Book Review: 'The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

Cover Art: "Rey and the Island" concept painting by James Clyne. © 2017 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

On December 15, 2017, Abrams Books, an imprint of New York publisher Henry N. Abrams, released Phil Szostak's The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Published on Opening Day of director Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, this was Szostak's third volume in a series of illustrated books that focus on the concept art created by Lucasfilm's Art Department during the making of the post-George Lucas Sequel Trilogy and the standalone Star Wars Anthology movies.

An image archivist who has worked for The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm in the past, Szostak was embedded with Lucasfilm's Art Department almost as soon as George Lucas retired from making blockbuster films and sold his famous production company and all of its assets to Disney in 2012. As a result, he has been in a good position to cover the illustrators, set designers, pre-vis artists, and costume designers who helped directors J.J. Abrams, Gareth Edwards, Rian Johnson, and Ron Howard bring Star Wars back to theaters for a new generation of movie-going fans.

Lavishly illustrated with over 300 illustrations - costume designs, preliminary and final spacecraft concepts, ideas (used and unused) for new creatures such as the porgs and the Caretakers on Ach-To and the "crystal foxes" on Crait, and sketches of major characters such as Rey, Finn, Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren, General Hux, General Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker - and featuring a foreword by Rian Johnson, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi gives art aficionados and Star Wars fans alike a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of the 2017 film's visual palette from pre-production all the way to the final touches in post-production.

The opening pages of "Rey and the Jedi Steps." Concept paintings (l) by Jock (Mark Simpson) and (r) Justin Sweet. © 2017 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi begins with a bit of unfinished business from Star Wars: The Force Awakens: the inclusion of a chapter titled The Death of Han Solo and Rebirth of the Jedi. If you've read The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you probably remember that Szostak's first book in the series left out two very important plot points from the 2015 film that begins the Sequel Trilogy.

As Szostak writes in the opening lines of The Death of Han Solo and Rebirth of the Jedi:

To help preserve the filmgoing experience of The Force Awakens for Star Wars fans around the world, concept art depicting an older Luke Skywalker, the Jedi temple, the training of Rey (initially called "Kira" in early development), and the death of Han Solo was not included in The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It is revealed here for the first time. 

In this chapter, Szostak discusses how Lucasfilm's Doug Chiang (a veteran concept artist who worked with George Lucas during the making of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith; he's now a Lucasfilm vice president and executive creative director) tpok existing photos of Mark Hamill in 2012 and painted them over to create the first images of an older. somewhat haunted Luke Skywalker in self-imposed exile. Per The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, in early versions of The Force Awakens, Luke's story arc was a huge element of the first installment of the Sequel Trilogy until Michael Arndt, the film's original screenwriter, realized that Luke would be the "McGuffin" of the movie and that his tragic retreat from the center of galactic events should be left for Episode VIII instead.

The book also explains that Han Solo's fate was decided upon early in the pre-production phase of the making of The Force Awakens, even before Lawrence Kasdan was brought in to replace Arndt as the co-author of the screenplay. In the new version of Episode VII, Harrison Ford's iconic scoundrel, smuggler, Rebel hero, and smuggler once again steps into the Obi-Wan Kenobi-like role of mentor for Sequel Trilogy protagonist Rey (Daisy Ridley). Thus, it's Han and not Luke who confronts the character initially known as "the Jedi Killer" and eventually revealed to be Ben Solo/Kylo Ren.

After this necessary backtrack to the past, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi explores the major characters and their story arcs in detail.

Interestingly, Szostak does not follow either the film's production schedule or in-universe chronology. Instead, The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is designed to follow the artistic evolution of specific characters and their story arcs, as the book's table of contents suggests:

• Foreword by Rian Johnson
• Introduction by Phil Szostak
• Who's Who
• The Death of Han Solo and Rebirth of the Jedi
• Rey and the Jedi Steps
• Battle Scars
• The Man Behind the Curtain
• Finn Awakens
• A Rose in Bloom
• To Catch a Codebreaker
• Don't Join
• Phasma Unmasked
• Poe Dameron and the Virtue of Not Fighting
• The Unsinkable Leia Organa
• A Line in the Salt
• Binary Sunset

Written and directed by Rian Johnson (Looper, The Brothers Bloom, Brick) and production designed by Rick Heinrichs (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Captain America: The First Avenger), Star Wars: The Last Jedi, like every chapter before it, owes its visual language and fully imagined cinematic landscape to an incomparable art department: the Lucasfilm “visualists.” The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi explores their vision and illuminates their creative process in stunning detail. Featuring concept art, costume sketches, and storyboards, this book takes fans on a deep dive into the development of the fantastic worlds, characters, and creatures—both old and new—of The Last Jedi. Exclusive interviews with the filmmakers and with the Lucasfilm visualists provides a running commentary on this unforgettable art, and reveals the inspirations behind moviemaking magic at its finest. - Publisher's promotional blurb, Abrams Books

Dust jacket (back) art: "Bomber Version 024" by James Clyne. © 2017 Abrams Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

My Take


I have owned most of the books in The Art of Star Wars series since Ballantine Books published The Art of Star Wars (AKA The Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) by Carol Titleman back in 1980. (The only exceptions are The Art of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and The Art of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.). I've also been a fan of the franchise since the fall of 1977; not exactly a "first adopter," but lucky enough to have been a Generation '77 fan, thanks in no small part to Star Wars' unusually long run in theaters. (In those last years before most people could afford videocassette recorders and "home media' copies of popular movies, extremely successful movies were "held over" by distributors to enhance their box office profits.)

 For me, The Art of Star Wars series is a mixed bag as far as the quality of the product is concerned. For instance, Ballantine Books' volumes for the George Lucas era (Classic and Prequel Trilogies) were either inconsistent (some included the scripts for the specific movie covered within their pagesm others did not) or had serious durability issues (my copies of The Art of Star Wars and The Art of Return of the Jedi, both of which were trade paperbacks, shed their pages no matter how carefully I handled them).

I also have mixed feelings about the current Disney/Lucasfilm Star Wars-era books by Abrams, all of which have been written by Phil Szostak and released on the same date that each film opens in theaters.

There's no doubt in my mind that these new books in The Art of Star Wars series are beautiful and informative. In that respect, Abrams Books (which also published, through its AbramsComicart imprint, Wacky Packages and a series of books dedicated to Topps trading cards from the original Star Wars Trilogy) has done fans and art aficionados alike a huge service by publishing these lavishly illustrated and durable hardcover volumes.

As the reviewers for Gizmodo wrote in 2017, “The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi is much more than a bunch of pretty pictures. Buried in Phil Szostak's 256-page book are some fascinating insights into the production of the film…we highly recommend you flip through yourself…”

On the other hand, even taking account that Lucasfilm is releasing Star Wars films at the rate of one movie per year, I think it's a mistake to write and release these books to coincide with each movie's premiere. Not only does this mean that fans won't ever see another book like Titleman's original The Art of Star Wars (which featured the complete revised fourth draft of George Lucas's script), but it also means that important plot points are likely to be left out of the books' narrative to prevent spoilers from leaking before Premiere Day. 

Still, the books in The Art of Star Wars series are important chronicles of the creative process that goes into the making of these expensive but culturally-significant films, and Szostak knows how to tell a story and get good interviews from the visualists at Lucasfilm. And with one more Sequel Trilogy film (Star Wars: Episode IX) due out in December, I know that I'll be getting Szostak's next The Art of Star Wars book in a bookstore not very far away.