Joseph Campbell and the Skywalker: Meetings with George Lucas

Pacifica Graduate Institute | Campbell & Gimbutas Library by Richard Buchen

Lucas had read The Hero with a Thousand Faces while working on the script of the first of the Star Wars movies, and had gone on to read the Masks of God and other writings. When Star Wars debuted in 1977, it followed the Hero very closely. Lucas said at an award ceremony in 1985, “It is possible that if I hadn’t run across him I’d still be writing Star Wars today.”