I don't remember this person being in the film, do we know who he is?
1 Answer
According to Randy Martinez (the picture's illustrator), the character on the far left is Lord Tion, a character who appears in the Radio Drama but not the film. Martinez goes on to say that he modelled the character on himself, which would explain why you don't recognise him.
Interestingly, Martinez is incorrect when he says that Tion hasn't been depicted before since he actually made a brief appearance in the 2003 "Star Wars: Empire" series of comics before getting himself shot by Leia.
As for that handsome devil on the left, that is none other than Lord Tion. Lord who? I know, that’s what I tought too, at first, but Lord Tion is a great character. Lord Tion is a high-ranking officer in the Galactic Empire, and like all imperial swine, he is a plotting, ambitious, scheming slime ball. He is arrogant, ruthless, and has designs to marry Princess Leia. I was lucky enough to get assigned to illustrate two key scenes that feature Lord Tion and Princess Liea. I really wanted to capture Lord Tions rotten expressions, so I modeled Lord Tion after myself. Wait, I’m not saying I’m rotten… let me explain. I will often use models for action poses or different scenes that I paint. My friend Michael Bender, for instance, modeled as all my stormtroopers in the project. For Lord Tion, I really wanted to nail some subtle expressions and feelings. I knew exactly what I wanted, so rather than get a model, I took pictures of myself for reference. I took TONS of photos until I got the expressions I wanted just right, leaving me with some pretty funny outtakes. I honestly never thought my depictions of Lord Tion would be more than the Trading Cards, but when I got tapped to do the CD cover I got very excited because it meant my face would be in official key art for Star Wars. My face is now the official Star Wars personification of Lord Tion… kinda cool!:)