The expansive, visually rich Star Wars universe begins with concept art by artist Ralph McQuarrie.
Ralph McQuarrie‘s concept art for Star Wars (1977) is beautiful and engaging in its own right, well before the movies that resulted from them. His images tell their own story, and offer a fascinating look at what might have been:
The DAVE School took it upon themselves to attempt to realise original designs for The Star Wars in their concept trailer, “inspired by the works of George Lucas and Ralph McQuarrie”:
Over the course of production, a lot can happen between the initial concept and the final version released to the public. To show how far concepts can evolve, and how design tweaks can impact the overall aesthetic of the final film, here’s a side-by-side comparison:
“In the year 3000…” – early key art shows experiments with imagery and text:
Further Viewing
This Panasonic ad from Japan in the ’80s is another fascinating artefact from that liminal era after Star Wars had become a phenomenon, but before Star Wars lore had become overly codified and demystified (Midi-Chlorians were only the beginning):
Still love this super surrealist George Lucas Panasonic commercial that aired in Japan in the 1980s pic.twitter.com/0PuZ4NONzS
— jacob (@jtimsuggs) January 9, 2026
A tribute to the myriad artists behind Star Wars, in light of the news of Lucasfilm owner Disney’s $1 billion deal with OpenAI, licensing their characters to ChatGPT and Sora:
While still in production, creator, writer, and director George Lucas wasn’t confident Star Wars would make enough money at the box office to warrant a similarly-budgeted sequel. In the meantime, he hedged his bets – branching out into comics…
… and commissioning a sequel novel – which offer is a fascinating glimpse into an alternate timeline, before Star Wars truly became Star Wars (via The Weekly Planet):
Another incredibly important element which makes Star Wars what it is: its sound design. We look at the work of the genius behind it, Ben Burtt: