Amazing Ralph McQuarrie RETURN OF THE JEDI Concept Art That Inspired STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER


Check out Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker concept art by Ralph McQuarrie!

The new trailer for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker dropped this week and it revealed what looks like Emporer Palpatine's throne. The terrifying image is designed to strike fear.

Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak revealed that the throne is based on concept art from 1981. Back when McQuarrie was working on Return of the Jedi he designed the Emperor's throne room for the final battle.

Ralph McQuarrie is a professional concept artist who's worked on Hollywood files like Cocoon (1985), Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

Click on the images to enlarge

Ralph McQuarrie talked about the design in Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays. "The Emperor was going to be in a cave surrounded by lava," he said. "The throne room was down in the lower levels of what turns out to be the Empire's headquarters planet. I imagined it to be dark and spooky with enormous buildings and a metal surface and, down below, huge avenues like on Wall Street in Manhattan. George stated that he wanted a planet that was a city with endless built-up areas. In my mind, it was built a thousand years ago, layer after layer. The Emperor’s office would be at the bottom of it, so far down that you would have lava."


This design would later inspire the design of Supreme Leader Snoke's throne room for The Last Jedi.


Additional images show the throne in several different places above the lava.



Later the idea was changed to a tower high above the "Imperial City" as it was known. In the script, there was a scene leading to the "Emperor's Tower". A guard attempts to stop him from seeing the Emperor and Vader force chokes him.

INT DEATH STAR – CORRIDOR TO EMPEROR’S TOWER
Darth Vader walks down the corridor to the Emperor’s Tower and private elevator. The Emperor’s private guard steps in Vader’s path.

GUARD
Halt! The Emperor does not wish
to be disturbed at the moment.

VADER
(raising his gloved hand to the two
guards and choking them with the Force)
The Emperor will see me, now!

GUARD
(repeating Vader’s command)
The Emperor will see you, now.

"An early sketch of the exterior of the second Death Star had the Emperor's throne room as a contained sphere held away from the station by two bracketing arms," the Star Wars Databank said. "In another early sketch, the throne was suspended from above by a thick cylindrical arm. Other art showed the throne in a central elevated disk connected by a bewildering array of curving catwalks."

Additional thumbnail sketches shown by Szostak show a more aggressive throne.

That inspired the design seen in the movie.

See more of Ralph McQuarrie's portfolio at http://www.dreamsandvisionspress.com

Click on the links if you want to see more of Ralph McQuarrie's work or Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker artwork on my blog.

About Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Official synopsis: "Lucasfilm and director J.J. Abrams join forces once again to take viewers on an epic journey to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the riveting conclusion of the seminal Skywalker saga, where new legends will be born and the final battle for freedom is yet to come."
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Cinematography by Rick Carter and Kevin Jenkins
Production Design by Dan Mindel

"Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker" stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Kari Russell, Carrie Fisher, Ian McDiarmid

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker" is scheduled for release December 20, 2019 (United States)

What do you think of the concept art? If you've seen Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker what do you think of the look?
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[Some images via National Air and Space Museum]

© Copyright 2019 Lucasfilm Ltd., Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. All rights reserved.

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