16 things Star Wars stole from Dune that you simply cannot unsee
By Anwesha Nag
10. The Empire vsThe Imperium
Authors writing in the 20th century about totalitarian regimes had no lack of things to draw on. Frank Herbert never went into the details and neither does Denis Villeneuve, but the political universe of Dune is structured like a modified federal monarchy put in danger by a revolutionary crusade taken up by the masses. Dune is interested in the fanatical nature of religious fundamentalism at its core, whereas Star Wars is more about politics and power plays.
While the military structure of the Galactic Empire shares similarities with the government of fascist Germany in the 1930s and 40s, the inspiration behind Palpatine was a former American president. At a 1981 story conference, when asked if the Emperor was a Jedi gone bad, Lucas said, "No, he was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy.”
As for the similarity between the two names — Imperium and Empire — one could just blame the English language.
11. Sandcrawlers
Another small similarity between the worlds of Star Wars and Dune is the presence of the sandcrawlers. In Dune, these gigantic vehicles are used to dredge the sands of Arrakis and harvest spice melange. The sandcrawlers in Star Wars are leftover from the old mining era and used by the Jawas to go around Tatooine and scavenge for droids, scraps, and other spare parts. They then sell those to the local residents in exchange for money or more scrap. It is thanks to the Jawas and their sandcrawler that Luke Skywalker comes across R2-D2 and C-3P0 for the first time in A New Hope.
12. Moisture farmers and dew collectors
in Star Wars, Luke's step-uncle Owen Lars, who is entrusted with the young Skywalker's upbringing, is a moisture farmer. His job is to plant devices in the desert to draw moisture from the atmosphere, which then condenses into pure H20 that can be used for drinking and other purposes. This is definitely similar to the dew collector machines that are used on Arrakis in the Dune universe.