Star Wars is a Dune ripoff — at least, according to Frank Herbert

Much like the paranormal religions unfold by its Bene Gesserit, the influences of Dune unfold to each nook of the universe of science fiction. In some tales, the inspirations are woven so tightly into the material of the story they’re practically unattainable to decide up, possibly even for the writer themself. In others, the homages to Dune are unmissable, often to the purpose of being distracting. And then there’s Star Wars, essentially the most blatant ripoff of all — at least, according to Frank Herbert.

The Dune writer didn’t discuss a lot about George Lucas’ landmark science fiction movie earlier than his loss of life in 1986, however he answered a few questions on it over time, and he at all times appeared at least a little irritated at the similarities between the 2 tales.

The first public feedback he appears to have made in regards to the film come from an interview with the Associated Press from 1977, the 12 months A New Hope was launched. The article is fairly simple shit-stirring, however it’s clear that whereas Herbert hadn’t but seen the film, he did have some ideas about its similarities to his seminal sequence, which was already three books in.

Herbert begins by saying an editor for the Village Voice had referred to as him and requested if he had seen Star Wars, and whether or not or not he was going to sue. It’s a robust lead-in, however apparently that’s what was high of thoughts of Herbert.

“I will try hard not to sue,” Herbert instructed the Associated Press. “I have no idea what book of mine it fits, but I suspect it may be Dune since in that I had a Princess Alia and the movie has a Princess Leia. And I hear there is a sandworm carcass and hood dwellers in the desert, just like in Dune.”

Herbert goes on to brag, rightfully, in regards to the ubiquity of Dune, each in well-liked tradition and at the same time as a faculty textbook on topics like “architecture, psychology, writing, English, human living, space analysis, and some I’ve forgotten.” Herbert doesn’t get too particular on this early article, however it’s clear the film’s reported similarities to his personal work didn’t sit fairly proper with him. And later it will be even clearer that they caught in his craw, a method or one other.

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Now, with many years of hindsight and years of interviews, it’s simple to see that Star Wars, notably the primary movie, is an amalgamation of many genres and tales, together with (however not restricted to) science fiction, legendary fantasy, and the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. There’s additionally a complete expanded universe of historical past within the Star Wars galaxy that borrows from everywhere in the sci-fi canon, and has helped encourage simply as many future writers.

But in case you contemplate the time when Star Wars was only one tremendously profitable summer time blockbuster, it’s simple to perceive why Herbert might need had a bone to decide. And because the years glided by, it’s clear that he thought fairly a bit in regards to the topic, sufficient to rely the similarities between the titles.

“Lucas has never admitted that they copied a lot of Dune, and I’m not saying they did,” Herbert mentioned in 1985, throughout a talking engagement at UCLA. “I’m just saying there are 16 points of identity between the book Dune and Star Wars. Now you’ve had stat — what is it? It’s 16 times 16 times 16 times… over 1, the odds against that being coincidence? There aren’t that many stars in the universe.”

Herbert’s pissed off quote stemmed from a query about whether or not or not Lucas ever purchased Herbert dinner — a reference to a long-standing joke of Herbert’s that even when Lucas didn’t blatantly steal his concepts to make Star Wars, he at least owes Herbert dinner for the coincidence.

But Frank Herbert was one to lose out on a conflict of pettiness. A 12 months earlier than that UCLA interview, he revealed Heretics of Dune, the fifth guide within the sequence and the second to final written by him. Late within the guide, which is largely about the way forward for humanity after the loss of life of The God Emperor, Herbert has a small, inconspicuous passage that definitely seems like a reference to Star Wars. He doesn’t appear to have ever mentioned that formally, so we’ll allow you to decide:

In the time of the Old Empire and even below the reign of Maud’Dib, the area across the Gammu Keep had been a forest reserve, excessive floor rising properly above the oily residue that tended to cowl Harkonnen land. On this floor, the Harkonnens had grown a number of the best pilingitam, a wooden of regular forex, at all times valued by the supremely wealthy. From essentially the most historic instances, the educated had most popular to encompass themselves with fantastic woods moderately than with the mass-produced synthetic supplies recognized then as polestine, polaz, and pormabat (latterly: tine, laz, and bat). As far again because the Old Empire there had been a pejorative label for the small wealthy and Families Minor arising from the information of the uncommon wooden’s worth.
“He’s a three P-O,” they mentioned, which means that such a particular person surrounded himself with low-cost copies produced from déclassé substances.