Star Wars – Empire Strikes Back – Test 1 sheet 1980 unedited – Very Rare

An Original Vintage Theatrical Unfolded One-Sheet Movie Poster (1sh; measures 27″ x 41″ [69 x 104 cm])

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)

Artist: Roger Kastel

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 an auction house, 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, the auction house said that it could be a “bootleg” poster, or possibly a “test” poster. In 2015, the poster that Kevin Doyle purchased was consigned to the auction house (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 the auction house that 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, the auction house 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.

Condition: good to very good. The poster was never folded. There is a faint “wave” (not a fold) across the upper one-third of the poster, slightly touching the very top of Ford’s hair. There are a few faint creases scattered throughout the poster. Three of the last four examples of this poster that we sold had faint brown stains scattered on the back. This one has one tiny faint brown stain on the back of the bottom of the poster, 2″ from the bottom and 6″ from the left, but otherwise has no brown staining. It DOES have a fascinating addition on the back. It has Japanese writing on the back of the far right of the top border in a red pen or marker that reads “Star Wars 2” in Japanese, which is how this movie was going to be released in Japan. The writing does not bleed through to the front. Clearly, this poster is in great rolled condition and it has never had any restoration.