Star Wars: The Blueprints: Designs and Artwork from The Skywalker Saga
A magnificent showcase of over 200 production drawings of star ships, vehicles, weapons, droids, and props from the Star Wars galaxy.
Drawing on unprecedented access to the Lucasfilm Archives, this deluxe volume reveals and celebrates the spectacular work of the technical artists and designers who conceived the unforgettable look and feel of the Star Wars galaxy.
Go behind the scenes with this collection of official Star Wars blueprints:
Officially licensed: Created in close collaboration with Lucasfilm, with content from across the whole Skywalker saga of movies, including the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and never-before-published blueprints from the sequel trilogy: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
Rare and beautifully realized designs: Pore over more than 200 rarely-seen Star Wars schematics, including 10 pull-out artworks that display these artifacts in unrivaled detail.
A must-have Star Wars gift: With a wealth of content housed in a high-quality hardcover finish, Star Wars: The Blueprints is the perfect addition to fans’ libraries, and a fantastic gift for anyone interested in the history and design of science fiction films.
Encompassing material from Episode I: The Phantom Menace to Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, this expansive book catalogs the entire Skywalker saga in stunning detail, featuring rarely and never-before-released, behind-the-scenes content.
With over 200 schematics, including ten pull-out artworks that showcase the elaborate details of these iconic designs, this book is an essential addition to the collection of every Star Wars enthusiast.
Authors: J.W. Rinzler and Pablo Hidalgo
Release date: October 7, 2025
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780593969335
With the untimely passing of Jonathan Rinzler in 2021 at just 58 years of age, the galaxy lost one of its most vital voices. A shrewd analyst and documentarian of the Star Wars story who imbued his writing with a depth of knowledge that many of us consider to be the gold standard telling of Lucasfilm history, his friendship with George Lucas – earned in large part through the strength and clarity of his writing – made us feel like we were peering around the doorframe into a meeting, or overhearing a corridor conversation, many of which would determine the path of the GFFA. His 2011 book Star Wars: The Blueprints – released during a time when he had already wowwed the fandom with his Making of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Indiana Jones tomes – could have easily been concieved as a straight-down-the-line guide book of technical drawings, laid out in chronological order through each of the (then) six saga episodes, and many would have been more than happy with that, but for Rinzler this was a chance to, as he said himself, shine a light on the UK production crew, many of whom had gone largely unnoticed for decades.
“The blueprints books that have been published before have been mostly in-universe. Star Wars: The Blueprints is historical, behind-the-scenes material. Most of these blueprints have been sitting in the archives for about 30 years untouched. The book concentrates on the UK production art departments, because they’ve never really had their moment in the sun.”
As anyone who ever opened a copy of Star Wars: The Blueprints knows, not only does it faithfully and crisply lay out those incredible images, but it goes further – far further – into the history of their creation, shining a light on crew members, looking at the creation of vehicles and locations their influences and how departments would overlap and pick up the ball to take the kernel of an idea from concept to completion. From the classic chaos of the ILM workshop to the spit-and-sawdust of the UK production floor, it tells the story of how – in a way no one has ever quite managed to do since – George Lucas brought together a team of disparate craftsmen and creatives, some with decades of knowledge and others fresh to the industry, to drag the images from his minds eye and (no doubt with plenty of splinters) construct them into a galaxy we’re still travelling through today.
Of course, a couple of years after the initial release of Star Wars: The Blueprints, the sequel trilogy was underway. With the retirement of Lucas and the completion of the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney on 21st December 2012, a new era for the saga began and, as has largely become the modern day norm, clear space was left between the end of production and the telling of its story. Rinzler never did get back to the realms of blueprints; he would complete his own trilogy with The Making of Return of the Jedi (in which, I am eternally proud to say, he used elements of interviews with Jedi cast and crew that I had conducted for my 1999 – 2009 website Lightsabre), write Star Wars Storyboards: The Original Trilogy in 2014 and then leave the company in 2016.
Enter Pablo Hidalgo, the multi-hyphenate author/story group member/historian/lore keeper who came from the depths of the fandom in the mid 90’s through West End Games, Star Wars Gamer, Star Wars Insider and on into reference books, webstrips and more, who employed his deep, deep knowledge of the nitty-gritty of the saga to become a name the fandom trusts and the most logical and obvious person to take the reins and bring us this – Star Wars The Blueprints: Designs and Artwork from the Skywalker Saga – encompassing the original and final trilogy of blueprints and their stories to the page.
Thankfully, Hidalgo isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. Far from it, the sequel trilogy entries are written in a way that compliment what Rinzler wrote 14 years ago, while conveying all the information you’d expect such a release to deliver. From an introduction to episodes VII – IX that explains how live action Star Wars productions from Lucasfilm had been dormant since 2005 to the wise decision to return to the UK for production at Pinewood Studios, the scene is set for the story to begin, and the incredible excitement and beyond all, expectation that brought along with it. Also, the overlaps of production; before The Force Awakens was released to the world, Rogue One (not included in this Skywalker Saga focused book) had been filmed and work on The Last Jedi had begun. The death of Carrie Fisher, the departure of Colin Trevorrow and the return of J.J. Abrams for The Rise of Skywalker, and then into the blueprints themselves and the stories behind them, beginning with one of the first vessels we see, the First Order Transporter.
A lavishly and beautifully presented book from DK, Star Wars: The Blueprints: Designs and Artwork from The Skywalker Saga opens up with double-page spreads, looks at familiar vehicles (the Millennium Falcon of The Force Awakens is the most accurate version so far, as we learn from Senior Art Director Gary Tomkins, who’s father Alan was Oscar nominated for his work on The Empire Strikes Back, and Props Art Director Mark Harris, who also worked on Episode V) and delve into the incredible work on Maz’s Castle, Starkiller Base (akas ‘Evil Castle’) and on to The Last Jedi with the Resistance Cruiser, the redesigned A-Wing, the impressive Resistance Bomber and beyond into The Rise of Skywalker and Kijimi, Babu Frik’s shop, the ruins of the second Death Star and finally Exegol.
The book ends with a credits list of the Art Department, a very handy rundown of the incredible talents involved, and as you close the back cover the distinct feeling of how lucky we are as Star Wars fans not only to have such a rich and vibrant galaxy to explore and enjoy, but also diligent authors like Rinzler and Hidalgo to frame the creation of these ships and locations in such an engaging and readble manner. Highly recommended.
