When Denis Villeneuve's movie Dune released in 2021, it took many fans who weren't familiar with the original Dune novel by surprise over how many similarities it had with the Star Wars franchise. But then they looked up when Frank Herbert wrote Dune: it was published all the way back in 1965, more than 10 years before the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, came out in theaters, and realized it was the other way round.
Star Wars creator George Lucas never explicitly said he borrowed things from Dune. But anyone with even surface-level knowledge of both stories would be able to see the similarities, some blatant and others more subtle.
In 1977, the year that Star Wars came out, Herbert told the Associated Press that he hadn't seen the movie yet, but he would "try hard not to sue."
From sci-fi serials like Flash Gordon to the movies of Akira Kurosawa, Lucas took inspiration from many quarters when coming up with Star Wars. Over the years, the franchise has certainly found its voice, but the parallels with Herbert's 1965 novel are so fundamental to the lore that they cannot be denied or retconned.
Herbert pointed out at a speaking engagement at UCLA in 1985 that there were "16 points of identity" between Dune and Star Wars. Let's try to figure out what they could be as people continue to enjoy Dune: Part Two in theaters.
1. Tatooine and Arrakis
In Star Wars, Tatooine, the desert planet with two suns, plays a pivotal role in the Skywalker saga and beyond. It is where A New Hope begins and Rise of the Skywalker ends, and it features in the Disney+ shows as well.
Fans believe Dune's desolate and nearly uninhabitable desert planet of Arrakis very much influenced Tatooine.
Arrakis is where the story of Dune unfolds. Paul Atreides spends time in the desert with the native Fremen people of the desert, gradually evolving into the messianic figure knwon as Muad'dib, or the Lisan al Gaib. However, the desert is more intrinsic to the events of Dune than Tatooine is to Star Wars.
2. The galaxy
It is understandable why the 1970s would see a surge in galactic sci-fi, with space missions and the moon landing attempts capturing the imagination of the public. Both Dune and Star Wars are pioneers of the space opera genre. Although Dune came first and it may have influenced George Lucas, one must credit Star Wars for creating a mythos that spans across a whole galaxy. Although the Corrino Empire extends all over the universe, most events in the Dune saga take place on Arrakis and a handful of other planets. That is not the case with Star Wars.
3. Spice
Spice is a precious commodity in both the Dune and Star Wars universes.
In Star Wars, spice is mined at the mines of Kessel by captured and enslaved people. It is also a recreational drug in this universe, but it is not as central to the plot as it is in Dune. However, it is incredibly addictive and is one of the rarest items for which people would "lie, steal, assault, and murder," according to Eli Vento, a protege of Admiral Thrawn.
In Dune, spice is an extremely rare psychotropic drug found in the sand of Arrakis. Called spice melange, or simply spice, it is the single most important driving force in the university of Dune, almost like electricity is in ours. The colonization of Arrakis over the harvesting of spice melange is the root of the conflict between the Fremen and the Imperium in the first novel (and the first two movies). Exposure to the spice is also known to gift powers like longevity and the ability to see the past, present, and future.