The Weirdest Foreign Star Wars Movie Posters

Let's be real — Star Wars is weird. Like really, really weird. After all, we're talking about a universe that features little teddy bears with spears taking down giant, chicken-shaped robotic killing machines, a sluggy crime boss sucking down squealing Klatooine paddy frogs, and a little old, long-eared green goblin-looking Jedi master riding around on rebel pilot's back while making him move stuff with his mind. And that's just the original trilogy. Let's not talk about the Gungans. 

That said, the actual weirdness of the films themselves pales in comparison to the oddities found on their foreign movie posters. Whether we're talking about panther-looking Darth Vaders, scimitar-wielding lizard people, or absurd designs having literally nothing to do with the films, foreign countries weren't afraid to take some... let's say... 'artistic liberties' when it came to advertising Star Wars.

One of these things is not like the other, and it probably took you the entirety of two seconds to spot which asset on this poster doesn't belong.

It's a common misconception among those who've seen his posters that famous Hungarian artist Tibor Helényi didn't actually watch Star Wars — which is understandable, given that Darth Vader doesn't really look like that, and the fact that Death Star didn't exactly burst a seam as much as instantaneously explode. (Talk about a spoiler.) Oh yeah... and there's definitely no green, scimitar-wielding, tusked insectoid characters in A Hew Hope, either.

But, believe it or not, it was all part of Helényi's plan. In a Hungarian-language interview published on kunszt.reblog.hu, the artist claims that he did, indeed, watch and enjoy each film before creating their respective posters. The bizarre aspects — like the green monster — stem not from forgetfulness or ignorance. Rather, the strangeness of the posters, as well as Helényi's artistic liberties, serves to illustrate the Hungarian's interest in differentiating his work from typical Western European and American film posters.

If differentiation was Helényi's goal, mission accomplished. Now let's blow this thing and go home.

Italian artist Michelangelo Papuzza's poster for Star Wars: A New Hope is certainly a lot less daring and disturbing than those made by his central and eastern European counterparts. But it's still kinda weird.

In place of Neo-Avantgarde bizarreness, strange perspectives or disconcerting imagery, Papuzza chose instead to go with a comic book art style highly reminiscent of the legendary Eisner Award-winning Russ Manning's Star Wars comic strips, which ran in Los Angeles Times-distributed newspapers from 1979 to 1984. As a result, we're left with a brightly-colored, and relatively accurate, depiction of A New Hope — despite Luke Skywalker's proudly-displayed He-Man pectorals competing with C-3PO's glamorously buff and shiny bod for Guerre Stellari's Mr. Galaxy, and a particularly well-endowed Greek goddess posing as Princess Leia showing off some serious thigh action. Darth Vader, R2-D2, Chewbacca and the TIE fighter all receive beautifully accurate representations, however — though Luke's father (spoiler alert!) does, oddly, have eyes... which only serves to make him even more intimidating.

Notably absent, of course, is Harrison Ford's character... though we're not sure where Papuzza could've squeezed him in. Thus, we can only speculate as to how big Han Solo's muscles would've been.

The second of Hungarian Tibor Helényi's Star Wars poster trilogy lacks the extraneous elements of his first and third (which you'll see later), though that doesn't make it any less weird. (Or awesome.)

As is characteristic of Helényi's illustrations, his movie poster for A Birodalom visszavág (The Empire Strikes Back) features a spectacular use of perspective. The central figure of a lumbering AT-AT stepping its frighteningly spindly legs gets a little too close for comfort. The gorgeous rendition of a highly detailed Star Destroyer is also a force to be reckoned with, which also shows off Helényi's artistic skills. Of course, the icing on the intimidating cake is the frightening, monstrous version of Darth Vader, rolling squad deep with his team of Imperial goons. One look at this rare poster and it becomes clear — the Empire is most definitely striking back.

