Did Star Wars steal spice from Dune? While the spice melange in Dune takes much more of center stage with a greater significance to the plot, the spice in the galaxy far, far away has some key similarities. Found on planets such as Kessel and Naboo, it's possible that George Lucas borrowed the concept of spice from Frank Herbert's Dune along with other elements inspired by the sci-fi epic. Here's how the spices are linked as well as how they're different.
Written in 1965, Frank Herbert's Dune was a major piece of foundational sci-fi literature whose inspiration can be seen across multiple subsequent stories and media (including Star Wars). Featuring the coveted spice melange found only on the desert world of Arrakis, the spice of Dune is a mind-altering drug that carries substantial health benefits. It's also highly addictive and those exposed to the spice for long periods of time eventually have stained-blue eyes known as the "Eyes of Ibad". Spice is also crucial for space travel, seeing as how navigators need it to traverse the galaxy due to the heightened awareness the spice melange provides. As a result, spice is an extremely valuable resource, serving as the focal point for the galaxy's brewing political conflicts between the Imperium and the powerful Houses of Atreides and Harkonnen.
While the spice found in Star Wars carries some similarities, it's not nearly as significant to the plot. Spice is referenced a handful of times throughout the Skywalker saga, first referenced by C-3PO who feared that he and R2-D2 would be sent to the spice mines of Kessel if they were caught by the Imperials in A New Hope. Also an additive drug, Star Wars' spice is found in multiple forms both recreational and illegal. While spice was largely produced on the planet of Kessel, it was also manufactured on worlds such as Naboo as well, as referenced in Attack of the Clones when the Jedi believed Senator Amidala was attacked by disgruntled spice miners on one of Naboo's moons. However, Kessel carries the biggest references to spice, and the world was even visited by Han Solo and his allies in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Coincidentally, while the spice of Star Wars has nothing to do with space travel Kessel also produces coaxium, a highly valuable and coveted resource needed to create hyper fuel so ships can travel at lightspeed. While Star Wars' spice isn't nearly as important to the story as Dune's, it mainly serves to flesh out the world with passing references such as Luke Skywalker believing that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter, or when it was revealed that Han Solo had to dump his cargo full of valuable spice to avoid the Empire (which got him in trouble with Jabba the Hutt). It's also the backbone of the galaxy's criminal enterprises, being the desired payment method of pirates such as Hondo Ohnaka and the primary export of the criminal syndicate known as the Pykes.
With its share of similarities, it does seem likely that George Lucas was inspired to use spice in his sci-fi saga by Frank Herbert's Dune. That being said, it isn't an egregious narrative theft seeing as how the use of spice in Star Wars is minimal in comparison and hardly a focal point of significance. Instead, Star Wars' use of spice is more like an homage, similar to the inspirations Lucas took from Akira Kurosawa's samurai films or the concept of the hero's journey by Joeseph Campbell.
