Star Wars: Return of the Jedi gets an awe-striking new poster to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary.
The official promo poster for Return of the Jedi features Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker wielding his green lightsaber in front of the looming visage of Darth Vader and above that of the menacing Emperor Palpatine. The image is flanked on all sides by images of Imperial forces both on Endor and out in the cosmos.
Return of the Jedi premiered in 1983 and completed the original Star Wars trilogy, capping things off with the deaths of both the Emperor and Darth Vader along with the apparent fall of the Galactic Empire as a whole. The film received primarily positive reviews at the time of release, and has come to stand as one of the most beloved entries into the ever expanding Star Wars franchise. During Star Wars Celebration 2023, it was announced that the Star Wars universe would be expanding in every direction with a trio of new films from James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Star Wars Continues to Expand
Mangold described his feature, entitled Dawn of the Jedi, as, "A chance to tell the entire story of its own, the birth of the Force." The director recalled his conversation with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy regarding the project, saying, "When I first talked to Kathy Kennedy about it, I just said, 'I just see this opening to make kind of a Ben-Hur or The 10 Commandments about the birth of the Force.' The Force has become a kind of religious legend that spans through all these movies. But where did it come from? How is it found? Who found it? Who was the first Jedi? And that’s what I'm writing right now."
It was also confirmed that Star Wars sequel trilogy star Daisy Ridley will be returning for at least one of these new projects. Fans expect her reprisal of Rey will come in Obaid-Chinoy's feature set "15 years after the events of Rise of Skywalker." Obaid-Chinoy stated that the film will, "[It] will tell the story of rebuilding the new Jedi order."
Filoni's upcoming, currently untitled Star Wars feature will take place during the current "present" of the Star Wars universe, and is slated to act as a "culmination" of the narrative events of the three loosely intertwined Disney+ series, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ahsoka starring Rosario Dawson. At Star Wars Celebration, Dawson said of the series, "maybe we'll get a second season," if Ahsoka does well. The comment came after a screening of a trailer featuring the titular Jedi on her quest to hunt down the villainous Grand Admiral Thawn.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi will be back in theaters on April 28.
Source: Twitter