Long before a finished film comes to the movie theater near you, piles and piles of concept art are generated. The concept art covers character sketches, ship designs, location layouts, props and weapons, and on and on. Some ideas are used wholesale, while others are broken down for parts. The natural evolution of story development means a fair amount of concept art is unused. If we’re lucky, some of it finds a home in an “Art of” book. That happened with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And now we get even more glimpses behind the curtain because Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) has posted a portfolio featuring tons of imagery their artists created for The Force Awakens.

Besides flipping through the gorgeous illustrations to see hints of ideas not used for Episode VII, you should also look at all the art for research reasons. No idea is thrown away. Art designed by the likes of Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston four decades ago is still finding its way into new Star Wars stories such as Star Wars Rebels. Just because something wasn’t used in The Force Awakens doesn’t mean it won’t be repurposed for the sequels, a spinoff, or an animated series.

But enough of me yammering. Take your eyes to the galaxy far, far away:

View more examples of The Force Awakens concept art in the gallery below. You can see even more images at ILM’s website (like, over 40 of them!). Prepare to drool copiously.

Which piece of the concept art particularly caught your attention? Let me know in the comments.

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IMAGES: ILM