PT Phantom Menace - Abandoned Poster

For those that aren't following Drew Struzan on Instagram, I'd recommend doing so as it's currently a goldmine of recollections from the acclaimed artist on his Star Wars history in preparation for The Rise of Skywalker. Anyways, you wouldn't know by looking, but the classic Phantom Menace theatrical poster was done on short notice. Photoshop collage posters are the unfortunate reality of the present, and it turns out this trend was in full swing even in 1999. This was the intention by the marketing crew for The Phantom Menace, but it was ultimately George Lucas who overruled this and insisted that Drew Struzan's art be used. Here's the story from the original post:

So while it's fairly known that Lucas went against popular trends to revive a classical score for Star Wars, we also have him to thank for reviving classical artwork for his posters as well. Anyways, has the original concept for the poster ever been released? I'm curious to see what might have been in place of Struzan's iconic artwork. My best guess is something like the home video artwork.

 

It's especially odd when taking into consideration that Drew was hired only 2 years prior to do the 3 Special Edition posters. What was the marketing team thinking?! Thank the Maker the maker made the final decision.

I recommend anyone to watch The Man Behind the Poster. It also features the creation of The Phantom Menace's poster.

 

Even though the end result was great, the marketing team did mess up in all of the prequels regarding the posters:

Apparently this happened with TPM (which I didn't know), but was addressed in time.

With AOTC, from Struzan's book, it was the art director (at least that's how I understood it) that got in the way and asked Struzan to make something similar to Doctor Zhivago, instead of letting Struzan do his own thing (or have Lucas make the suggestion).

With ROTS, Lucas' preferred version of the poster was not used (but at least he does have it on his wall).

 

Huh. Fascinating. I've always preferred hand drawn/painted/whatevered posters vs. photoshop collages, but the Struzan posters for the PT are really something special. Still, can't help wondering what this lost TPM poster would've looked like. If it's anything like the original DVD release box arts, though, I don't really expect to be that amazed

I don't suppose there are any images of this alternate ROTS poster online? Can't help wondering what that one's like too

 

If I recall correctly, it's this one:

 

Funny enough, he just posted about that one as well. Drew didn't make the final edits, those were done in Photoshop in-house. Still, I wouldn't say one is inferior over the other since they did take great care with the edit by retaining the angles of the composition and keeping the light source consistent. One can even argue that the final version creates a more open composition. Vader looming in the background is more of a callback to Darth Maul in the 1st one.

 

I do like how huge and looming Darth Vader is in the released version, but Drew is right, it throws off the balance of the composition.

 

It doesn't look bad, I get why it was changed. It's more ominous. But I also think it didn't need to be changed to begin with.

I just find it baffling the the marketing department managed to not only not trust Struzan but make these calls without consulting Lucas himself.

 

Well that makes sense as the Force truly goes out of balance in the movie!

Well it sort of is supposed to be something they know about. I'd say they did quite well.