“I put this little thing on it: ‘A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, an incredible adventure took place.’ Basically it’s a fairy tale now.”
George Lucas, December 1975
Star Wars means a lot to a lot of people. Its influence can be felt in today’s culture especially around “fandom” culture, and it is often simple fairy tale stories that can speak to so many people the way Star Wars has.
When George Lucas was writing the script for the original Star Wars in the mid-1970s, he read the book The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. This ended up being profoundly influential to Lucas’ approach to the story. The book analyzes many myths and old tales from around the world. Campbell noticed a pattern to all these stories and summarized his findings in his book.
Today, this archetypal narrative is better known as the Hero’s Journey. After reading this book Lucas realized that this is what he had been doing all along. He had been following the rules of the hero’s journey and was trying to capture that magical familiar feeling older stories provide. Once he realized this, Lucas would lean into the classic motifs.
...So what do you think? Is Star Wars very obviously a fairy tale? Or is it a fantasy story? How do YOU define these categories?