The poster for The Force Awakens dropped earlier today, and it looks fantastic. Star Wars has always had fantastic posters over the years, and we’re going to see tons more in the future. Here’s a look at the posters that have been advertising the movies since 1976.
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A New Hope
The first teaser poster for Star Wars appeared in 1976, and featured the early, eventually unused logo:
The first major poster, released in 1977 and painted by Tom Jung:
Style ‘C’ poster:
Even after 1977, Star Wars returned to theaters. This one was released in May 1978 on the film’s first anniversary:
In 1979, another set of posters advertised the return to theaters, with some hints of the upcoming Empire Strikes Back:
Empire Strikes Back
1980 brought The Empire Strikes Back, and with it, a new teaser poster around the Christmas holidays in 1979:
Style ‘A’ poster, with art by Roger Kastel:
Style ‘B’ poster, drawn up by Tom Jung:
1981 brought The Empire Strikes Back back to theaters, and it came with a new re-release poster:
Return of the Jedi
Return of the Jedi had a slightly different style teaser poster in 1982, one that bore the film’s original title: Revenge of the Jedi:
Poster A, drawn up by Tim Reamer:
Poster style ‘B’, one of the most iconic Star Wars posters out there, with art by Kazuhiko Sano:
Like it’s predecessors, Return of the Jedi was rereleased back into theaters in 1985:
1995 VHS Covers
These aren’t technically posters, but I’ve always thought that these were iconic, and would make for great posters:
Special Editions
After a long break, the original trilogy returned to theaters in 1997, with some new posters. First came a teaser poster, which harkened back to the original A New Hope Style A poster:
After that came individual posters for A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, all drawn by Drew Struzan:
The Phantom Menace
The Phantom Menace had its own teaser poster that drew a lot of attention when it first came out, foretelling Anakin Skywalker’s fate:
Later, Drew Struzan returned to draw up the official one sheet:
Attack of the Clones
The Attack of the Clones teaser poster showed off some of the conflict that was brewing within a slightly older Anakin Skywalker:
For the final poster, Drew Struzan once again drew up an iconic image:
When Attack of the Clones went to Imax, a slightly different poster went up with a bit of a pun:
Revenge of the Sith
Revenge of the Sith kicked off with a really ugly teaser poster showing off Anakin Skywalker’s fate:
The final poster:
The Clone Wars
While most people enjoyed the Clone Wars TV series, most would rather forget the pilot, which screened in theaters in 2008. It received its own poster for the occasion:
The Force Awakens
Now, with The Force Awakens coming, a whole new generation of posters is on its way. Earlier this year, the first teaser poster, illustrated by Drew Struzan was unveiled at the D23 Expo:
And now, the latest one-sheet poster for The Force Awakens, which came out earlier today:
These are just the major US releases - there’s a number of variants and entirely new posters that came out for other countries as Star Wars was released across the world.
What are your favorites?