Yahoo News Disney Plus Goes All-In on May the 4th With Star Wars Concept-Art Takeover
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Disney Plus will soon be streaming all nine of the Star Wars movies in the Skywalker cycle — and to hype the collection, the company’s streaming division has launched a series of concept-art takeovers spanning the franchise’s four decades.
It’s the first design refresh for Disney Plus since it debuted in November 2019, taking advantage of the service’s dedicated brand pages to prompt viewers to get immersed in the galaxy far, far away.
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On Friday, the Disney Plus homepage carousel was updated: It now features Star Wars concept art from legendary designer and illustrator Ralph McQuarrie from his 1975 painting of the droids in the desert (see above). Now, Disney Plus users will be able to navigate to a dedicated brand page directly from carousel art. The SVOD service’s Star Wars brand page will feature an adaption of character art from the Star Wars Celebration 2019 commemorative mural by Jason Palmer and others. Additional artists whose Star Wars work will be featured include Doug Chiang and Seth Engström.
The new Disney Plus design comes three days before “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” will be available worldwide on the service on May 4.
The concept art takeover on Disney Plus continues on May the 4th — aka “Star Wars Day” — with each film and series’ artwork updated to feature its original concept paintings from “Star Wars: A New Hope” to “The Mandalorian.”
The special artwork will be available for the following titles in the Skywalker saga: “A New Hope” (1977); “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980); “Return of the Jedi” (1983); “The Phantom Menace” (1999); “Attack of the Clones” (2002); “Revenge of the Sith” (2005); “The Force Awakens” (2015); and “The Last Jedi” (2017).
In addition, Disney Plus will feature concept art for other Star Wars films and series: “Rogue One,” “Solo,” “The Mandalorian,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series, “Star Wars: Rebels” and “Star Wars: Resistance.”
“The unique brand-centric architecture of Disney Plus gives us the opportunity to get creative with how we showcase and engage fans around the content,” said Michael Paull, president of Disney Streaming Services.
Check out images from Disney Plus’ May the 4th promo:
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