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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 us, where it sold for $1,827 (to Star Wars collector, Steve Sansweet), and the other sold privately to Kevin Doyle, another major Star Wars collector. At that time, we said that it could be a "bootleg" poster, or possibly a "test" poster. In 2015, the poster that Kevin Doyle purchased was consigned to us (now linenbacked), and this one auctioned for $5,450. The poster features Roger Kastel's original art for this poster, but after he created 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 produced BEFORE that decision was made, so how then could it be explained? After he purchased the poster, Sansweet told us he believes that it is absolutely an advance test poster made prior to the decision to alter the image. 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. 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 sold a 4th example (unbacked), and it auctioned for $8,120. In December 2017, we were re-consigned one of the original three examples we auctioned (the one that we auctioned in December 2015), and that one was backed, and it auctioned for $11,557. In April 2018, we were consigned another example, and this one was also linenbacked, and it sold for $11,559. In March 2019 we were consigned another unbacked example, and it sold for $14,500! So to that time, we had auctioned this rare poster 7 times, but 1 of them was a "re-auction" and another likely was, so we had likely auctioned a maximum total of five unique examples. We have heard that there have been other examples of this poster auctioned in Japan over the past few years, but there is no way to tell if they were re-auctions of earlier examples.

Now we have been consigned what we believe is a sixth unique poster (but it is possibly one we previously auctioned, or one of the ones said to have been auctioned in Japan). 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!

UPDATED 08/23/2020: Note that the Important Added Info section of the auction originally contained old information from when we first discovered this poster years ago. We have now updated it to the proper note which features the current information. You can see this note above.

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