Matthew Ferguson

Matthew Ferguson is an artist renowned for creating anniversary posters for Star Wars movies, as well as crafting cover artwork for Star Wars books. Among his notable creations are the 40th-anniversary posters for Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back, released in 2020. In 2021, Ferguson also designed the cover art for Skywalker: A Family at War, a canon biography focusing on the Skywalker family. When Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi was re-released in theaters for a limited time to commemorate its 40th anniversary in 2023, Ferguson was commissioned to produce the poster celebrating the event. Then, in 2024, Ferguson once again designed a commemorative poster, this time for the 25th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. For the 20th anniversary of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith in 2025, Ferguson was the artist behind the commemorative posters.

According to Ferguson himself, a recurring theme evident in his anniversary posters involves the progressively increasing size of Anakin Skywalker as time elapses. In the poster he designed for The Phantom Menace, Anakin is depicted as a diminutive silhouette, whereas, by the time of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader appears significantly larger and more imposing. The scale of Anakin is meant to symbolize his humble beginnings as a seemingly unimportant boy discovered by Qui-Gon Jinn, juxtaposed with his ultimate transformation into the formidable Darth Vader. Furthermore, the Phantom Menace anniversary poster deliberately mirrored the earthy color palette utilized in the film, incorporating reds and golds, and was designed to capture the excitement and anticipation that surrounded the movie's initial release.