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The Empire Strikes Back (now known as "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back"), the classic 1980 Irvin Kershner science fiction (sci-fi) outer space action adventure sequel ("The Star Wars Saga Continues"; "Story by George Lucas") starring Mark Hamill (as Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (as Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (as Princess Leia), Billy Dee Williams (as Lando Calrissian), Anthony Daniels ("as C-3PO"), David Prowse ("as Darth Vader"), Kenny Baker ("as R2-D2"), Peter Mayhew ("as Chewbacca"), Frank Oz ("as Yoda"), Alec Guinness (as Obi-Wan Kenobi), Jeremy Bulloch (as Boba Fett), and John Hollis (as Lobot)v
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Artist: Roger Kastel

Important Added Info: This is an ultra rare Star Wars poster, that has quite a story behind it! In 2009, a Japanese collector discovered two examples of this poster in Japan. He sent one to eMoviePoster.com to auction, where it sold for $1,827 (to the world's number one Star Wars collector, Steve Sansweet), and the other was sold privately to Kevin Doyle, one of the world's other foremost Star Wars collectors at that time. At the time we auctioned the first example, we said that it could be a "bootleg" poster, or possibly a "test" poster, and since it was discovered in Japan, it seemed quite possible it was an "international" style. In 2015, the poster that Kevin Doyle purchased privately was consigned to us (like all of his Star Wars posters, he had had it linenbacked), and this second example of the poster auctioned for $5,450. The poster features Roger Kastel's original art for this poster, but after he drew it, the studio decided it was "too busy", and they removed several of the elements from the poster (Lando, Boba Fett, Cloud City, and the ion cannon). So this poster was clearly produced BEFORE that decision was made, so how then could it be explained? After he purchased the poster from us, Steve Sansweet told us that he believes that it is absolutely an advance test poster made prior to the decision to alter the image (he knows that it is of such high quality that it surely was printed from the original art, and since the artwork no longer exists, it could not have been made at a later time). At the time of the second auction in 2015, we were told by one of the leading Star Wars poster dealers that he knew of the existence of a total of six of these posters that had "surfaced" since the movie was made in 1980, and that three of them had originated in Japan, but that he did not know where they currently were or even if they still exist, and we can't comment on the accuracy of that information. A third example of this poster (linenbacked) was consigned to us in 2016, and we auctioned it for $7,750. In March of 2017, we were consigned a fourth example (unbacked), and it auctioned for $8,120. But one of those four posters was auctioned for the second time (the Kevin Doyle one that he bought unbacked and had backed). Now, we have been re-consigned another one of the original three examples we auctioned, and this is the one that we auctioned in December 2015, and that one was backed. So this makes the fifth time we have auctioned this rare poster, but two of them were "re-auctions", so we have auctioned a total of three posters. We have heard from several dealers that there have been other examples of this poster auctioned in Japan over the past few years, but we have no links to such auctions, and there is no way to tell which of them might be re-auctions of earlier examples. We can't say how many examples of this poster exist, but it is certain that it is a tiny fraction of the number of "regular" Empire Strikes Back one-sheets, and it is surely one of the most rare (and most desirable) Star Wars posters there is!

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