Color & Theme

• "The look of the third prequel will definitely be closer to that of the original films." - RM
• Color and darkness will be emphasized in the film. - SW Insider
• There will be new costume styles. Some will be moving towards the Classic Trilogy style and others will be unique as they are worn by new characters on new worlds. - TB
• Some costumes seen in Ep1 and Ep2 will be seen again in Ep3. -TB
• We will see at least two sunsets in the film. -PH
• In addition to 70's style themes, there are plenty of "blinking lights" to merge the PT into the Classic Trilogy. -PH
• Much time was spent in designing new weaponry for both the clone and Separatist armies. We may even see some walkers (predecessors to AT-AT's). -RC
• The designs for the new worlds are brand new concepts that George wanted to explore, and they may not all be necessarily "Star Wars-like". -RC
• Spanish art nouveau and 1940s futurist / art deco were some of the design influences used for the Ep3 concept work. -RC
• We will see both the "used universe" design style common in the Classic Trilogy as well as the sleek, "pretty" environments seen so far in the prequels. -RC
• Some of the new environments have sophisticated cultures that are hard to categorize because they don't really fit with being "used universe" or "pretty". -RC
• During pre-production, George presented the design crew with some art work by Mark Rothko and asked that some of those influences be captured for the film. -RC
• For the new planet designs, some historical sources were researched and integrated, but most new worlds are focused on being as unique and fresh as possible. -RC
• Some of the old Ralph McQuarrie images were incorporated into Ep3. At the start of designing, George pointed out certain designs he definitely wanted to see in the film. -RC
• There will be ship sounds that are precursors to the TIE-Fighter sounds. -BB
• The current color range for lightsabers is still blue, green, purple (for Mace) and red. -PH
• The color of a prop lightsaber used during shooting has NOTHING to do with its final color on film. It is only given a color to contrast enough with the bluescreen or greenscreen backgrounds for later effects. -PH
• Kashyyyk will be different from Endor in the way that it's a much more heroic, jaw-dropping scale. People's eyes will be popping as they say, "Wow...that's a big tree!" - JB
• There will be no new lightsaber colors. Expect the red, green and blue, and no new types of exotic handle designs. - PH
• One discussion consisted of the physical properties of Force lightning, from stylistic choices of color, size and shape to the physical reflexive properties in angle and strength. - OS
• With 12 different worlds to explore, the Art Department was challenged to create distinctive architecture and terrain for each planet that would stand out no matter what the time of day was. At one point, color studies of the different environments would blur together if the planets were depicted at dusk. - OS
• The theme that was incorporated into the flight of Anakin and Obi-Wan during the opening space battle was how skillful they are as pilots and as a team. - OS
• [Nikki] Gooley decided to approach Padm?'s makeup with a more natural look due to the lavish ornate qualities in Padm?'s costuming for Revenge of the Sith. - OS
• "Natalie as Padm? had so much going on with her costume and her hair, I tried to keep her makeup as natural as possible. I didn't want her makeup to compete with everything that was going on, just so that her natural beauty came through. Because of Padm?'s pregnancy I wanted to give her a radiant, natural glow -- that very healthy look that pregnant women have." - NG
• "Natalie and I [Nikki Gooley] played homage to Carrie Fisher with some 70's lip gloss in the bedroom scene. She wakes up looking very glossy." - NG
• "George [Lucas] has been very clever with his makeup ideas in the Star Wars films because there's nothing really that can date; nothing is a trendy fashion item. He's been very smart with his choices to keep things very timeless so that in 10 years time, it won't look dated." - NG
• Concerning Anakin's charred look at the end of Episode III, Dave Elsey said, "When I went back to George I asked, 'Look, how much can we get away with here? How nasty can we make it?' And he basically just said, 'Do what you have to.'" - OS (Dave Elsey)
• "[Anakin's charred look at the end of Episode III] is some very dark imagery for a Star Wars film, probably making it the darkest Star Wars film out of all of them." - DE
• The Kashyyyk sequence looks to be one of the film's most memorable and breathtaking action sequences. - OS
• Padm?'s Naboo star skiff gleams with the silvery chromium finish so distinctive of Naboo design. - OS
• Episode III will be a pastiche of 1930s-1940s cinema. - PH
• "One of the themes throughout the films is that the Sith Lords, when they started out thousands of years ago, embraced the Dark Side. They were greedy and self-centered and they all wanted to take over, so they killed each other. Eventually there was only one left, and that one took on an apprentice. And for thousands of years, the master would teach the apprentice, the master would die, the apprentice would then teach another apprentice, the master, and so on. But there could never be any more than two of them, because if there were, they would try to get rid of the leader, which is exactly what Vader was trying to do, and that's exactly what the Emperor was trying to do. The Emperor was trying to get rid of Vader, and Vader was trying to get rid of the Emperor. And that is the antithesis of a symbiotic relationship, in which if you do that, you become cancer, and you eventually kill the host, and everything dies." - GL
• "[Episode III] was much darker than the other two that we worked on. You can sort of piece it together, since it fits between episodes II and IV. Yeah, we worked very hard on it and I think it's great." - NP
• "We wanted to have a sort of high-tech Frank Lloyd Wright feel where the Wookiees incorporated the natural environments into their living conditions," says Ryan Church. "George was very specific about not wanting to see the same thing over and over again. We're visiting a lot of planets in Episode III, so when we cut to Kashyyyk really quickly, you have to know where you are." The end result will be a single city on Kashyyyk that straddles several massive trees. Though other published sources have explored the thickest areas of jungle canopy, Episode III's location is on the shore of a tree-lined lagoon, offering greater visual dynamics and story potential. - Ryan Church
• In Episode III, Kashyyyk will be at war, and as such, the Art Department needed to develop Wookiee instruments of warfare. "We wanted it to look distinct from what the rest of the cultures in the Star Wars universe use," says Ryan Church. "Feng Zhu did a lot of these technical illustrations, and came up with a very unique aesthetic. I wanted to come up with a type of vehicle that implied that only a Wookiee could handle it. Like they took some kind of technology that's out there, and they commandeered it and modified it for their own use." - Ryan Church
• "Yes [Episode III] is very dark, alot darker than the other ones." - EM
• "[The Prequel films] are all so very different, Episode III is very dark and much more demanding, we all know that Anakin becomes Darth Vader but to actually see this transition is very painful. So when you have such a dark story to work with it demands you as an actor to work harder. So even though I haven't seen the film yet I would suppose that the last one is my favorite." - NP
• Alderaan's costumes have sleek skin-tight designs that have a retro-feel to them, helping join the generation-spanning styles of the prequel and original trilogy. - OS