Star Wars is a rip-off of Dune – at least according to Frank Herbert

Similar to the mystical religions spread by Bene Gesserit, the influences of dune spread to every corner of the science fiction universe. In some stories, the inspirations are so intertwined with the fabric of the story that they are almost impossible to grasp, perhaps even for the author himself. In others, the homages are to dune cannot be overlooked, sometimes even distracting. And then there is war of starsthe most blatant rip-off of all – at least according to Frank Herbert.

The dune The author didn’t talk much about George Lucas’ groundbreaking science fiction film before his death in 1986, but he answered a few questions about it over the years and always seemed at least a little annoyed by the similarities between the two stories.

The first public comments he appears to have made about the film come from a 1977 interview with the Associated Press A new hope was published. The article is quite sensational, but it’s clear that although Herbert hadn’t seen the film, he was concerned about the similarities to his groundbreaking series, which already spanned three books.

Herbert begins by saying that an editor from the Village Voice called him and asked if he had seen anything war of starsand whether he would sue or not. It’s a strong start, but apparently that’s what Herbert had in mind.

“I will do my best not to sue,” Herbert told the Associated Press. “I have no idea which of my books it goes with, but I suspect it might dune because in that I had a Princess Alia and the film has a Princess Leia. And I heard that there is a sandworm carcass and crested creatures in the desert, just like in dune.”

Herbert then rightly boasts about the ubiquity of dune, both in popular culture and as a college textbook on topics such as “architecture, psychology, writing, English, human life, spatial analysis, and some things I’ve forgotten.” Herbert doesn’t go into too much detail in this early article, but it’s clear that he didn’t entirely like the film’s reported similarities to his own work. And later it would become even clearer that they had failed him in one way or another.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Now, with decades of hindsight and years of interviews, it’s easy to see that Star Wars, especially the first film, is an amalgamation of many genres and stories, including (but not limited to) science fiction, mythical fantasy, and the samurai films by Akira Kurosawa. In addition, there is an entire, expanded historical universe in the Star Wars galaxy that borrows from the entire science fiction canon and has inspired many future authors as well.

But considering the time when Star Wars was just a hugely successful summer blockbuster, it’s easy to see why Herbert might have had a bone to pick. And over the years, it’s obvious that he’s thought about the subject quite a bit, enough to count the similarities between the titles.

“Lucas never admitted that they copied a lot dune, and I don’t say they did,” Herbert said in 1985. during a lecture at UCLA. “I’m just saying that there are 16 points of identity between the book dune And war of stars. Now you have the statistics – what are they? It’s 16 times 16 times 16 times… over 1, the probability of this being a coincidence? There aren’t that many stars in the universe.”

Herbert’s frustrated quote came in response to the question of whether or not Lucas had ever treated Herbert to dinner – a reference to a long-standing joke of Herbert’s, which claimed that even if Lucas hadn’t blatantly stolen his ideas war of starshe owes Herbert at least dinner for the coincidence.

But Frank Herbert was one who lost out in a petty war. A year before that UCLA interview, he published Heretic of Dunethe fifth book in the series and the penultimate one he wrote. Late in the bookIn Herbert’s book, which is largely about the future of humanity after the death of the God-Emperor, there is a small, understated passage that certainly feels like an allusion war of stars. He doesn’t seem to have ever officially said this, so we’ll let you be the judge:

In the times of the Old Empire, and even under the rule of Maud’Dib, the region around Gammu Fortress had been a forest reserve, its elevation rising well above the oily residue that covered the Harkonnen lands. On this soil the Harkonnens had grown some of the finest logs of pilingitam, a timber of fixed value that has always been prized by the super-rich. Even in ancient times, those in the know preferred to surround themselves with fine woods rather than with the mass-produced art materials Polestine, Polaz and Pormabat (later: Tine, Laz and Bat). Even in the Old Kingdom there was a derogatory term for small empires and families of smaller families, which arose from the knowledge of the value of rare wood.
“He is a three-PO,” they said, meaning that such a person surrounded himself with cheap copies made from déclassé substances.