Denis Villeneuve’s Dune brings the story Star Wars comparisons full circle, and in particular it shows how Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was a missed opportunity to tell a brilliant story. Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel, Dune, has helped shape science fiction ever since, and nowhere is that more evident than in Star Wars. George Lucas loved to put his influences on the screen – a sprinkle of Akira Kurosawa here, a pinch of Flash Gordon there – and Dune was one of the biggest.
The list of everything Star Wars took from Dune encompasses all of Lucas’ original trilogy: the sand covered wasteland of Tatooine is a clear riff on Arrakis, “Spice” is featured prominently in both worlds, each has a mysterious Emperor operating in the shadows, pulling the strings yet remaining unseen and unnamed to begin with, the Jedi Order is similar to the Bene Gesserit, and Star Wars even has not one but two nods to Dune‘s giant sandworms (the exogorth, or space slug, from The Empire Strikes Back, and the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi).
