Frank Herbert always thought Star Wars was a ripoff of Dune

Like the mystical religions spread by Bene Gesserit, the influences of Dune spread to all corners of the science fiction universe. In some stories, the inspirations are so closely woven into the fabric of the story that they are almost impossible to pick up, perhaps even for the author himself. In others, the tributes to Dune are indispensable, sometimes even distracting. And then there is Star Warsthe most blatant rip-off of all – at least, according to Frank Herbert.

The Dune The author didn’t talk much about George Lucas’ landmark science fiction film before his death in 1986, but he answered a few questions about it over the years, and he 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 Associated Press interview, the year in which A new hope was released. The article is quite simple and inflammatory, but it is clear that although Herbert had not yet seen the film, he had some thoughts about its similarities to his seminal three-book series.

Herbert begins by saying that an editor from the Village Voice called him and asked if he had seen it Star Warsand whether or not he would file a lawsuit. It’s a strong introduction, but apparently that was what was on Herbert’s mind most.

“I will do my best not to file a lawsuit,” Herbert told the Associated Press. ‘I have no idea which book of mine it fits into, but I suspect it does Dune because I had a Princess Alia in that and the movie has a Princess Leia. And I hear there’s a carcass of sandworms and hood dwellers in the desert, just like in Dune.”

Herbert goes on to rightly boast about the ubiquity of Dune, both in popular culture and even as a college textbook on topics like “architecture, psychology, writing, English, human life, space analysis, and some I’ve forgotten.” Herbert doesn’t get too specific in this early article, but it’s clear that the reported similarities between the film and his own work didn’t sit entirely well with him. And later it would become even more apparent that they were somehow stuck in his throat.

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. There’s also a whole vast universe of history in the Star Wars universe that borrows from the entire sci-fi canon and has helped inspire just as many future writers.

But when you look back at the time when Star Wars was just one hugely successful summer blockbuster, it’s easy to see why Herbert might have had a bone to pick. And as the years passed, it’s clear that he thought a lot about the subject, enough to see the similarities between the titles.

“Lucas never admitted that they copied a lot Dune, and I’m not saying they did,” Herbert said in 1985: during a speaking engagement at UCLA. “I’m just saying there are sixteen points of identity in the book Dune And Star Wars. Now you’ve had statistics – what is it? It’s 16 times 16 times 16 times… more than 1, is there a chance that’s a coincidence? There are not that many stars in the universe.”

Herbert’s frustrated quote stemmed from a question about whether Lucas had ever bought Herbert dinner or not – a reference to a long-standing joke of Herbert’s that even if Lucas hadn’t blatantly stolen his ideas to Star WarsAt least he owes Herbert a dinner for the coincidence.

But Frank Herbert was someone who lost the war of pettiness. He published a year before that UCLA interview Heretics of Dunethe fifth book in the series and the penultimate written by him. Late in the bookwhich is mainly about the future of humanity after the death of The God Emperor, Herbert has a small, inconspicuous passage that certainly feels like a reference to Star Wars. It looks like he never officially said that, so we’ll let you be the judge:

During the time of the Old Kingdom and even under the reign of Maud’Dib, the region around the Gammu Keep had been a forest reserve, with high ground rising far above the oily residue that covered the lands of Harkonnen. On this land the Harkonnens had grown some of the finest pilingitam, a wood with a stable currency, always prized by the very wealthy. From ancient times, the knowledgeable had preferred to surround themselves with fine wood rather than the mass-produced artificial materials then known as polestine, polaz, and pormabat (later: tine, laz, and bat). Already in the Old Kingdom there was a pejorative label for the small rich and the Small Families, arising from the knowledge of the value of the rare wood.
“He’s a three-cop,” they said, meaning that such a person surrounded himself with cheap copies made of déclassé fabrics.