In the annals of pop culture, perhaps no film franchise has had as much of an effect on the world as Star Wars. The space fantasy saga has captured the hearts and minds of generations, and will more than likely continue to do so through its various incarnations. In fact, the latest inspiration will be coming to screens in the form of Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon. The massive space epic was ironically born from a Star Wars pitch that Snyder developed prior to Disney buying Lucasfilm, and Netflix is hoping to make it into a bona fide franchise.
Rebel Moon isn't the only film to take inspiration from a galaxy far, far away. Over the years, plenty of filmmakers have used George Lucas's space saga as a template for their own films. Some of these films managed to carve out their own space in pop culture, while others were better left off forgotten. Here are just a few of those aforementioned films.
Spaceballs
Perhaps the most well known Star Wars parody is Spaceballs. In the vein of his prior works History of the World, Part One and Young Frankenstein, Mel Brooks delivered a razor-sharp parody of a galaxy far, far away. Instead of the towering menace of Darth Vader, there's the diminutive Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Instead of C-3P0 and R2-D2, there's the fussy Dot Matrix (Joan Rivers). And Brooks even shows up as Yogurt, a cleverly disguised play on the Jedi Master Yoda. The film's become a cult classic, and to this day boasts some of the best comedic moments ever put to screen. Case in point: who could forget the moment where Dark Helmet and Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner) go down a meta rabbit hole when they pop in the Spaceballs VHS tape?
Battle Beyond The Stars
Rebel Moon has been said to be inspired by Seven Samurai as well as Star Wars. While Snyder isn't the first filmmaker to draw inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's action masterpiece, he also isn't the first to meld the two concepts together. That honor goes to Battle Beyond The Stars. The concept came when Roger Corman, seeing the massive success of Star Wars: A New Hope, intended to produce his own sci-fi saga. And the end result, courtesy of director Jimmy T. Murakami and screenwriter John Sayles, definitely owes a great deal to both A New Hope and Seven Samurai as it features Shad (Richard Thomas) seeking out mercenaries to help him defend his homeworld from the tyrant Sador (John Saxon). Though Battle Beyond The Stars was a modest box office success, it does have two major claims to fame with James Horner composing the score and James Cameron working on special effects. Cameron would go on to craft his own epic sagas, and even worked with Horner on films including Avatar and Titanic.
Flash Gordon
Star Wars owes its entire existence to Flash Gordon. Lucas had long been a fan of Alex Raymond's spacefaring hero, and attempted to secure the rights from Dino De Laurentiis. When De Laurentiis declined, Lucas ended up developing A New Hope. Flash Gordon would eventually find his way to the big screen courtesy of the late Mike Hodges, with Sam J. Jones playing the titular hero and Max von Sydow playing his nemesis Ming the Merciless. Gordon became a cult classic over the years, with many embracing its swashbuckling story and outlandish set design. It even served as an inspiration to other filmmakers including Taika Waititi, who used the film as a template for Thor: Ragnarok. And who could forget Queen's epic score?
The Last Starfighter
Although most of the films on this list were directly made to ape the success of Star Wars, The Last Starfighter is the only one that feels the closest to what Lucas achieved with his original vision. Like A New Hope, the film pushed the boundaries of visual effects. Along with the original Tron, it's one of the first films to make heavy use of computer generated effects. And while most sci-fi franchises at the time followed the well-worn "hero's journey," Starfighter outright shows how being the "Chosen One" isn't all it's cracked up to be. Jonathan R. Betuel, who penned Starfighter's screenplay, is currently working on a sequel with Gary Whitta — and ironically the latter has dabbled in the Star Wars universe with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Krull
Hollywood is full of films that tried, and failed, to chase a trend. Who can forget the multiple attempts to jumpstart a franchise that emulated the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the films that feel like pale imitations of John Wick? Krull is a key example of this, as it attempted to cash in on the success of Star Wars as well as the wave of fantasy films. But from the jump it was plagued by multiple problems. The script was constantly being rewritten, resulting in a story that feels like a pale imitation of far better films along with a grab bag of clichés. The chosen one, the magic weapon only he can wield, the inescapable evil...it had been done before, and done better. The fact that it came out in the same year as Return of the Jedi didn't help matters, either.
Battlestar Galactica (1978)
When you hear the words Battlestar Galactica, you more than likely think of the beloved SyFy series. But prior to Ronald D. Moore's brilliant reimagining, Battlestar Galactica was a short-lived series on ABC. Both Battlestar series share a similar premise: humanity races across the stars, trying to stay ahead of the machine race known as the Cylons while finding the mythical planet Earth. From the jump, the comparisons to Star Wars were unavoidable — and sparked two different lawsuits as Lucas and 20th Century Fox both believed that the series was ripping off their work. But the most damning indictment came from fabled sci-fi author Issac Asimov: "Star Wars was fun and I enjoyed it. But Battlestar Galactica was Star Wars all over again, and I couldn't enjoy it without amnesia."
Starchasher: The Legend of Orin
Not even animation was safe from the Star Wars craze, thanks to the existence of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin. True to its title, The Legend of Orin centers on Orin (Joe Colligan), a young man who discovers a mysterious sword and fights back against the tyrant Zygon (Anthony De Longis). Once again, the trappings of Star Wars are present throughout the film, from a magic sword to an evil emperor. And critics were all too happy to point out the similiarities. But Orin does have a major claim to fame, as it was the first film to blend traditional and computer generated animation.