This poster, along with his others, was auctioned off on May 31st, 2015 by the Budapest Poster Gallery. It sold for a whopping $14,250, making it the most expensive of Helényi's trilogy. Interestingly, the artist himself never even knew that people took such a keen interest in his work, nor did he know that people collected them. In a Hungarian-language interview, Helényi claimed to have never really followed the post-debut life of his posters — which only took about a week to make, each.

Helényi passed away in 2014, so we can only speculate as to whether or not the artist knew just how valuable his Star Wars renditions really are.

The last of Hungarian Tibor Helényi's famous Star Wars poster trilogy, this somewhat bizarre interpretation of A jedi visszatér (Return of the Jedi) is the least valuable of the collection. Indeed, at first glance, it does stand out as the least engaging of the three — though there is one obvious element which is sure to make any Star Wars fans scratch their heads.

Standing front and off-center is some sort of strange, green lizard creature with yellow horns, a set of large tusks, and some claws you definitely don't want any part of. The monster instantly draws comparisons to the out-of-place green monster in Helényi's poster for A New Hope. And like that first monster, this one was also meant to be a joke. Because Helényi was given complete and total freedom to craft each poster as he saw fit, the artist included the monster simply because he wanted to, and because he could — ultimately ensuring that his posters would, indeed, be forever differentiated from American and Western European versions.

Helényi claimed his job was the second best job (behind medical doctor) in all of Hungary during the original Star Wars era, when the central European country was still under the yoke of the Soviet Union. Not only was he allotted total artistic freedom, but his posters were displayed all over Budapest, and he was paid a handsome 4,000 Hungarian forint per poster by government authorities. "Just don't call about a Soviet film," he said.

We know what you're thinking. Nothing says Star Wars like a pink cyclops anteater with a lumpy head, and a green chrome-domed alien peeking from behind a grey winking vacuum-nosed space monster. Wait... that's not what you're thinking?

Winning the award for the most unrecognizable official Star Wars poster ever made, Yury Bokser's and Alexander Chantsev's trippy vision for America's "galactic western" is beyond bizarre. Aside from the fact that it features the relevant casting information — and that there's actual stars in the background — nothing about this poster has anything to George Lucas' creation. Seriously... just look at it.

Despite being banned in the U.S.S.R., the hype behind Star Wars was very, very real. In February 1988, the country held a Days of U.S. Cinema festival, with — according to Russia Beyond the Headlines — Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins notably attending. Scalpers jacked up ticket prices for the event by some 20 to 30 times the original price, which was gladly paid by those eager to see what The Empire Strikes Back was really about.

Spoiler alert! It doesn't have any of Bokser's and Chantsev's monsters. It does, however, have tauntauns!

Like the rest of Yury Bokser's and Alexander Chantsev's Star Wars posters, this one leaves us with more questions than answers.

For example, why does Darth Vader have the muzzle and teeth of a jaguar, and why can we see his eyes? Why is he spouting seven different colored lightsabers from his helmet? Why are there three different eyeballs above him? Better yet — why is he surrounded by a whole slew of animalistic, hand-drawn humanoid aliens, who appear to have been penciled-in by first-graders? Only the Force knows.

Today, Star Wars is as popular as ever in Russia. It's also as politically relevant. Parallels have been drawn between the evil Empire and the Soviet Union since the film series' creation, and Star Wars' eternal fight against evil and totalitarianism is not lost on the Eastern European audience. In 2015, a Russian-language meme titled "Empire Strikes Back" was created — in the style of the films' opening sequence — listing the names ruling elite, as well as the dates they joined the Communist Party. On top of that, one of the most popular Vladimir Putin-parody accounts on Twitter is @DarthPutinKGB — since everyone knows he joined the Dark Side a long, long time ago.

Anyway, the next time you pop in the original trilogy, just imagine if George Lucas had opted to make Darth Vader look like a jungle cat with lightsabers for hair. If that was the case, his admission to being Luke's father would've been really surprising.