Once again, Disney is accused of ripping off another artist’s work, but at least this time it is in-house, as users on social media have pointed out the new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker poster uses an image from the Hot Toys Palpatine figure.
“That new TROS poster used Hot Toys figure of Palpatine for the face,” a user posted on Reddit which has received over 670 upvotes.
Obviously, Disney owns Star Wars, but this still comes off as rather hilarious.
Artist Ethan Van Sciver blasts Disney over Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker poster
Former DC Comics artist Ethan Van Sciver laughs about it on YouTube.
“It is so funny. I thoroughly enjoy this. Thoroughly enjoy this. This is a no-no. This is is so embarrassing. How did Star Wars? How did LucasFilm go from Drew Struzan to this? How the hell?” Ethan Van Sciver said.
Ethan Van Sciver, a 26-year veteran of the comic book industry, then goes into details how the image is a ripoff.
“Let me explain what is going on here. A lot of people were looking at this poster saying, ‘Why it is so cartoony looking? Why does it look so weird? Why does it look so cartoony and weird?’” Van Sciver said. “This image here [points to Rey and Kylo Ren], of course, looks a little bit goofy. It looks cartoonish, it looks almost like, well, it looks like Disney thing. It does kind of look Disney-esque. It’s this image on the background [The Emperor] that was bothering people. It looks weird. Why? Why? Why? Somebody pushed back the filter on it, they pulled out The Emperor from this, because there was some question. Is this Luke Skywalker? Is this meant to be someone else? Is there a secret to this? Is it not really Palpatine?” Van Sciver continued.
“No. It’s Palpatine, and it’s this. It’s this image of the Hot Toy action figure of Emperor Palpatine [laughs],” he said. “This artist [makes quote gesture with hands] actually took and ran it through a filter and put it into the background of a gosh-darn Star Wars poster. This is the most ridiculous lazy garbage that I have ever seen. This would be suspect. This would be cause for mockery if it was on a comic book cover.”
Ethan Van Sciver continues questioning who at Disney and LucasFilm would allow this and confirms the poster uses the Hot Toys figure by pointing out how the wrinkles line up in both images.
“Line for line, it matches up with the Hot Toy,” Van Sciver said. “This is so stupid! This is absolutely crazy. It isn’t just lazy. It’s theft. It’s pathetic. Any artist could have drawn Palpatine. Disney is over with. This is so embarrassing.”
Regarding Disney previously being accused of ripping off ideas for posters, posters for Solo were very similar to French artist’s Hachim Bahous own art who publically accused Disney of stealing his work.
