
2007 41¢ Star Wars
City: Los Angeles, CA
Quantity: 30,000,000
2007 41¢ Star Wars
City: Los Angeles, CA
Quantity: 30,000,000
First Star Wars Movie

On May 25, 1977, the first Star Wars film was released, marking the start of four decades of dedicated fandom.
In 1971, writer and director George Lucas sought to produce a film adaptation of the comic serial Flash Gordon, but he couldn’t get the rights. Lucas then decided he would invent his own. To find inspiration, he researched what had originally inspired Alex Raymond to write Flash Gordon. This led him to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs (John Carter of Mars) and Edwin Arnold (Gulliver on Mars).
In addition to these sources, Lucas found contemporary inspiration, stating “It was really about the Vietnam War, and that was the period where Nixon was trying to run for a [second] term, which got me to thinking historically about how do democracies get turned into dictatorships?” Lucas began writing in 1973 and pitched the idea to several studios, but they didn’t think science fiction would sell. He eventually reached a deal with 20th Century Fox and would write four different screenplays before filming began in March of 1976. He also continued to tweak the story as filming progressed.


The film premiered on May 25, 1977, in just 32 theaters. But it quickly broke box office records and became one of the first blockbuster films. The studio also worked to get it into more theaters as soon as possible. Star Wars became one of the most financially successful films of all time, becoming the highest-earning film in North America just six months after it was released.



To unveil these special stamps, R2-D2, Darth Vader, and the Imperial stormtroopers joined USPS executive David Failor at Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, on March 28, 2007. At the event, the Postal Service announced that the public would be able to vote for its favorite stamp character, which would then be made into a single stamp.
To create something as impressive as the movie, the Postal Service called on veteran Star Wars poster artist, Drew Struzan – Stephen Spielberg’s proclaimed “favorite movie artist!”. As one of the original movie-poster artists for the first Star Wars film, Struzan earned fame and recognition for the work on that film. He created a movie-poster-like sheet featuring 15 characters and space vehicles for the first-ever Star Wars stamps.
