How George Lucas used Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey' to revise 'Star Wars'

Why mythologist Joseph Campbell loved 'Star Wars'

Joseph Campbell, the literature professor who wrote about the power of mythology, suggested that "Star Wars" was a powerful modern myth that used classic archetypes to communicate a universal message.

The 'Star Wars' series begins where George Lucas believed the story was most accessible

The director originally conceived 'Star Wars' as a single long story, but recognized it was far too big for a single movie, so he split each act into its own film. He began with the fourth act, which would later be renamed "A New Hope."

How American politics influenced 'Star Wars'

George Lucas believed that myths were how societies communicated notions of good and evil, and that modern myths were found on movie screens. This deep dive from the Los Angeles Review of Books explores how Lucas' disillusionment with the Vietnam War and his disgust with President Richard Nixon informed some of the themes in "Star Wars."

A deep dive into the long road to making 'Star Wars'

In this podcast, Chris Taylor, author of "How 'Star Wars' Conquered the Universe," details the long road—lined with studio rejections, a dismissive crew, glacially slow special effects, and last-minute edits—George Lucas traveled to see "Star Wars" through to its release.

A novelization of 'Star Wars' preceded the movie–and was a massive success

The book "Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker" was released in November 1976, six months before the film it was based on hit theaters. By February, the novel had sold out of its initial print run of 125,000 copies and would quickly sell over 3.5 million copies.

Legendary director Brian De Palma hated his first viewing of 'Star Wars'

The "Carrie" and "Mission: Impossible" director was invited by his friend George Lucas to watch an early cut of the first "Star Wars," a draft that lacked many of the special effects that would be added later. De Palma was highly critical, telling Lucas that "The Force" was an awful name for the spiritual power Luke Skywalker eventually comes to embrace.

Read a 1971 magazine feature on Lucas' debut film, the sci-fi 'THX 1138'

Almost a decade before the arrival of "Star Wars," George Lucas directed "THX 1138," a grim science fiction film about a dystopian future in the vein of George Orwell's "1984." This article from the October 1971 issue of American Cinematographer features a young George Lucas, who developed the film from a short he worked on while a student at the University of Southern California just a few years earlier.

See the early concept art for 'Star Wars'

George Lucas asked artist Ralph McQuarrie to create reference images to help prospective producers understand his vision for the "Star Wars" universe, and drafted early versions of Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and other characters. You can check out a gallery featuring dozens of the images below.

How 'Star Wars' changed science fiction

The popularity of "Star Wars" shifted the market away from the more literary, and sometimes cynical, science fiction of the 1960s and '70s. In the wake of George Lucas' space opera, publishers and studios wanted similarly optimistic adventure stories. In time, though, writers like William Gibson would react against that and, in turn, create the "cyber punk" subgenre.

Lucasfilm discouraged fan fiction that sexualized its characters

The self-published fan fiction zines of the '60s, '70s, and '80s were obscure enough that they rarely attracted the attention of the copyright holders of their source material. But Lucasfilm, the production company behind the "Star Wars" films, threatened legal action against fans who published X-rated stories and "homosexual expressions of love" featuring its characters.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

'Everybody has talent and it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is. A talent is a combination of something you love a great deal and something you can lose yourself in.'

- George Lucas (1944-present)

JRR Tolkien believed fairy tales needed dramatic reversals of fortune

Tolkien coined the term "eucatastrophe" to define what he believed as an essential key to good storytelling: “The consolation of fairy-stories [is] the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn.'"

How famous writers chose their pen names

From Joseph Conrad to JK Rowling, writers employ pseudonyms for all kinds of reasons. How they find those pseudonyms, however, depends on the individual.

Lord Byron lives on through the Byronic Hero trope

Brooding introspection, rebelliousness, and a troubled past define the Byronic Hero, named after an archetype made famous by Romantic poet Lord Byron. This video dives into the romantic rebel's origins, why he’s so compelling, and how the character type persists in modern media.

The calendars of the 'Lord of the Rings'

JRR Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" is a seminal work in the history of literature partly due to its creator's obsessive focus on systematic detail—including the calendars used in the world. Take a fantastic dive into the minutiae of Tolkien's creation by learning the different approaches to time organization in the Shire or Rivendell with this dense, comprehensive resource based on Tolkien's appendices.

The new history of the Milky Way

New data garnered from European spacecraft Gaia in 2018 allowed astronomers to rewrite the Milky Way Galaxy's biography. Charting the movements of more than 1 billion stars, Gaia made astronomers reassess how our galaxy formed. Evidence of long-ago collisions and proof of unexpected and unusual movements were just the beginning of the beginning.

Unpacking 'Night Journey,' Martha Graham's take on a Greek myth

The dance piece was inspired by the story of Oedipus, as well as by more contemporary psychoanalytic theories from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. This JSTOR article explores how Graham's show merged those texts with her singular approach to movement to explore gender and identity.

How upheavals in accepted scientific theories helped popularize the term 'paradigm'

When Thomas Kuhn published "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" in 1962, he described the history of science as comprising periods of "normal science" where these accepted frameworks—paradigms—gradually accumulate anomalies until they cannot describe nature. Revolutionary science, such as the development of a new theory, results in a paradigm shift, another term Kuhn helped popularize. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The story behind King's 'I have a dream' speech

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still drafting his August 28, 1963, speech the night before he was set to speak to more than 250,000 people at a demonstration in Washington, DC. As he delivered his speech, a cry from his favorite gospel singer to “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin" prompted King to push aside his prepared remarks and rely on his established refrain.

'Brave New World' author Aldous Huxley turned to LSD on his deathbed

As "Brave New World" author Aldous Huxley lay dying of cancer in 1963, he asked his wife Laura to dose him with the hallucinogen LSD. A month later, Laura Huxley wrote a letter detailing the author's final trip, which she notes ended "so slowly, so gently, like a piece of music just finishing in a sempre piu piano dolcemente."

An Irish soldier recounts the horrors of fighting in World War I

Jack Campbell, who died in 1992, at age 97, served in the British army during World War I with four of his older brothers. Ireland's last "Old Contemptible," Campbell was gassed during the course of the war, and he shares this and other memories on Ireland's 'The Late Late Show' in this 11-minute video.

Tips for writing time travel stories

Are you thinking of writing a story that involves time travel? You might want to read this guide first. It offers questions to consider, mistakes to avoid and strategies to employ to ensure you avoid paradoxes, plot holes and implausibilities.

Why Percival Everett decided to reimagine 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

Percival Everett's novel "James"—a retelling of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Jim, an escaped slave—was one of the most acclaimed books of 2024. In this interview, Everett explains why he decided to rework the classic American novel and why he felt it was necessary to infuse his own with a different voice.

Explore Lewis and Clark’s 8,000-mile journey in Google Earth

Follow the Corps of Discovery’s full route from St. Louis to the Pacific and back on Google Earth. Explore key camps, Native encounters, and natural landmarks through satellite imagery and on-the-ground photos.

The benefits of lucid dreaming

Lucid dreams happen when the dreamer knows they've stepped out of the bounds of waking life. Studies show it can help dreamers cultivate creativity, process grief, and work through trauma. A 2021 study found that 85% of participants with PTSD no longer qualified for the diagnosis after a week of trauma-informed lucid dreaming in which they intentionally witnessed (and therefore integrated) recurring nightmares or changed the outcome completely.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Learn how monoclonal antibodies, which mimic the body's antibodies, can fight diseases like Ebola.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.