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The Art of Star Wars
The Art of Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith
This is second of two official tie-in books to the explosive conclusion of the Star Wars saga, Revenge of the Sith, and the sequel to the 1999 Sunday Times bestseller, The Art of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. This is the only book that includes the actual movie script. A visual journey through hundreds of pieces of lavishly-rendered artwork: exotic characters, worlds, devices and mind-bending action. Enjoy an insider's perspective from the talented artists who created these wonders.
Jonathan Rinzler, has also written The Making of Star Wars Episode III.
Jonathan Rinzler, has also written The Making of Star Wars Episode III.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
491 people want to read
About the author
J.W. Rinzler
64 books103 followersJ. W. Rinzler has authored over 20 books including two New York Times bestsellers and a #1 best-selling graphic novel. With more than 600,000 copies in print, his books have been translated into seven languages.
J. W. Rinzler grew up in Manhattan, New York City, and then in Berkeley, California. He fell in love with old monster films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as Robin Hood and other adventure movies. He was an avid comic-book and novel reader, an intrepid moviegoer, and had his mind blown by The Beatles, Star Trek, Bruce Lee, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Frank Frazetta, Michelangelo, and Mad Magazine.
Rinzler drew his own comic books (badly), then, in his 20s, moved onto figurative oil painting (okay-ly, but self-taught). He lived in France for almost 10 years, where he began writing. Back in the USA, he worked as executive editor at Lucasfilm for fifteen years, chronicling the work of George Lucas and his genial collaborators in a series of books about Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
During this time, Rinzler also directed and wrote an animated short Riddle of the Black Cat, based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, which was accepted into several festivals, including the Montreal World Film Festival.
His latest book is an epic historical fiction thriller called ALL UP, an epic about the first Space Age, published in July 2020. The sequel will be out in a year or two...
Meanwhile his book on Howard Kazanjian, producer, is due in May 2021; and on Kubrick's The Shining in fall 2021.
Rinzler is married and has two daughters and one grandson. He lives on the northern California coast.
J. W. Rinzler grew up in Manhattan, New York City, and then in Berkeley, California. He fell in love with old monster films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as Robin Hood and other adventure movies. He was an avid comic-book and novel reader, an intrepid moviegoer, and had his mind blown by The Beatles, Star Trek, Bruce Lee, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, Frank Frazetta, Michelangelo, and Mad Magazine.
Rinzler drew his own comic books (badly), then, in his 20s, moved onto figurative oil painting (okay-ly, but self-taught). He lived in France for almost 10 years, where he began writing. Back in the USA, he worked as executive editor at Lucasfilm for fifteen years, chronicling the work of George Lucas and his genial collaborators in a series of books about Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
During this time, Rinzler also directed and wrote an animated short Riddle of the Black Cat, based on an Edgar Allan Poe story, which was accepted into several festivals, including the Montreal World Film Festival.
His latest book is an epic historical fiction thriller called ALL UP, an epic about the first Space Age, published in July 2020. The sequel will be out in a year or two...
Meanwhile his book on Howard Kazanjian, producer, is due in May 2021; and on Kubrick's The Shining in fall 2021.
Rinzler is married and has two daughters and one grandson. He lives on the northern California coast.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 25, 2023
This was everything I wanted out of an “art of book”. I’ve read through a couple of other Star Wars art books, but this was perhaps the first that got me to sit down and read it in its entirety from front to cover. The book has more introspection into the design process and the creative development of the movie, showing character design concepts and scene/story concepts I had never seen or heard of before, which is something I felt was lacking from other art books I read. Beyond that, the art is just beautiful, they are so good I wish I could by printouts of some of the pieces to display. What was also interesting was that they included the sculptures, miniatures, and cloth in h that was developed for the movie, which I was not expecting to see. The book did not disappoint, this is the art book you’re looking for!
December 5, 2012
(More pictures at parkablogs.com)
Putting this book down is difficult after you flip through a few pages. There are hundreds of pieces of conceptual art and beautiful paintings. It is apparent right from the start that George Lucas only hire the best artists for his movie.
