New ‘My Hero Academia’ Cover Art Houses Big ‘Star Wars’ Homage

My Hero Academia is quickly becoming a top-tier series, and its creator knows how to pay homage to the franchises that came before his. Now, the quirky title is nodding to Star Wars, and fans are loving the geek-tastic easter egg.

So, if you want to start calling Izuku a padawan, we’re sure All Might won’t mind.

Recently, My Hero Academia shared its latest cover art, and the colorful piece went viral for all the right reasons. Not only does the colorful piece feature a ton of favorite characters, but it has a subtle nod to the original Star Wars films.

As you can see above, the connection between My Hero Academia‘s new artwork and Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope is hard to deny. Both posters feature their leads standing spread eagle as they hold up their most powerful weapons. Izuku has his finger raised like how Luke has his lightsaber, and there are a few other ties.

For one, U.A. Academy can be seen in the same background position where buildings stand in the Star Wars visual. The poster also has a collage of characters in the background, but their placement doesn’t exactly match up with the Lucasfilm poster.

Fans were quick to compare the two posters to each other, and My Hero Academia fans learned other Star Wars visuals can be seen in this cover art. Creator Kohei Horikoshi even commented on the poster himself, writing, “Volume 20’s cover is inspired by epic, Western blockbuster posters, and the contents cover the culture festival!” (via Caleb Cook). So, if you see a bit of prequel love between Gentle and his sidekick, then you aren’t imaging the Padme allusion.

For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers, although he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero, All Might, and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

So, how long will it take for a Pro Hero to appear with Jedi-like powers? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!