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Star Wars drops 40th anniversary poster for 'The Empire Strikes Back'

Detail from the Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - 40th anniversary poster. (Lucasfilm)
Detail from the Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - 40th anniversary poster. (Lucasfilm)

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.

Considered by most to be the blockbuster franchise’s finest moment, the second Star Wars film stunned audiences around the world with a killer twist and the ultimate downbeat ending.

To celebrate the film’s 40th year, Lucasfilm and Disney have gone all out, uploading a wealth of content to StarWars.com including a brand new interview with series creator George Lucas.

Read more: Revenge of the Sith quiz

On social media though, fans were treated to a new official poster for the film, designed by graphic designer Matt Ferguson. Check it out below.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - 40th anniversary poster. (Lucasfilm)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - 40th anniversary poster. (Lucasfilm)

In the new interview, George Lucas revealed that the creation of Yoda, the Jedi master who trains Luke Skywalker in the ways of the Force, went right down to the wire.

“A lot of those things, like Yoda, got finished like an hour before we shot it. Everything was always on the run. So I finally got to see the whole thing finished, put together, lit properly, and that’s when I knew it was going to work,” Lucas says. “Before that I had to rely on Frank Oz. Frank had performed great in rehearsals and Stuart Freeborn was working very diligently on trying to get the puppet to work, but it didn’t convince me until I saw the actual movie.”

American actor Mark Hamill on the set of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back directed by Irvin Kershner. (Photo by Lucasfilm/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
American actor Mark Hamill on the set of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back directed by Irvin Kershner. (Photo by Lucasfilm/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

“If it hadn’t worked, obviously the movie would have been terrible,” Lucas adds. “It would have never worked… And you don’t really know until you actually show it to an audience and they don’t get up and storm out and say ‘This is stupid.’”

Of course, Yoda proved to be one the film’s many highlights, and the rest - as they say - is history. 40 years of it.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back is streaming on Disney+.