The Influences of Star Wars: The Fighting Devil Dogs

A large factor of fandom is speculation. What’s that thing in the background? What’s that character’s backstory? Who will be cast in the new film? Fans can speculate endlessly about anything. Star Wars of course has such large fan base that we built an entire expanded universe out of speculation (though it’s not canon anymore). So it stands to reason that for such a speculative bunch, there’d be a lot of speculation about where Lucas got his inspirations for his space opera. Yet there is so little speculation because Lucas himself has been so forth coming with details. We know most of where his influences come from. Yet there is at least a little speculation for some sources that, while Lucas himself has never claimed to be inspired by, do bear a striking resemblance to Star Wars. So I figured today we’d look at the most popular fan speculated work of influence, the 1938 serial The Fighting Devil Dogs.

The serial details the exploits of two Marine Lieutenants, whom while stationed in Singapore, uncover the threat of the masked terrorist named The Lightning. The Lightning, in his quest for world domination, destroys the marine’s units and even one of the Lt’s father with his lightning based weaponry. It is up to the marines to bring him to justice.

So let’s speculate. We know for a fact Lucas sites old 30’s serials he watched as a child as the main inspiration for Star Wars (the most famous of which I will cover another day). So the format of Devil Dogs makes it a distinct possibility that Lucas saw it as a child. The Lightning is the very first costumed supervillain on record, so it would have been a wise move on Lucas’ part to take elements of the original costumed villain in designing his own costumed baddie, Darth Vader. Lightning does bear a striking resemblance to Vader, though his eye visor brings to mind Boba Fett, which could easily be where that look comes from. Lighting is also adorned in all black leather, cape included. In terms of color scheme he fits the bill. The distinct feature on Darth Vader that aren’t on The Lighting can be easily explained. Vader’s helmet comes from old Samurai helmets and the breathing module is something artist Ralph McQuarrie invented based on an early draft of the script. Every other part of the design could have easily been the description Lucas gave to McQuarrie or what McQuarrie designed after searching old serials for inspiration as per Lucas’ instruction. Aside from The Lightning himself, The Lightning’s minions are adorned in all white, just like the Stormtroopers. This has always stood out to me since while the Empire is largely based of the Nazis, this color scheme doesn’t come from them. Sure the Imperial Officers seem to have their outfits ripped straight off the Nazis, but the Stormtroopers do not. It would make sense if Lucas saw this serial as a kid and took inspiration from it, because that’s where he would have gotten the color scheme of the Empire. The cherry on top in terms of influence are The Lightning’s weapons, which emit lightning. This brings to mind the Emperor’s own lightning capabilities.

Again, all of this is mere speculation. Thematically it doesn’t appear as if Lucas took any inspiration, but visually I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance. The thing is The Lightning is the first costumed supervillain, tons of stuff would go on to be influenced by him in that regard. It is possible Lucas could have been inspired by something inspired by The Fighting Devil Dogs. Whatever the case, it’s certainly the most speculated influence that Lucas has yet to confirm or deny. The serial itself is fun, if a little odd. A lot of the other serials of the time had more of a budget while Devil Dogs relies on a lot of stock footage. The plot itself is fun if sort of weird, considering it’s a normal military vs. a masked villain rather than some epic costumed hero vs costumed villain. It’s low budget even on serial standards, coming in under its original budget. It’s still pretty entertaining if you have a few hours to kill though.