Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back opening crawl

In 1980, the long-awaited sequel to Star Wars was released, and during the opening crawl audiences must have been surprised to see additional elements not present in the first film: an episode number and a line containing the title of the movie.

The crawl itself (and episode number) would have been familiar enough, being set News Gothic Bold, similar to the preceding film’s Trade Gothic Bold No. 2, but the title must have stood out in its large, sturdy letters set in News Gothic Extra Condensed.

Apart from the 1981 re-release of the first film, retitled A New Hope, no other entry in the series would use News Gothic Extra Condensed, opting instead to use similar condensed gothic typefaces as it isn’t available digitally, though there is an unofficial revival called News Flash.