Star Wars’ Spice Explained: Canon, Legends & Dune Comparison

The Star Wars franchise’s two continuities, canon and Legends, both feature spice, a mind-altering drug that was inspired by a somewhat similar substance of the same name in Frank Herbert’s Dune novels and their adaptations. Spice is mentioned in A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, but most of its appearances are in the Star Wars franchise’s canon and Legends non-movie material. Frank Herbert’s Dune was a significant source of inspiration for the Star Wars franchise, particularly for the desert world of Tatooine, a key location in the Skywalker Saga. While spice differs slightly in canon and Legends Star Wars material, both are quite different from the substance seen in the Dune franchise.

George Lucas was inspired by a plethora of films, comic books, novels, and mythology when developing the first Star Wars film. Among the clearest examples of this are westerns, like The Searchers, and classic samurai films, such as the films of Akira Kurosawa. Along with spice, Dune’s desolate planet Arrakis heavily inspired Tatooine. Moisture farmers, such as Luke Skywalker and his adopted parents, Owen and Beru Lars, used devices called moisture vaporators to collect water, similar to the windtrap facilities on Arrakis. In a broader sense, both franchises feature themes of anti-totalitarianism, as the plots involve the toppling of oppressive authoritarian regimes.

The Star Wars saga initially only had one continuity, whose non-movie material was eventually marketed as the Expanded Universe. This additional material worked in tandem with the films to broaden the Star Wars franchise, exploring the universe and enriching its lore and character development when the films, in many cases, only scratched their surfaces. In 2014, as part of preparations for the then-upcoming sequel trilogy, the Star Wars franchise relegated the Expanded Universe to an alternate continuity and rebranded it Legends, rebooting the continuity with only the original six saga films and 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the latter of which is often handwaved by fans as not being part of Legends due to its many continuity conflicts with the timeline). Canon and Legends often differ in large and small ways, such as their depictions of spice.

Spice In Star Wars Canon

In the Star Wars canon timeline, spice is a blanket term used to describe a variety of mind-altering substances. While some spice variants are used for medical and scientific purposes, most were highly-addictive recreational drugs, making the spice trade a key component of the criminal underworld. Spice was mentioned occasionally in The Clone Wars, being demanded by Hondo Ohnaka in exchange for a captured Count Dooku and later being traded with him for delivering rocket launchers to the Onderon Rebels. The infamous spice mines of Kessel appear in both Star Wars Rebels and Solo: A Star Wars Story, run by the Pyke Syndicate in the latter and the Empire in the former. Lom Pyke, a Pyke Syndicate leader during the Clone Wars, demonstrated an adverse effect of frequent spice use, with discoloration on his face and hands.

Despite its illegal status during the reign of the Galactic Empire, some Imperial Moffs, such as Delian Mors, were infamous users of the substance. Another Moff, Ghadi, used a spice aerosol spray to cover fellow Moff and Regional Governor Arihnda Pryce in an expensive spice variant to blackmail her. Spice made its live-action debut in The Book of Boba Fett, which featured recovered narcotic powder from a repulsorlift train that belonged to the Pyke Syndicate. Spice, unsurprisingly, remained an illegal substance during the age of the New Republic, with the New Republic and later Resistance pilot, Poe Dameron, having briefly been a spice smuggler before joining the New Republic military.

Spice In Star Wars Legends

Much of the lore surrounding spice originated in the Star Wars Legends continuity. Like canon, there are numerous varieties of the drug, such as the mild ryll, the euphoric giggledust, and potent glitterstim. Combining ryll and glitterstim created the powerful glitteryll, whose amnesia-inducing effects were used on Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura in Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics. Spice is mentioned several times in the original and prequel trilogy films (which belong to both canon and Legends), with C-3PO mentioning the spice mines of Kessel, Luke believing that his father worked aboard a spice freighter, and Han Solo indirectly mentioning the substance as the shipment he jettisoned while working for Jabba the Hutt. Naboo spice miners were, incorrectly, attributed to the assassination attempts on Padme Amidala in Attack of the Clones.

The most powerful and highly sought-after spice variant, glitterstim, came from Kessel’s hazardous spice mines. The Legends-era process of mining glitterstim was far more dangerous, requiring miners to work in complete darkness, risking the loss of fingers from the sharp mineral and certain death by energy spider, deadly Kessel arachnids whose webs contained the valuable glitterstim. While glitterstim is extremely addictive and can easily become lethal with prolonged use or in large doses, it gives users telepathic abilities for a brief time, as shown in the Han Solo novel, The Paradise Snare.

Did Star Wars Steal Spice From Dune?

Spice Melange, often simply referred to as “spice” is featured prominently in Dune and its adaptations, with the original novel preceding Star Wars by over a decade. In the Dune franchise, spice was an invaluable commodity that could only be naturally produced on the dangerous desert world of Arrakis. Spice has beneficial effects, such as prolonging life, improving health, and enhancing perception, making it extremely useful for navigators during space travel. Enough spice could even grant users the ability to see into the past and future (prescience). Spice was not without drawbacks, however, as it was also an addictive narcotic. While the two Star Wars continuities used Dune as inspiration for their version of spice, their iterations of the substance aren’t direct copies of Frank Herbert’s concept.

How Star Wars’ Spice Compares To Dune’s

The spice shown in Dune has both benefits and drawbacks, making it necessary in some regards (such as space travel), but easily abused. The Star Wars canon timeline’s spice is simply a term for illegal narcotics used throughout the galactic underworld. The discoloration of Lom Pyke’s face and hands, however, seems to be referencing Dune’s spice, which made the eyes of frequent users a bright blue color. The Star Wars Legends timeline’s spice is similarly a term for illegal narcotics, except for glitterstim, whose characteristic of imbuing its users with temporary telepathy is similar to spice’s perception-enhancing properties in Dune.

About The Author

David Miller
(618 Articles Published)

David Miller is a staff writer for Screen Rant, indie comic writer, and life-long lover of all things Star Wars, Marvel, and DC. He was born and raised in New York and has a degree in English from Rider University. He relates to Peter Parker maybe a little too much.

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