INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Drew Struzan: ‘The Force Awakens’ Is The Best ‘Star Wars’ Film

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 11:16 PST, Aug 19, 2015

Artist Drew Struzan has expressed his opinion of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, asserting that the film is “far and away probably going to be THE BEST Star Wars you’ve ever seen.”

Struzan’s work is all too familiar to Star Wars fans. The artist is responsible for painting the iconic posters for every previous Star Wars film, as well as a host of other movies. As the Inquisitr recently reported, Struzan’s first poster for The Force Awakens was revealed at Disney’s D23 Expo, where it was handed out to attendees.

Speaking with Movie Weekly, Struzan revealed that his involvement with The Force Awakens began over a year and a half ago when director J.J. Abrams called him, expressing admiration for his work and inquiring if he would consider returning to the Star Wars fold.

“So about a year later, we get together and meet and [Abrams] says we’re using all the original people – John Williams, Kasdan, Harrison Ford’s in it, everybody’s in it and everybody’s writing and making the music and we have to have your art to make it the real thing. So, of course, I’ve got to do it for George and I’ve got to do it for Star Wars. I’ve never worked with J.J before and so we started working on it and he showed me like half the movie and it was just… a wonderful film and I know it’s going to be grand. I got to read the script and subsequently I’ve seen half of it and I can tell you and the fans this, Honest to god, it is far and away probably going to be THE BEST Star Wars you’ve ever seen… Well it’s beautifully made and it’s a wonderful story.”

Struzan also revealed during the interview that Abrams gave him no direction regarding the artwork for The Force Awakens, instead trusting to the artist’s instincts. As Slashfilm reports, Struzan claims that the concept for the finished poster came to him while he slept. Despite seven months of working with the production, Struzan notes that the design the studio settled on was the very first one that he created.

“To me it represents the film. The spirit of the film, the new characters, the battle again to find the truth, to grow up, to find the purpose in life. It’s all those things that Star Wars had to be and is still. And I hope to represent that again to a new generation..”

While the rest of Drew Struzan’s artwork for the film will be released in the coming months, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens on December 18.

[Image: Disney/ Lucasfilm via Slashfilm]

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