Star Wars: Empire strikes back with new collectors' edition

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mediamonkeyblog/2015/aug/25/star-wars-empire-strikes-back-with-new-collectors-edition

Version 0 of 1.

Star Wars fans rejoice: the merchandising is strong with the next film. Film magazine Empire has gone and felt the force with a collectors’ edition ahead of the release of the latest movie in December.

The October issue of Empire, which comes out this week, features a Star Wars-themed split run of copies featuring “hero” and “villain” covers featuring the new generation of stars including Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac.

Related: Star Wars commemorated in nine special Empire covers

The latest film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is the ninth time the film franchise has made the cover of Empire.

Including split runs there have been 46 covers, but perhaps none so memorable as 2005’s “breathing” Darth Vader cover that featured a sound chip in the spine of the magazine.

The issue looks behind the scenes of the film, which is released on 18 December, including an interview with director JJ Abrams.