Back to The Futurehas a very iconic poster and tagline. One that didn’t come easy. If you have flipped through the bookBack to the Future: The Ultimate Visual History, you’ll see some of the unused designs. Today, we get another one courtesy ofCollider, who discovered this long lost image onEwbankAuctions.comout of the UK. about the artwork in question, they have this to say.
“Back To The Future(1985) Unused Concept One Sheet film poster, showingMarty(Michael J. Fox) being thrown back to the 1950’s, interesting artwork showing theDeLoreanin the background, Universal, rolled, 27 x 40 inches Provenance: Collection of an employee at Lonsdale Advertising Ltd., Hesketh House, London in the 1980’s.”
This particular poster also features a very different tag line. The one used in the movie is ‘He was never in time for his classes… He wasn’t in time for his dinner… Then one day… he wasn’t in his time at all.’ The new tagline reads as such, ‘Marty’s parents were destined to meet in 1955. Until Marty dropped in from the future.’ There have been plenty of others used over the years, as well. Mostly acknowledgingMcFly’s lack of punctuality.
EwbankAuctions.comdoesn’t name the artist responsible for this unique one-sheet. As most fans of the movie know, iconic movie and album cover artistDrew Struzanis the man who created the original poster, and we can see his influences here. Before landing on the perfect piece of promotional imagery,Drew Struzancreated a number of other one-sheets that didn’t get used.Back to the Future: The Ultimate Visual Historycatalogues all of these pieces of art, but it doesn’t give us the one we see here.
It’s too bad this didn’t show up sooner, as most of October was Back to The Future month, with August 22, 2025 officially declared Back to The Future day. As you probably know, that’s the day Marty and Doc go to in the future, as seen inBack to the Future Part II. Take a look and let us know what you think. Is this a worthy entry into the history of marketing materials for this legendary time travel film? Or are you glad this has stayed mostly hidden over the years?
