re: How much of a joke is it that Star Wars was ever thought to be equal to Lord of the Rings?

quote:

---

I've never heard anyone say SW was 'equal to' LOTR. Either the movies or the source material.

---

Pretty famous movie did, which was actually debated on: YouTube

quote:

---

I'm guessing that some modern day Disney Star Wars shills or NPCs were attempting to make this comparison?

I've never heard anyone say SW was 'equal to' LOTR. Either the movies or the source material.

---

I guess it depends a lot on your perspective.

For those of us who lived through both original movie trilogies, Star Wars was the first.
When LOTR came out, the comparisons started, because they are both epic fantasy trilogies at the top of their respective genres, and both elevated those genres in public perception and cultural significance.

Really the only other films to approach that was the MCU, as it got to Avengers. But then that franchise kept rolling on and is a totally different idea or event, more like the Bond series in that it keeps going.

You dont have to say one is better than the other, because they are different achievements.

But this much is true: Star Wars OT doesn't get made, if Star Wars the original movie wasn't such a gigantic success. And LOTR doesn't get made to the scale it was, if SW wasn't already established as proof trilogies can work.

And the MCU is far more similar to SW than LOTR. It was standalone movies, that intersected into a larger movie. LOTR is and always was 1 big story, that if you were going to commit to make, you had to make all of it.

As for history/backstories, they're also what and what. Star Wars had none, other than a couple mentions of things in the movies. Lucas then went back and created a history book, and tried to put a couple characters into that.
Tolkien had his works that later were published as the Silmarillion (and Unfinished Tales, etc). The Hobbit ironically isn't relevant, it was merely the children's book he got published that started his publishing career. He rewrote it later to fit better, but the Ring wasn't a big deal at first. The truly big stories have not been translated to film