The art genre is science fiction. You'll see a lot of concept art on cityscape, robots, planets, costumes, creatures, architecture, props and characters relating to the Star Wars movie. This book is all about art, you won't see any movie stills.
There are two versions of the book. The one with the movie script has 272 pages. The one I'm holding has only 224 pages.
Design concepts are explained for the characters and set. There's not much text but enough. The level of detail, effort and creativity displayed by the artists is simply marveling. This genre is really a playground for artists to explore with their imagination.
For Star Wars fans, there's no reason not to get this book. For art book lovers, especially those who like sci-fi, this book should be on your shopping list.
This review was first published on parkablogs.com. There are more pictures and videos on my blog.
May 17, 2025
Rating: 4/5
I need the extended cut NOWWW
I need the extended cut NOWWW
January 24, 2021
This is a very interesting book in spite of a number of shortcomings. This book has a ton of concept art. It is shocking to me how little planning Lucas put into the prequel trilogy. He seems to have a few scenes in his head prior to making the movie, but for the most part it was a blank slate. It is just mind-blowing to me that Lucas wouldn't sit down prior to making the Phantom Menace and create a somewhat detailed outline of major plot points, characters, and locations. It sounds like he showed up to the art department and told them to come up with some worlds the clones could battle on, come up with a droid villain, and other stuff like that while he figures out what to do with the plot. Also, it'd be good if they had some cool artwork of interesting plot points for him to think about. It is understandable not having things planned out in the OT since they didn't expect to succeed the way they did. Lucas knew for a fact that he could basically do whatever he wanted in the prequel trilogy. He had the money and the time to do it right, and apparently he decided to just wing it.
My main complaint for this book is how small many of the artwork are. There are way too many that you have to squint and try to see what you are looking at which is a big problem on a book whose focus is the artwork of a movie.
While much of the art is very beautiful, it mostly doesn't compare in my eyes to the actual paintings done for the original trilogy. It is similar to how many of the settings from the original trilogy done with practical effects in the 70's and 80's look and feel more realistic than the CGI environments of the prequel trilogy. A lot of the art looks like it was drawn on a computer, which it was. What makes the old artwork so impressive is many of the landscapes look like they could be real places. When they were used as matte backgrounds, it was believable. The prequel artwork never really stop looking like CGI.
It is very strange that the book ends with a little paragraph saying something along the lines of, "well, the movie comes out in a couple of months and so we don't have anything for the art past this point." I am guessing they wanted to get this book out as soon as possible after the release of the movie, but it seems dumb to not wait a few more months and have a complete book of artwork.
I think the best part of the book is you really see quite a bit of the concept work that was the foundation for the entire movie. Since Lucas didn't have much planned, you get a glimpse of the different directions the movie could've gone. It was pretty fascinating thinking about what could've been. Some ideas, like the General Grievous concept, illustrated how a good idea can become dumb by having him do his stupid cough. Other ideas, like a prominent alien species of sentient lemurs, show you how many close calls there were with bad ideas.
Other good ideas that didn't make the cut:
After Obi-Wan falls into the sinkhole of Utapau, he has to fight a cave guardian. The pictures of that look pretty cool.
Bad ideas:
Having Han Solo being raised by Chewie and involved in this movie.
A world of bridges, but the bridges (with all the huge buildings on them) are all built upside down. It creates interesting visuals, but it doesn't really make sense.
The book is worth reading for any Star Wars fan, but it needed to be twice as long so that the pictures could've been big enough to appreciate.
My main complaint for this book is how small many of the artwork are. There are way too many that you have to squint and try to see what you are looking at which is a big problem on a book whose focus is the artwork of a movie.
While much of the art is very beautiful, it mostly doesn't compare in my eyes to the actual paintings done for the original trilogy. It is similar to how many of the settings from the original trilogy done with practical effects in the 70's and 80's look and feel more realistic than the CGI environments of the prequel trilogy. A lot of the art looks like it was drawn on a computer, which it was. What makes the old artwork so impressive is many of the landscapes look like they could be real places. When they were used as matte backgrounds, it was believable. The prequel artwork never really stop looking like CGI.
