Ralph McQuarrie's influence on Star Wars is an aspect of the franchise that deserves universal recognition and praise. The art he provided for the movies has made him a crucial figure to many fans, helping bring to life so many iconic people, places, and images of George Lucas' original films. Not all of his art was used in the movies, though, so much of it went untouched for decades.
With four canon animated shows, a lot of McQuarrie's unused concept art is finding its way into the franchise, popping up in characters, planets, cities, and even easter eggs, influencing the franchise over forty years later.
The Art In Thrawn's Office
The intelligence of Star Wars antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn stretches far beyond tactical genius and military strategy. The Chiss legend also loves art and collection, as shown in Star Wars: Rebels with his office being covered in various pieces—-one of which is an exact digital recreation of a piece from Ralph McQuarrie.
The piece is not only significant for being in Thrawn's office, but the concept art helped Rebels' creators create Lothal, with the painting being of the show's main planet in-universe.
Jabba The Hutt Concepts Used For Azmorrigan
Ralph McQuarrie's influence in the animated shows is most noticeable in Star Wars: Rebels, finding its way to many characters and designs in the show. One such character is one of the lesser popular ones in Azmorrigan.
His gross-looking design comes from the early concept art for another vulgar-looking character in Jabba Desilijic Tiure, A.K.A. Jabba the Hutt. Thankfully Jabba's famous design ended up being the one that made it to screen, but it is good to see his early concepts come to life.
Jabba's Palace Early Concepts Used For Teth
Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi is one of the most iconic locations in the original trilogy. In The Clone Wars movie set decades prior, the Palace pops up again, and Jabba's son Rotta is kidnapped from it, taken to the B'omarr Monastery on Teth.
The Hutt family is not the only connection between the two locations, however. Early concept art of Jabba's Palace on Tatooine from McQuarrie was used for the Monastery. The two are similar-looking structures, but specific details such as the archway and pattern designs make it distinctly resemble McQuarrie's art.
R2-D2 Early Concepts Used For Chopper
One of Ralph McQuarrie's most famous pieces of concept art depicts a Fritz Lang's Metropolis-esque version of C-3PO and an R2-D2 rolling across the Tatooine desert with droid arms.
That Artoo design would later become the influence for the murderous and beloved C1-10P, Chopper from Rebels. Chopper has a very distinct Star Wars astromech design, and, by simply looking at R2-D2 concept art, it is easy to see that the creators of Rebels took the design from the Ralph McQuarrie catalog.
Darth Vader's Concept Design In Rebels
Darth Vader has one of the most iconic character designs in all pop culture, adding so much to the character in terms of menace and to how cool the Star Wars villain is. After initially being designed conceptually by McQuarrie, John Mollo, John Barry, and Brian Muir brought the costume to life.
In the movies, he does not look all that different from McQuarrie's initial designs, but Rebels made him pretty exact. He has more of a sharp-looking helmet, and a slightly more slender, even taller look. Vader in Rebels is pretty much a digital recreation of McQuarrie's initial designs, whereas the physical costume has its differences and little tweaks for practicality.
Flix Influenced By Early Ewok Concept
Star Wars: Resistance never gets much time in the conversation of Star Wars animated shows, with fans more focused on the more popular and higher quality Clone Wars and Rebels. However, the show also has its McQuarrie influences.
Flix, a male Gozzo who ran the Office of Acquisitions on Castillion with his partner Orka, is a recurring character. He is also based on a thrown-out early concept from McQuarrie for the beloved Ewok alien species in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with a longer nose, distinctive eyes, and a longer lower half.
Chewbacca Concept Art Used For Garazeb Orrelios
One of many of McQuarrie's iconic early designs is his drawings and initial concepts for Chewbacca. While the beast-like nature of the adored character remained, he is a lot less scary and overall far different in the films.
Those early designs, though, would not go unused. In Rebels, they are the basis for one of the Star Wars series' main characters Garazeb Orellios, which, in turn, has influenced the various other Lasat males seen in canon. While Zeb comes with some color changes and less of a scary look, it is still great seeing Chewbacca's early concepts make it to screen.
Conical Structures Of Coruscant Used In The Clone Wars
It is easy to forget that Coruscant, arguably the best and most iconic planet of the prequel trilogy, was initially intended to appear in the original trilogy, and as such, has many concept pieces from McQuarrie.
Initially conceived with the name Had Abbadon, one piece of Coruscant art from McQuarrie did not make it to the films, though it was later seen in The Clone Wars. With its conical structures, gorgeous lights, and multitude of citizens, McQuarrie's art was realized in Monument Plaza as seen in "Duchess of Mandalore."
Alderaan Capital City Designs Used For Lothal
Alderaan is one of the most important planets in Star Wars, given its inhabitants and a certain princess who was raised there. But, despite its destruction in the trilogy, fans do not get to see anything but the planet's exterior in the original films.
That does not mean there was no concept art for it, though; McQuarrie created a beautiful design for the capital city of the planet, Aldera, as well as for its countryside. Later, these pieces would become the basis for Lothal's capital city and the Jedi Temple along with the surrounding area outside of the city.
TK Trooper Designs In The Bad Batch
The most recent animated show from the franchise, The Bad Batch, has proven to be another Star Wars hit. The later episodes of the first season have a noticeable and pretty brilliant Ralph McQuarrie easter egg.
The designs of the TK troopers, who are the troopers replacing the clones at this point in the Galactic timeline, do not yet look like the stormtroopers fans know and love from the Galactic Civil War. Instead, they come from the early designs of Ralph McQuarrie's stormtroopers, a fantastic nod to the legend that helped bring George Lucas' wildly imaginative vision to life.