Paul Bateman, who works for Ralph McQuarrie and Stan Stice both at Dreams & Visions Press and RalphMcQuarrie.com, wanted to chime in with his two cents regarding The Clone Wars theatrical trailer. From Paul: "It looks wonderful - I spotted a few neat design orientated things, that might not be obvious to anyone who hasn't spent the last few years knee deep in Ralph's work. I'm delighted to find that his influence is stamped all over the new Clone Wars. I've taken a few frame grabs and scribbled on them just to help you understand what I'm talking about."

See below for the images and Paul's notes. (Click on the pics for larger views) Thanks to Paul for taking the time to put these images together and for sharing his thoughts, which I'm sure will spark some fun conversations.



"This should provoke a heated debate! - Could this be the Death Star?????? It sure looks more like it than anything else we've seen. Just consider this - even the unfinished Death Star in Jedi was occupied!"




"I think Jason (as in the co-host of your weekly Force-Cast) may be right about Tarkin's appearance. But - did you also spot the design nod to Vader's mediation chamber from the Empire Strikes Back?

I hope we get to see more of 'Wayne Pygram' as Tarkin in the live action show as Dave and Lou Elsey did an incredible job of the make-up, it definitely deserved more screen time - their work is the best out there bar none. Wayne also played Scorpius in Farscape and always seemed to be channelling Peter Cushing anyhow."




"My guess would be this is Jabba's palace, but I think what we're looking at here is the back door. It isn't the same as the entrance from Return of the Jedi. There aren't any arches inside the room and columns can be clearly seen outside."




"This image backs this up - the large lamps we see everywhere are very closely modelled on Ralph's designs for Jabba's back door. Great that they're using these as they never made it to the movies."




"The bridge that we see Obi-Wan and Asaj fighting on also looks like an area Ralph designed for Jedi."




"This arch looks pretty similar too."




"These Hutese 'glyphs' are straight from one of Ralph's concepts too - a nice touch as they weren't seen in the films either."




"This is a curious one - looks like Jabba may have two bases! This one is clearly on top of a stone pinnacle. It reminds me a lot of a couple of places from the EU. The first is the 'Fromm' gangs base from 'Droids', the second - the rebel hangout known as 'Pinnacle base' from the comic books."




"Just a little comparison image to show you how Jabba's place looked in Ralph's concepts, compared to what we see in Jedi and the Clone Wars. Looks to me like we're definitely approaching from the opposite direction."




"One of Joe Johnston's early Boba designs has made it onto Captain Rex's armour."




"Legacy Era logo - taken from the EU book designs."





"Asaj re-design, lost her eye tattoos - gained mouth ones and pupils. She looks much more like Dermot Powers initial designs."




"Sure looks like a Rancor to me."





UPDATE: Paul Bateman of Dreams & Visions Press and RalphMcQuarrie.com found a couple examples of Ralph McQuarrie's influence within the new trailer for The Clone Wars series as well as another from the film. See below:


"His old spotted rocks from the 80's Dagobah paintings pop up in the episode with Yoda and the three clones (on Rugosa)."




"One of Ralph's many Dagobah swamp monster/slug designs (Ralph sketched it for Empire and painted it up for The Illustrated Universe) pops up near the end too - they're calling it a 'Kwazel Maw' (on Rodia)."




"Oh yeah, in the movie Ziro transports Padme to his dungeon via a cage lift, strongly influenced by another image Ralph came up with for Empire."


Thanks again to Paul!