It is very strange that the book ends with a little paragraph saying something along the lines of, "well, the movie comes out in a couple of months and so we don't have anything for the art past this point." I am guessing they wanted to get this book out as soon as possible after the release of the movie, but it seems dumb to not wait a few more months and have a complete book of artwork.
I think the best part of the book is you really see quite a bit of the concept work that was the foundation for the entire movie. Since Lucas didn't have much planned, you get a glimpse of the different directions the movie could've gone. It was pretty fascinating thinking about what could've been. Some ideas, like the General Grievous concept, illustrated how a good idea can become dumb by having him do his stupid cough. Other ideas, like a prominent alien species of sentient lemurs, show you how many close calls there were with bad ideas.
Other good ideas that didn't make the cut:
After Obi-Wan falls into the sinkhole of Utapau, he has to fight a cave guardian. The pictures of that look pretty cool.
Bad ideas:
Having Han Solo being raised by Chewie and involved in this movie.
A world of bridges, but the bridges (with all the huge buildings on them) are all built upside down. It creates interesting visuals, but it doesn't really make sense.
The book is worth reading for any Star Wars fan, but it needed to be twice as long so that the pictures could've been big enough to appreciate.
November 11, 2021
The best prequel movie of them all - by far and away. And the most violent!
The concept art for this movie is stunningly beautiful. It is also fantastically dark - the initial concept art for the alien/robot generals that would eventually become General Grievous are legitimate nightmare fuel. I cannot help but feel there was some Lord of the Rings influence throughout some of the character, costume, and building designs.
I also appreciate that Filoni et. al, were able to joyfully but lovingly plunder a lot of the art made for this movie in the animated shows (especially the Lemur people!).
A most welcome addition to any Star Wars fan's bookshelf, or that of a movie lover in general. It is that good.
The concept art for this movie is stunningly beautiful. It is also fantastically dark - the initial concept art for the alien/robot generals that would eventually become General Grievous are legitimate nightmare fuel. I cannot help but feel there was some Lord of the Rings influence throughout some of the character, costume, and building designs.
I also appreciate that Filoni et. al, were able to joyfully but lovingly plunder a lot of the art made for this movie in the animated shows (especially the Lemur people!).
A most welcome addition to any Star Wars fan's bookshelf, or that of a movie lover in general. It is that good.
March 4, 2019
If anyone is interested in what it was like to be in the room with George Lucas, the producers, actors, and conceptual design artists, while they were making the movie, this book truly makes you feel like you are there! The artwork is breathtaking. Everything from sketches all the way to full color keyframes. Just stunning.
January 15, 2021
10/10 man, this book is just so gorgeous and likewise has its film script at the end. So good, just 😍
November 23, 2021
Everything about this book was amazing! The script, the AMAZING art. Getting to see behind the scenes of these amazing, breathtaking movies is something I always find incredible.
April 5, 2022
I love artist Iain McCaig in this he is one of my greatest inspirations
June 24, 2024
Woohoo! We’re back on art books!
I could not find that many ‘Making of’ books for Star Wars, but I DID find this one, which was about the art of “Revenge of the Sith.” The Prequel Trilogy is, if nothing else, visually interesting from a design perspective, and I do love myself some concept art. And boy is there a lot of concept art here!
One of the interesting things too, with these sorts of art books, is that a lot of times you get hints and pieces of things that got discarded from the final version of the film. Not just older designs–apparently Mygeeto and Cato Nemoidia were going to be large parts of the film, and had a lot of design work done for them. Mygeeto ends up being just a short sequence during Order 66 in the final movie; Cato Nemoidia doesn’t appear at all (although the concept art was clearly influential for the version of it that appears in “Force Unleashed 2”). Mygeeto as a crystal world doesn’t appear to have stuck; that ends up going to Chrystophis in “The Clone Wars.” Also, the lemur people don’t appear in the movie at all, though again, they appeared in the animated series.
There are also character ideas that are interesting and sadly got discarded. One idea was that the Jedi Masters would be changed and scarred by the war; Ki-Adi-Mundi, for instance, would have been missing an eye. Another idea was that Padme would have a painful pregnancy because she was carrying the Chosen One’s children, who were incredibly powerful with the Force, and that she would go to Yoda for help, only for him to be unable to do anything.
