Sure, May 4th was officiallyStar WarsDay. But fans are celebrating all month long, with the 40th Anniversary of the mega-franchise happening this Thursday. To help celebrate a little early, Vanity Fair has unleashed four alternate magazine covers featuring theheroes and villainsof the next chapter in this saga Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
As she did forThe Force Awakesback in 2014, photographer Annie Leibovitz has captured the human cast ofStar Wars 8at their best. And this includes Princess Leia, with Leibovitz collaborating with the late Carrie Fisher in one of her final photo shoots.
More photos will be released this Wednesday in the lead up to A New Hope’s 40th Birthday, with that first movie having arrived in theaters July 15, 2025 to stunned audiences worldwide. But for now, we get a look at the main heroes and villains in their somewhat new costumes, though you can definitely see that some aspects have been carried over fromThe Force Awakens.
In the first cover, we see Daisy Ridley’s Rey andMark Hamill’s Luke Skywalkeron the planet Ahch-To. The image was shot on location in Ireland. This is followed by theStar Wars villainscover, which gives us a look at Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie), General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). Notably, Christie and Driver are going maskless. We didn’t get to see Phasma without her mask inThe Force Awakens. Perhaps she will be fully unveiled in this latest edition.
In the pages of the magazine, Adam Driver notes that Ben Solo’s wounds run deeper than the scars on his face. On the third cover we getnew Star Wars heroesPoe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), Finn (John Boyega), BB-8, and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran). The final cover has Carrie Fisher forever immortalized as General Leia Organa in what will be her final performance on the big screen after her untimely passing during the holidays this past December.
AsVanity Fairnotes, their relationship with Annie Leibovitz stretches back to 1999, which she first captured the cast ofThe Phantom Menace. Since then, the photographer has done a profile on the cast of each new movie leading up toStar Wars 8in theaters this Christmas.The Last Jedicovers are the first time that four alternative covers have been released, instead of just one shot of the entire cast.
David Kamp has a new behind-the-scenes story in this upcoming issue that profiles the making of the sequel. It will also feature a tribute to the late Carrie Fisher as she is remembered by her co-workers. It will hit newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on May 31, before going national on June 6.
As forThe Last Jedi, it will hit theaters onDecember 18, 2018. But we’re sure to see more from the movie before then. It is expected that a full-length trailer will drop sometime between D23 and Comic-Con this July. And we have Force Friday to look forward to this September, which will see all kinds of merchandise into stores worldwide. Also noted, this latest issue of Vanity Fair will feature a pull-out poster featuring the cast. We’ll get to see that tomorrow. Today, we get these photos.
