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How are you doing you wonderful nerd?
I'm sure you've seen by now that there was a teaser for Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Now that's all well and good, but personally, I'm much more interested in the poster that came out along side it.
So let's try something a little bit different today as we break down this poster and look at the history of
Star Wars poster design to uncover potential hidden clues about The Last Jedi.
On first look this poster seems pretty straight forward and simple with not a lot going on,
but there's actually a surprising amount of information being displayed.
We have Rey pointing a lightsaber into the sky, breaking up the large, floating faces of Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren.
This collage style floating head design is incredibly popular with film posters.
One of the earliest examples is being Bill Gold's iconic Casablanca poster.
The idea is to position and scale the characters and other elements in a way that creates a narrative, defines a genre, and indicates a mood.
Where a movie trailer can tease a story or portray a tone over a series over a series of scenes, a movie poster has to do it all with one single image.
The Star Wars franchise has had many recognizable posters throughout the years that accomplished these goals.
Many of us may instinctively think of Drew Struzan’s work on the saga, which, of course, can’t be overstated. But, as many fans have pointed out, this new poster for The Last Jedi evokes imagery from before Struzan’s time on Star Wars.
All the way back to the first film. No doubt, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the saga.
Happy birthday, Star Wars.
A long, long time ago, during the 1970s, the story goes that Lucasfilm approached an advertising company for help with promo materials for their new movie. Artist Tom Jung was given a bunch of photos and stills to work from and was told the theme was good over evil.
That’s not a...particularly unique idea, but hey, that’s what makes Star Wars great! It’s a basic universal story that resonates with all of humankind! And it has lasers, so…
Jung drew up a few different designs, but the thing that changed the most was Leia. As he recalled, quote [Text on screen]
End quote.
Interestingly enough, along with one of the sketches came a fun introductory paragraph to Star Wars. Or, at least, what Star Wars was presumably going to be at that particular time.
Quote: [Text on Screen]
Ah, I love it!
But, Lucasfilm was unhappy with Jung’s designs, believing it to be too dark.
So, they sought out help from twin brothers Tim and Greg Hildebrandt who were only given less than two days to create something a little brighter.
In the end, Jung’s version would still be used for the American release, and the brothers’ Hildebrandt’s version would be implemented a little bit for advertising in the UK.
As you can see, the main differences are a more vibrant color pallette, sharper contrast, a more active pose for Leia, and a toned down lightsaber flare. The final change was the addition of C-3PO and R2-D2 in the background.
In Jung’s original design, Luke, Leia, and Vader were the only characters present. The addition of the droids wasn’t done by Jung or even the brothers Hildebrandt, but by comic book artist Nick Cardy who was also approached by Lucasfilm for help with the designs.
Cardy is best known for his work over at DC Comics and will always hold a special place in my heart for penciling the start of the first Aquaman solo series.
Traditionally, as I’m sure we all know, Star Wars posters have been pretty busy, with just about every cast member, vehicle, and other object of relevance in a tight...space. Accidental space puns *giggle*
So, seeing a poster with just three characters and a prominently flaring lightsaber further highlights the parallels between these two images. As you can observe Rey with a lightsaber, is reaching out,
something that, in the trailer, Luke asks her to do. She states how she can feel the Dark side and the Light side of the force and the balance between them.
This balance is indicated with Luke on one half, Kylo Ren on the other, and Rey as the line between them.
With the plot line from Star Wars Rebels and Luke’s line about the Jedi needing to end, there’s been plenty of speculation that this movie will explore the concept of gray jedi, a force user who is neither fully light nor entirely dark. But, say it all together, in the middle.
Now this character placement seems a bit on the nose, doesn’t it? However, the positioning is only one facet. Colors are incredibly symbolic in Star Wars.
On this poster, we have all of two hues. There’s a little bit of blue, sure, but this poster is drowning in red which is obviously meant to represent the sith, or generic evil.
Rey, with her blue lightsaber, seems to be acting as a literal ray of light, cutting through this abundance of red. The setting is red. The logo for The Last Jedi is red. And, what I find most interesting, is that Luke is shrouded in red, along with Kylo Ren.
What’s strange is that Luke is the biggest thing on this poster. I mean, look at the other Star Wars posters and you’ll find that the biggest, most background element is the powerful, mysterious, looming threat of the film.
It’s mostly been Darth Vader and the Death Star. There was also Kylo Ren, Starkiller Base. Darth Maul had it once for Phantom Menace, you get the idea. So it does raise a few eyebrows to see Luke in this spot covered in red, a color known for depicting the antagonist.
To be fair, we could also write that off as Luke being a mentor figure for Rey. He’s a large part of the movie, large influence on Rey, and therefore, a significant portion of the poster.
Or, you know, it could indicate that Mark Hamill was the higher paid actor between eve-I mean, uh, artistic reasons!
But, look, that’s the thing. I know I’m reading into a lot of ideas here, and the most obvious answer to all of this is either because it looks cool or because of legal, contractual reasons.
But, if I’ve learned anything in my high school english class that I definitely failed, it’s that you can also find a deeper meaning. Even if the writer, or poster designer in this case, never had that meaning in mind. Poster design, much like the force, is about balance.
In this case, it’s a balance between marketing, and art, where one side typically wins out over the other quite clearly.
Hopefully, this video inspired you to look at the posters of your favorite movies and determine where they land.
Because, at the end of the day, aren’t we all here to...uh, well, I mean I’m just here to capitalize on SEO after our channel got hacked last week!
I would love to know what you think! Is there anything in The Last Jedi poster that I may have overlooked or gotten wrong? Am I simply overthinking things? I would especially love to know what are some of your favorite movie posters and why!
Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!
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In the meantime, we’ve got some other Star Wars videos you may want to check out including How C-3PO Got His RED ARM! and the History of the Star Wars Logo!
Remember to hit that big, sexy, subscribe button, and I will see you in the next video.
My name’s Scott reminding you to read between the panels and grow smarter through comics, see ya.