George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise was a big gamble, for he did not believe the first movie would ever make it. Yet now, the franchise is one of the biggest and most successful cinematic universes of all time and even made Lucas over $10 billion rich at one point.
While the filmmaker, like any other auteur, had numerous inspirations from his own life and reality, he took one US President as his sole inspiration to create one of the most deadly and scary Star Wars villains. In the oral history of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, Lucas revealed that the Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine was actually inspired by none other than former US President Richard Nixon.
George Lucas Reveals Emperor Palpatine Was Inspired By Richard Nixon
Former US President Richard Nixon was a brilliant politician but has become one of the most problematic and controversial leaders in the whole wide world apart from the US. Now mostly remembered by the infamous Watergate incident, the former US President’s mark on the history of the country has been muddled by his various controversies (via Libertaianism.org).
And so when it came to the creation of Emperor Palpatine, the Darth Sidious who crushed all forms of dissent and imposed draconian oppression throughout the galaxy, George Lucas took inspiration from Nixon. While relating the oral history of Episode I The Phantom Menace, the filmmaker stated (via StarWars.com),
“The inspiration for Star Wars, one of the very first ideas, was when Richard Nixon tried to change the Constitution so that he could run for a third term. We all knew he was a crook, he was a bad guy, he did terrible things and we sort of chugged along with it. It wasn’t until the impeachment, and really even later than that, that we understood how completely corrupt he was.”
How The Political Conditions Inspired Star Wars’ Empire
It is no secret that filmmakers, artists, writers, and storytellers often seek inspiration from reality to weave their world of fiction. And George Lucas was no different when it came to Emperor Palpantine’s oppressive Empire in the Star Wars movies.
While revealing how Richard Nixon and the politics of that time led to the creation of Darth Sidious, Lucas also remarked on the creation of his Empire and stated,
“But that was the idea, which was, ‘How does a democracy crumble? How does it die?’ When it doesn’t die with a revolution — it does in some cases — but not in the world of the ideal democracy, which we thought we had at that time, how does that happen? Would the people vote for it? And yes, they do vote for it, that’s the whole point. There’s an outside threat, and that threat allows the tyrant to take over. And the populace gives up the democratic powers and this guy is suddenly running the show. You end up with the Empire.”
Adding on that this was what exactly happened with Palpatine, Lucas created parallels with reality stating that no one really knew how the Sith Lord was until his assent to power.
All the Star Wars movies and series can be streamed on Disney+.