If you like Star Wars, or if you like cool art design for fantasy and science-fiction, you should check out this book. If you want to know how a big movie like this develops over time, it’s also a good book to look at–Rinzler puts dates in to help you understand the timeline of the film’s evolution, which began even before the previous film’s release.
It’s cool art! And it’s Star Wars!
I could not find that many ‘Making of’ books for Star Wars, but I DID find this one, which was about the art of “Revenge of the Sith.” The Prequel Trilogy is, if nothing else, visually interesting from a design perspective, and I do love myself some concept art. And boy is there a lot of concept art here!
One of the interesting things too, with these sorts of art books, is that a lot of times you get hints and pieces of things that got discarded from the final version of the film. Not just older designs–apparently Mygeeto and Cato Nemoidia were going to be large parts of the film, and had a lot of design work done for them. Mygeeto ends up being just a short sequence during Order 66 in the final movie; Cato Nemoidia doesn’t appear at all (although the concept art was clearly influential for the version of it that appears in “Force Unleashed 2”). Mygeeto as a crystal world doesn’t appear to have stuck; that ends up going to Chrystophis in “The Clone Wars.” Also, the lemur people don’t appear in the movie at all, though again, they appeared in the animated series.
There are also character ideas that are interesting and sadly got discarded. One idea was that the Jedi Masters would be changed and scarred by the war; Ki-Adi-Mundi, for instance, would have been missing an eye. Another idea was that Padme would have a painful pregnancy because she was carrying the Chosen One’s children, who were incredibly powerful with the Force, and that she would go to Yoda for help, only for him to be unable to do anything.
If you like Star Wars, or if you like cool art design for fantasy and science-fiction, you should check out this book. If you want to know how a big movie like this develops over time, it’s also a good book to look at–Rinzler puts dates in to help you understand the timeline of the film’s evolution, which began even before the previous film’s release.
It’s cool art! And it’s Star Wars!
June 3, 2025
I just looked at the pictures and went "cool" and "pretty"
March 18, 2017
There are few who would dispute that Revenge of the Sith is the best of the Star Wars prequels. Its success is perhaps in part because it presents a climax presumed by the original trilogy, even if the preceding two prequels completely failed to establish a route to that climax. Throughout The Art of Star Wars, Episode III - Revenge of the Sith there are references to A New Hope, as well as ideas and locations which have been part of the Star Wars mythology for decades without being realised on film - Kashyyyk, Mustafar - and an accidental look forward to The Force Awakens on page 89, where Warren Fu is quoted as saying: "Star Wars is all about dangerous catwalks." But Revenge of the Sith is still a Star Wars prequel and is, thus, proverbially bad. There's so much still to get through that the film feels like a rush; I remember thinking back in 2005 that the film felt like a sequence of fights designed to answer variations on the question "who would win between..." - General Grievous and Obi-Wan; Mace Windu and Palpatine; Yoda and Palpatine; Obi-Wan and Anakin. To the latter, of course, we knew the answer - this time. The rematch would go quite differently. But how to get there? This film was supposed to provide the answer.
The Art of Revenge of the Sith suggests that George Lucas had no idea where he was going with the prequels. There are a few scenes and locations known, but the process seems to have been to throw an idea at the artists and see what they could make of it, then craft these ideas into a film. On page 81 there's a quote from Lucas: "By the third film you have a lot of characters left over from before, and they're all running around yipping and yelling and saying, 'What about me?'". There was no overall plan for this trilogy; he had seemingly no clue where most of these characters would be when he created them - there seems to have been a question at one point whether Padmé would even give birth. The film ends up like a series of events which seemed cool at the time - Obi-Wan rides a lizard and fights a cyborg! Yoda fights Palpatine and is friends with Chewbacca! - which ultimately fail to carry the unsatisfactory plot. This method does produce the best of the prequel trilogy, but that bar was low and the film is far from classic. But, as a method, it results in a lot of art.
