Few films have as tangled and fascinating a poster history as the original Star Wars. Within its first eighteen months of release alone, it went through at least four distinct official US one sheet designs, each with its own story, and together they form one of the most studied chapters in movie poster history.
Style A: Tom Jung’s original
The first official one sheet was designed by artist Tom Jung, and it’s the source of the composition most fans still recognise today: a young man holding a lightsaber, a young woman beside him, and a huge helmet looming behind them with ships flying around. George Lucas felt Jung’s version wasn’t quite “comic book” enough for what he wanted, which set the stage for the next design.
Style B: the Hildebrandt Brothers
Brought in to rework the composition into something more dramatic, Greg and Tim Hildebrandt delivered their now-famous version, keeping Jung’s general layout but giving it a vibrant, painterly, storybook quality. It was produced under serious time pressure, reportedly within about thirty-six hours, and became an instant favourite among collectors in its own right.
Style C and international variants
A further international style, illustrated by British artist Tom William Chantrell, was produced for markets outside the US, including versions used for the UK quad and Australian one sheet, giving Star Wars yet more genuinely distinct pieces of original artwork across different territories.
Style D: the “circus poster”
For an extended 1978 re-release, meant to breathe new life into a film already eighteen months into its run, Drew Struzan and Charles White III created what’s become known as the “circus poster”, a wilder, more theatrical design. It’s reportedly George Lucas’s own favourite among all the film’s posters, and it marked Struzan’s first work on the franchise that would come to define much of his career.
Struzan and the saga that followed
Drew Struzan went on to illustrate posters for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, the prequel trilogy, and the Special Editions of the original films, becoming, alongside his celebrated work on Indiana Jones and Back to the Future, one of the most recognisable movie poster artists of his generation until his death in 2025. Other key contributors across the saga include Roger Kastel, who illustrated the main Empire Strikes Back poster, and Kazuhiko Sano, who created the collage-style main poster for Return of the Jedi.
Why collectors chase every style
Because each design represents a genuinely different artist’s interpretation of the same film, rather than a simple reprint, serious Star Wars collectors often aim to own one example of each major style. Knowing which style you’re looking at, and cross-checking it against the poster’s NSS number and release window, is essential before paying a premium for what’s claimed to be an early printing.
