This made us remember that both sagas are closely connected from the beginning of the creation of George Lucas. For this reason, we decided to share with you the things that the story of the Skywalkers owes to the great odyssey of Paul Atreides.
Dune and Star Wars share several narrative elements
Dune is one of the most influential science fiction works in history. Since its launch in 1965, it has served as a source of inspiration for other stories in the medium.. Among them, of course, is Star Wars, since George Lucas himself spoke of the impact that the novel had on him. It’s quite frankly noticeable once you analyze it.
To begin we have the protagonists Luke Skywalker and Paul Atreides. Their stories begin on a desert planet, on the one hand Tatooine and on the other Arrakis, which is also fraught with many dangers. Not to mention the curious similarity between the giant worms of Dune and the pit of Sarlaac.
The adventures of these characters put them in direct conflict with an evil emperor. At the end of the story, both destroy this tyrannical form of government to give their galaxies a new chance to live in harmony. Besides that they are ‘heroes of destiny’, whose arrival was prophesied many years ago.
The similarities between Star Wars and Dune don’t stop there. Both protagonists have a princess sister with whom they have a special connection. Not to mention the existence of a ‘magical’ component in the form of ‘the force’ and ‘the voice’. Although ‘the force’ has more uses, it shares the ability to control the mind of others with ‘the voice’.
Of course, in the beginning the ideas of Dune existed only on paper. So we could say that Star Wars was responsible for giving us a visual representation of certain elements. But curiously, the path to the cinema of the saga created by George Lucas received a boost from a canceled adaptation of the work by Frank Herbert.
The Jodorowsky Dune was a watershed for science fiction, despite not existing
In 1971, a production company was given the task of adapting Dune for movie theaters. The one chosen to take charge was the director Alejandro Jodorowsky, who immediately set to work looking for talent for his production. All this six years before the arrival of the first installment of Star Wars.
Although they weren’t as well known back then, he hired designers HR Giger and Chris Foss. His names are now iconic due to his contributions to different media. LGiger’s designs were used in the Alien saga and he was responsible for giving the creature its appearance. While Foss, by dedicating himself to designing spaceships, he had a strong influence on many of the ones we see in Star Wars.
The person in charge of the storyboards for Jodorowsky’s film was Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius. His way of capturing saber fights is very similar to how the Jedi Knights fought in those early Star Wars installments. In addition to that he introduced other visual concepts that we would see in movies like Flash Gordon and Terminator.
Jodorowsky also sought out and hired the best special effects artists of the day. Together with them, he devised the best way to capture interstellar travel on the screen, using miniatures and various visual tricks. Same effects that were later used for the big fights between the empire and the rebels.
Unfortunately, for budget reasons, Jodorowsky’s ambitious Dune was cancelled. Therefore, all those involved took their work and concepts to use them in other projects. Although this adaptation did not exist, it became one of the most influential films for science fiction. Maybe all of history.
Star Wars and Dune: a reciprocal influence
Despite Dune It was very influential and popular since the sixties, it did not have a film adaptation until 1984. Obviously, as Star Wars had already captivated viewers since 1977, this David Lynch adaptation also took elements from those films. However, most of the comments compared it negatively with the George Lucas saga. Which showed the media power that it already had since then, since it was considered the banner of the genre.
Being so important, it is clear that it also had an influence on the adaptation of Dune by director Denis Villeneuve. In an interview, the director talked about how The Empire Strikes Back he became one of the biggest influences for its adaptation. Since he considers that it explored Luke’s character in a more interesting and dark way. So he wanted to do the same with Paul in his version of the Herbert story.
So there you have it, both series have had a pretty close relationship since their inception. We could even say that without Dune it is possible that we would not have the Skywalkers. Or maybe yes, but not as we know them. at the same time without Star Warsperhaps we would not have the same representation of Dune in the cinema. Did you already know these connections?
Don’t stop following us on Google news. You can also go to our discord to talk about movies and other topics.
#Star #Wars #Dune #pair #galactic #franchises #connected #EarthGamer