In contrast to the arts of the original trilogy, The Art of Revenge of the Sith is huge, and detailed, and still needs to reduce some paintings to tiny thumbnails (despite page 165 being entirely devoted to a close-up of the floor of the Trade Federation Cruiser). There's not much description of what's going on - George Lucas asks for something, they paint it, he moves on to another idea - and because it's presented chronologically, the development of certain scenes requires looking backwards and forwards to follow to completion. There's a lot that's great, but mostly there's just a lot. It's characteristic of the prequel trilogy that digital creation reached a point where these designs didn't take as much time and money wasn't an obstacle so hundreds of them were produced. Many of them are fantastic. There's enough in here to have produced a couple more Star Wars films.
As a process, it seems wasteful and indulgent. Again, characteristic of the prequels. Rather than focusing on making a few things well it seems like the aim was to make a lot of things look cool. To be fair, this process is more successful in Revenge of the Sith than in the previous two films. Ultimately, The Art of Revenge of the Sith is overwhelming and exciting, indulgent and exasperating, filling in a universe with places and things, but without character or personality. It's good to look at, but I was hoping for much more.
The Art of Revenge of the Sith suggests that George Lucas had no idea where he was going with the prequels. There are a few scenes and locations known, but the process seems to have been to throw an idea at the artists and see what they could make of it, then craft these ideas into a film. On page 81 there's a quote from Lucas: "By the third film you have a lot of characters left over from before, and they're all running around yipping and yelling and saying, 'What about me?'". There was no overall plan for this trilogy; he had seemingly no clue where most of these characters would be when he created them - there seems to have been a question at one point whether Padmé would even give birth. The film ends up like a series of events which seemed cool at the time - Obi-Wan rides a lizard and fights a cyborg! Yoda fights Palpatine and is friends with Chewbacca! - which ultimately fail to carry the unsatisfactory plot. This method does produce the best of the prequel trilogy, but that bar was low and the film is far from classic. But, as a method, it results in a lot of art.
In contrast to the arts of the original trilogy, The Art of Revenge of the Sith is huge, and detailed, and still needs to reduce some paintings to tiny thumbnails (despite page 165 being entirely devoted to a close-up of the floor of the Trade Federation Cruiser). There's not much description of what's going on - George Lucas asks for something, they paint it, he moves on to another idea - and because it's presented chronologically, the development of certain scenes requires looking backwards and forwards to follow to completion. There's a lot that's great, but mostly there's just a lot. It's characteristic of the prequel trilogy that digital creation reached a point where these designs didn't take as much time and money wasn't an obstacle so hundreds of them were produced. Many of them are fantastic. There's enough in here to have produced a couple more Star Wars films.
As a process, it seems wasteful and indulgent. Again, characteristic of the prequels. Rather than focusing on making a few things well it seems like the aim was to make a lot of things look cool. To be fair, this process is more successful in Revenge of the Sith than in the previous two films. Ultimately, The Art of Revenge of the Sith is overwhelming and exciting, indulgent and exasperating, filling in a universe with places and things, but without character or personality. It's good to look at, but I was hoping for much more.
March 15, 2012
This is the last of the star wars artwork books (for now) and just as colourful and rich in ideas and material as the attack of the clones book however they do not capture for me the same excitement as the original trilogy of books (but if you have read the earlier reviews you will know that i am biased) however its still a brilliant insight in to the various ideas and evolutions of characters, locations and their ships. Also the small snippets of dialogue (nothing too great to detract from the art) give a tiny view in to creation of such icons.
December 20, 2014
A great book to borrow from your library. As some have said, to look at and just see the process that movie concept artists go through --it's neat to read the thoughts and ideas these creative people had while coming up with character, costume, vehicle, and set designs ...
January 31, 2016
Beautiful art that speaks either to Lucas' genius or his folly. Fascinating to see conceptual artists working for a full year without GL telling them what the story will actually be about. Worth looking at the process and again, amazing art.
Want to read
December 15, 2007this book is more to look at than to read - theh environment art here is amazing
March 29, 2008
One of thee most fascinating books to glance through, I now have a true appreciation for all the hard work that goes into making the visual concepts in movies, especially movies like Star Wars.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews