16 things Star Wars stole from Dune that you simply cannot unsee

6. Manipulated origin of the Chosen One

Stories centered around a 'Chosen One' are neither new nor original in sci-fi in 2024, but Dune is believed to be one of the earliest modern examples of this trope. Many believe Paul Atreides ran so Anakin Skywalker could run. The two characters not only share a similar burden of prophecy but their origins are also rooted in manipulation.

In Dune, the prophecy of the Kwisatz Haderach, who would be a male Bene Gesserit who could do things the rest of the order could not, was crafted and propagated by the ancient sisterhood itself. He was to be a force like the universe had never before seen, who could access the memories of both male and female ancestors as well as see into the future. But Lady Jessica ruins the plans of the Bene Gesserit by giving Duke Leto Atreides a son when she was supposed to give birth to a daughter. Paul is the Kwisatz Haderach, and he's arrived early.

Either way, Paul's birth is the result of a selective breeding program run by the Bene Gesserit to produce their messiah. Unlike the fundamentalist Fremen were led to believe, he was never meant to be their salvation but a carefully created entity pieced together by collecting bloodlines over a thousand years.

In Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker is born without a father — quite Biblical — or so we are told in The Phantom Menace. In 2018, Marvel's canonical Darth Vader #25 shed more light on the matter. Writer Charles Soule and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli's comic series confirmed the long-running fan theory that it was Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine who manipulated the Midi-chlorians inside Shmi Skywalker's womb to create Anakin for his selfish purposes.

So, in a way, the Sith created Anakin just like the Bene Gesserit created Paul, but it backfires on them enormously.

7. The fall of the Chosen One

After losing a parent, Paul Atreides and Anakin Skywalker take slightly different paths, but their eventual fates remain the same: getting their hands stained with the blood of millions.

For Anakin, it is the indecisiveness of the Jedi Council and fear of losing his wife Padme that drives him to side with Emperor Palpatine. Throughout the Clone Wars, we see his faith in the ways of the Force slip away with every battle won and lost.

In Dune: Part Two, Paul vehemently rejects the title of messiah at first but then embraces it with twice the force. Already burdened with the Kwisatz Haderach prophecy, his visions of the past and the future after drinking the Water of Life set him on a path of becoming a terrifying, genocidal leader. The holy war he wages becomes about far more than freeing Arrakis or avenging his father.

Paul and Anakin are both examples of the trope where the Chosen One goes over to the side of darkness, violence and tyranny. However, Anakin's fall to the Dark Side and eventual redemption is the crux of the Skywalker saga, whereas Paul's story is far more subtle. Darth Vader is easily considered one of the greatest sci-fi villains, whereas Muad'dib is hailed as a savior, at least by the Fremen of Arrakis.

Frank Herbert was so concerned about how people saw Paul as a heroic figure that he wrote a second book, Dune Messiah, to address the misconception. Dune director Denis Villeneuve told USA Today that Herbert "wanted 'Dune' to be a warning against charismatic leaders and messianic figures. Paul is not the hero, but the antihero." He has stated in multiple interviews that he is using Zendaya's Chani to show the other side of the coin.