When Star Wars: A New Hope first released in 1977 it introduced a generation of fans not only to a world of unparalleled special a🐎nd visual💧 effects but to just how interesting and diverse and fun the science fiction genre could be.
Even casual moviegoers became super fans of the fantasy and science fiction genres after seeing the first Star Wars movie. Although it is a simple tale, it was one that we have never seen before on such a grand scale, with some many memorable and iconic moments.
In addition, the trope of the unassuming young hero that becomes some kind of ch🌄osen one in order save the world/universe has been seen in video games (especially the RPG genre), books, comics, and —of course— film/TV. Although it can be argued that Lucas didn't invent this concept he certainly popularised♍ it.
Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable films and television shows that have either been directly influenced or downright ripped off Star Wars to some degree. They say that 🔯imitation is the purest form of flattery we’ll let you 🦂be the judge.
24 🐭 Battlestar Gal🎶actica (1979)
Between the original 1979 series and the rebooted masterpiece, Battlestar Galactica is one of greatest and most iconic science fiction franchises of all time. After Star Wars: A New Hope arrived in 1977 to conquer the box office.
Universal hired lead Star Wars special effects artist John Dykstra to work on the show’s visuals.
As a result, the shows overall aesthetic resembled Star Wars even the iconic Vipers can be easily m💛istaken for X-Wings. As a consequence, Twentieth Century Fox filed for copyright infringement against Unive🎉rsal and the two settled out of court.
23 Starcrash
Its original title of Empires of the Stars was dropped in favor of Starcrash and the film found investors because of how successful the space opera genre had become during this time. However, the budget was far too small to compete on anywhere near the same level as George Lucas’ epic saga. As a result, Cozzi wanted to make Starcrash as weird and as crazy as possible – he succeede𝕴d.
The film feaಌtured wobbly sets, scantily clad women, and a young David Hasselhoff wielding a “laser sword” need we say more?
22 The Last 🐎Starfighter
Cult favorite The Last Starfighter was another attempt by Universal to capitalize on the ever-increasing popularity of George Lucꦜas’ box office smash. This time, however, they brought the space opera to earth and tried to cash in on the increasing popularity of arcade video games, and the rise of home consoles in the 1980s.
The film was groundbreaking at the time because it was one of the first films that used computer-generated imagery (CGI) next to Disney’s Tron. Yet despite the more grounded feel, the Star Wars inf𝄹luences are many, with Grig taking on the role of a Han Solo type and Centa✱uri positioned as the film’s very Obi-Wan Kenobi.
21 Conan The Destroyer 𒅌🐠
Conan the Destroyer was the sequel to the critically acclaimed epic Conan The Barbarian starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Alongside The Terminator, the original Conan movie directed by John Milius helped Schwarzenegger becom🍸e the world’s biggest action hero.
Ironically, Conan The Barbarian which also starred the voice of Darth Vader himself James Earl Jones was unfairly dubbed by critics “Stওar Wars for psychos” before🐈 even watching the film.
While the film still has its fans, 🎶the shift in focus and dropping Milius from the director’s seat resulted in a film that bombed in the box office and was panned critically.
20 ♋ Guardians Of Galaxy ꧃
One of the best examples of work based on the original Star Wars trilogy has to be Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The first two films managed to recapture the magic of the original Star Wars trilogy whilst being very much its own thing.
The films pay tribute to a lot of 1980s nostalgia and in the original script, there was going to be a to the original Star Wars movies. Before the script wa💞s changed, an early draft featured Star-Lord keeping his Star Wars action figures from when he was a child. However, the film’s director James Gunn felt it didn’t quite work and removed the scene altogether.
19 🗹 The Black Hole
In 1979 Disney’s answer to the Star Wars phenomena was the catastrophically awful The Black Hole with special effects that didn’t match the iconic saga or the huge budget. Additionally, it was a critical failure, and despite being the 21stꦡ high-grossing film of that year it was disastrous for Disney 🅘due to being their most expensive picture to date.
The film was accused of being too wordy for its initial target audience with the payoff and ending being anticlimactic. Stuck between being too dark for children and too silly and comical to be considered mature, The Black Hole struggled to find an audience and was pe𒀰rmanently shelved, as was any potential ideas for a sequel.
18 ꧂ Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Z𝔍one
Released in 1983, Spacehunter: Adventures in The Forbidden Zone featured an all-star cast of upcoming and veteran actors, actresses, an Emmy Award-winning director in Lamont Johnson, and executive was produced by The Ghostbusters Ivan Reitman.
Spacehunter was a western inspired tale of a space bounty hunter named Wolff played by Peter Straus tasked with rescuing three women from a brutal planet. Along the way, he meets a plucky teenag🗹e sidekick named Niki portrayed by 80s teen angst favorite Molly Ringwald.
17 Star Trek: Tಌhe Wr𝔉ath Of Khan
This is a choice that will no doubt upset and anger just about every Star Trek fan and even some Star Wars fans too. So let’s get this out of the way, The Wrath of Khan is absolutely nothing like a Star Wars movie. Kahn is a militaristic tale with more in common to Moby Dick and the Napoleonic naval seafaring adventures of Hornblower than Star Wars.
The Wrath of Khan was the franchise's answer to the success of Star Wars, but the result was one of the greatest science fiction films ever made.
Although Khan was a long way from being a Star Wars clone, after the disappointing and slow Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan went bigger and brought more excitement to the ta𒁏ble.
16 ౠ Star Odyssey
Made in 1979, Star Odyssey was set to be directed by Luigi Cozzi of Starcrash fame but was later replaced with fellow Italian director Alfonso Brescia. Where Luigi Cozzi gained a cult following for his weird and strange directing style and storytelling regardless of how bad the film is, Star Odyssey is just plain bad with no flair, style or substance. It’s not even unintentionally🐈 entertaining.
To say the Italian-made Star Odyssey lacked a budget is putting it mildly. There’s a robot that literally looks like a dustbin painted white in hopes that it would like R2-D2. It featured lightsaber-style swords that looked like toy wooden swords that were painted fluorescent. There’s even an Eꦡmperor-like overlord ♛bent on dominating the universe.
15 Space Raider⛄s
The 1983 space opera Space Raiders which is also known as Star Child in some regions outside the United States was another Roger Corman and was his final film for New World Pictures before selling it and set☂ting up a new studio now known as Millennium.
Space Raiders is looked at as an unofficial follow-up to Battle Beyond the Stars, and just like its predecessor it does very little to hide the fact that it’s low-rent Star Wars clone complete with its very own conflicted Han Solo-type in Captain Hawk. In addition, Space Raiders recycled many of the same of special effects that featured in Battle Beyond the Stars over and over again.