Tatooine on the poster.
21. The Force Awakens official poster
While early images from the new squeal trilogy had been released by this point, this was the poster that was released as the official poster for the movie. The one that would go alongside the other official posters that we had all come to love. In many ways, just like the movie itself, it’s a collage of action that draws inspiration from many of the previous Star Wars entries.
Like Darth Vader and Darth Maul before him, Kylo is given the role of the oversized looming threat in the background that casts a cloud over the rest of the poster. Han Solo, who has graduated to the mentorship role in this movie is given about as much real estate on the poster as Alec Guinness was given on many of the Episode IV posters, even though Harrison Ford, like Guinness in the 1970s, was the most popular actor to be in the movie.
The poster also strikes an intentional color clash, with the reds and oranges all on the left of the poster and the cooler blue tones to the right, with Rey acting as the barrier between the two. When this poster was released, one of the biggest reactions to the poster was the lack of Luke Skywalker appearing anywhere on the poster. We knew at the time that Mark Hamill would be reprising the role in the movie and had even seen publicity shots where he was present, but this was really the first indication of how little screen time Luke would get in the first installment of the sequel trilogy.
One other interesting thing to note is how Rey’s staff seems to line up with Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, an early suggestion that these two characters might be more in sync and less oppositional than protagonists and antagonists of earlier trilogies. Though, don’t forget at this time, we had yet to see Rey hold a lightsaber of any kind. All of the promotional material had Finn wielding the blue blade, and this poster continues that trend.
22. The Last Jedi teaser poster
Revealed at Star Wars Celebration in April before the movie’s release in December of the same year, this was really the first look we got at any official images of the middle chapter of the sequel for the Star Wars trilogy. After Luke was missing entirely from any of the posters for The Force Awakens, it was thrilling to see his face taking up so much space on this poster.
There was no doubt about it this time around, Luke was going to be a major part of this movie. The almost overwhelming amount of red that dominates this poster was unlike anything we’d ever seen on a Star Wars poster before. It was clear from this first image that The Last Jedi was going to be a very different kind of Star Wars movie.
Seeing Kylo Ren’s face on the poster was also a shift away from the unexpected. Darth Vader’s mask was one of the most iconic images on the posters and other advertising throughout the original trilogy. For most of the promotion leading up to The Force Awakens, it looked like Kylo Ren was being positioned to take that place. His mask adorned the posters and toys from the movie. But here was the first image advertising the next movie and the mask was nowhere to be seen.
23. The Last Jedi official poster
The promotional material for The Last Jedi really went all-in on the color red. The trailers for the movie would have multiple shots of the red armor worn by Snoke’s guards or the red soil getting kicked up during the battle of Crait. The earlier teaser poster for this movie was almost entirely red, and the series of character posters released to promote the movie all featured characters in red-tinted versions of the costumes they wore in the movie.
This poster continues the trend of bathing the imagery in red, with the color seeming to envelop the title of the movie from all sides. Rey’s blue blade stands out as a stark contrast to the rest of the poster, almost as if it is the only part of the poster defying the movie’s trend to cast a red film over the movie.
It’s interesting to point out that the “looming over the poster” position on this poster, usually reserved for the main villain on a Star Wars poster, is this time given to Luke Skywalker. Even before we see him throw the lightsaber over his shoulder, his placement on the poster can reveal to us that this isn’t the same Luke that we last saw at the end of Return of the Jedi. And it does prove true in the film that for most of the runtime, Luke is one of the biggest obstacles on Rey’s path of trying to become a Jedi Knight.
24. The Rise of Skywalker teaser poster
It’s been a recurring visual, time and again, for the main antagonist of a Star Wars movie to get the same spot on the poster. They’re placed towards the top of the image, usually bigger, but behind everything else on the page, in a way looming over everything else that’s happening on the poster.
Darth Vader has appeared in that upper third area on countless Star Wars posters, and it held true through multiple generations of poster design, across three trilogies. This poster takes that visual shorthand and shows how the antagonist may not be the focal point of the movie, but is the biggest threat to the heroes.
This poster, in many ways, is the final representation of that idea. Emperor Palpatine’s surprise return was the main focus of the advertising for this movie, taking his place as the main antagonist. But this time, the shadowy figure in the background becomes the central visual for the poster. While Palpatine is still made up to be an oversized image of the villain’s face, half-hidden as he towers over the rest of the poster, he’s also the image that you’re first drawn to when seeing this poster for the first time. All of the other action on the poster is placed much closer to the bottom to make sure that nothing will distract from the image of Palpatine is his usual role of hidden in the background — but this time around, he’s also finally taking center stage in the conflict.
25. The Rise of Skywalker IMAX poster
There were plenty of different posters released advertising for the final Star Wars movie in the Skywalker saga. While they’re almost universally interesting images, this particular poster was an interesting deviation from the norm.
Released exclusively for IMAX theaters to promote the IMAX release of The Rise of Skywalker, this poster stands out from the pack. There are no images of ignited lightsabers or blasters in this poster. There aren’t any stormtroopers or spaceships of any kind. For a franchise with the word “wars” in the title, this poster seems rather devoid of any images of physical confrontation. Instead, we’re treated to an image of Rey, surrounded by the faded images of those who have influenced her journey towards being a Jedi Knight. The images connect in a line from General Leia, bathed in blue to the left, all the way to the far right where Kylo Ren is represented, awash in a much harsher red.
Connecting the two of them is an image of Luke, the largest of the three floating heads, but connected to both Leia and Kylo Ren. Luke’s image is colored in blue and red, as well as the purple as the colors change across the poster. While Luke may have been the biggest influence on Rey’s path, he is also probably the most complicated. He doesn’t have the simple mentor role that Leia was able to take on after Luke’s passing. But his impact on Rey and her journey is undeniable.
Likewise, Kylo Ren’s role in Rey’s life was very different from the other two characters shown here, but it’s hard to deny that he is probably the third more important character when it comes to defining who Rey would be as a Jedi Knight. For a movie that’s all about Rey’s identity, both that given to her by destiny and the one she wants to choose, it’s nice that with the variety of posters we now get for a big release like this, one was able to take time and focus on the characters that have come to represent this final trilogy.
What Star Wars poster is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!