The 2009 science-fiction blockbuster Avatar introduced an alien world filled with enormous forests, strange creatures, and a civilization deeply connected to its environment. The humans who arrive there are also interested in what Pandora has to offer, creating a conflict with the Na’vi who live there. It became one of the most recognizable science-fiction worlds in modern movies. But nine years before Cameron’s movie arrived, Star Wars had already taken its own characters to a mysterious alien planet where the world itself was far more important than it first appeared.
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The story came from a 2000 Star Wars novel by science-fiction author Greg Bear. Rogue Planet was set between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, following a young Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on a mission to the planet Zonama Sekot. The book wasn’t telling the same story as Avatar, and there is no established evidence that Cameron’s movie was inspired by it. But the similarities are difficult to ignore. Both stories take characters to unusual alien worlds, introduce civilizations closely connected to those worlds, and involve outsiders interested in what the new worlds have to offer. Avatar would eventually make that kind of story famous on a massive scale. Star Wars had already taken a surprisingly similar trip years earlier.
Star Wars Visited a Mysterious Alien World Nine Years Before Avatar
Rogue Planet arrived at an interesting point in Star Wars history in 2000. The Phantom Menace had introduced audiences to a young Anakin Skywalker, but the next prequel movie wouldn’t arrive until 2002. That left a large stretch of the timeline for the Expanded Universe to explore. Greg Bear used that opportunity to send Anakin and Obi-Wan to Zonama Sekot. The planet was known for producing some of the fastest ships in the galaxy. What initially appears to be another unusual destination quickly becomes something more concerning. Zonama Sekot is a living world with secrets of its own. Its unusual nature also becomes an important part of the story. Anakin and Obi-Wan aren’t simply visiting another planet before moving on to their next adventure. They are trying to understand a world whose nature is fundamentally different from the places they are used to.
Pandora would later become famous for its enormous forests, unusual wildlife, and the Na’vi’s deep relationship with nature. The humans who arrive create a conflict between outside interests and the civilization already living there. Bear’s novel was already exploring a similar idea. Zonama Sekot is itself part of the mystery, with its living nature playing a central role in the story. Pandora’s environment isn’t simply where the story happens, either. Nine years before Cameron introduced audiences to Pandora, Rogue Planet had already made the nature of an alien world an important part of a science-fiction adventure. At the time, however, Rogue Planet was simply another Star Wars adventure filling in a part of the galaxy that the movies hadn’t yet explored.
Rogue Planet Told Its Story Between Two Star Wars Movies
The Rogue Planet novel was published on May 2, 2000, less than a year after The Phantom Menace and almost two years before Attack of the Clones. Its story takes place three years after the events of The Phantom Menace, when Anakin is still a young Jedi and Obi-Wan is still his master. That gave Greg Bear an opportunity to explore a period of Anakin’s life that the movies largely skipped. The novel showed the pair having another adventure along the way. It was exactly the kind of story the Expanded Universe was designed to tell: something that could fit into the empty spaces between the movies and make the galaxy feel larger.
Over the years, Rogue Planet became part of what is now known as Star Wars Legends. This happened after Disney established a new continuity for the franchise in 2014. That means the events of the novel aren’t part of the current main Star Wars canon. But the book remains an interesting piece of the franchise’s history. More importantly, its 2000 publication date makes the comparison with Avatar impossible to miss. Nine years before Cameron introduced audiences to Pandora, Greg Bear had already written a story about characters encountering a mysterious alien world whose living nature was central to the adventure. The similarities don’t prove that one inspired the other, but it’s definitely worth noting.
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