# Stupid Star Wars question - are the "humans" homo sapiens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592 "2025-06-13T16:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/1 "2025-06-13T16:16:54Z")
We are currently watching Andor, and for whatever reason it struck me, if this all takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, how did the humans get there? Most SF I’ve encountered takes place in “the future.” But seeing as how humans have only existed for some 100,000 years, and have had steam power for 225 of those, I’m wondering how we got to a galaxy far far away a long time ago. Not to mention developing all that technology and culture once we got there. I suppose that the movies might be filmed at some time in the remote future, such that the events shown were in the past at the time they were filmed, yet are in the future regarding today… Or is it, instead, an extreme example of convergent evolution? What little googling I did seems to just say this is unexplained. I’m not a big SF fan, but this strikes me as a pretty gaping plot hole. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/2 "2025-06-13T16:20:23Z")
Star Wars is pretty much the antithesis of any sort of science-based science fiction. It’s space fantasy: a fairy tale with laser swords, where they call magic “the Force.” No, there is no canonical in-universe explanation of why the “humans” in a galaxy far, far away (and a long time ago, too!) look just like us. To quote Harrison Ford, talking to Mark Hamill during the filming of the original film, “it’s not that kind of movie, kid.” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/3 "2025-06-13T16:21:47Z")
So they are classed as human, but humans of Coruscant and not of Earth. These humans of a different galaxy match to Terrans pretty closely but aren’t directly related. Star Wars does not bother to explain this. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/4 "2025-06-13T16:23:10Z")
An infinite Universe has an infinite number of possibilities repeated an infinite number of times. Ergo, they are undoubtedly Homo sapiens. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/5 "2025-06-13T16:25:24Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > We are currently watching Andor, and for whatever reason it struck me, if this all takes place a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, how did the humans get there? Although human-like in appearance and manner, the humanoids of _Star Wars_ are clearly not human. For that matter, the astrogrophy, biology, and even basic physics of the _Star Wars_ universe is not like our own. It has been hypothesized that all of this occurred in a pocket universe perhaps formed by an instability during the expansion phase, or else a construct by survivors of the Great Contraction to produce elaborate dramatic entertainments, the broadcast of which were caught in a time vortex which captured and then released the, circa AD 1974 into the brain of one “George Lucas” who reimagined them in primitive form into the franchise we see today. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > To quote Harrison Ford, talking to Mark Hamill during the filming of the original film, “it’s not that kind of movie, kid.” Or, this. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/6 "2025-06-13T16:25:43Z")
> Having a recorded and civilized history reaching back far beyond the beginning of space travel,[[4]](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Human/Legends#cite_note-NEC-4) their original homeworld forgotten, and early history of Humans was lost to their scientists in the depths of millennia. Whatever the original homeworld was, it was universally accepted that Humans evolved on one of the [Core Worlds](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Core_Worlds/Legends) near the galaxy’s center. Humans were among the few sentient species in the galaxy whose homeworld was unknown, the [Ryn](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Ryn/Legends), [Yoda’s species](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Yoda%27s_species/Legends) and the [Baragwins](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Baragwin/Legends) being some other examples. ~~~Wookieepedia ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/7 "2025-06-13T16:55:12Z")
It all makes sense once you learn that we are not descents of apes, but are actually [Golgafrinchan.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_at_the_End_of_the_Universe) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/8 "2025-06-13T16:58:48Z")
And apparently they all speak the king’s English. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/9 "2025-06-13T17:05:39Z")
How is this specific to Star Wars? For simple matters of practicality, almost all filmed sci-fi, regardless of what the backstory purportedly is, either have humanoid aliens in a bunch of face paint and prosthetics and straight up unadorned humans and you’re meant to not think too hard about it. Same as how aliens all speak English with contemporary, 20th/21st century accents and use slang and metaphors that are the exact same thing as us modern folks use (eg: in LOTR, the orcs say “looks like meat’s back on the menu”, implying the existence of orc restaurants with orc sit down service and orc waiters). ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/10 "2025-06-13T17:05:48Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Although human-like in appearance and manner, the humanoids of _Star Wars_ are clearly not human. Curious, because what few sources I looked at seemed to say otherwise. Another possibility is that homo sapiens arose in that distant galaxy, and then travelled to our earth, built the pyramids ;), seeded a population, and then left - takin gtheir technology with them (and creating a fossil/genetic record to confuse things.) Like I said, I’m not a SF fan - and even less of a SW fan. (Just starting S2 or Andor, I’ve pretty much had my SW fill for the next 5-10 years!) In my ignorance, I had thought George Lucas was supposed to have been uber anal about creating complete histories and back stories. Thanks all. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/11 "2025-06-13T17:09:01Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > How is this specific to Star Wars? What I thought made this worth asking was that most of the SF I’ve read/watched seems to take place in the future. As opposed to SW occurring a long time ago. Watching Andor, I find it curious that the humans all speak with British accents. Even including an occasional Scot. Just seems a tad odd. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/12 "2025-06-13T17:10:49Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > In my ignorance, I had thought George Lucas was supposed to have been uber anal about creating complete histories and back stories. Yes and no. Yes, he created some backstories, but a lot of the voluminous detail about the characters and the setting was created by others. And, what Lucas did develop was largely around the story, and not any “science” – and almost undoubtedly not any attempt to rationalize or explain how the “human” characters in Star Wars were (or even could be) the same species of human as us. Those few times when he did attempt to inject some pseudo-scientific explanations of things into the films (e.g., “midichlorians” in _The Phantom Menace_) were awful. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/13 "2025-06-13T17:11:07Z")
I’ve always liked what Asimov says in the foreword to _Nightfall_, a book about an alien world with five suns: > [@](#): > > Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words should be understood as mere equivalents of alien terms-that is, a conventional set of equivalents of the same sort that a writer of novels uses when he has foreign characters speaking with each other in their own language but nevertheless transcribes their words in the language of the reader. So when the people of Kalgash speak of “miles,” or “hands,” or “cars,” or “computers,” they mean their own units of distance, their own grasping-organs, their own ground-transportation devices, their own information-processing machines, etc. The computers used on Kalgash are not necessarily compatible with the ones used in New York or London or Stockholm, and the “mile” that we use in this book is not necessarily the American unit of 5,280 feet. But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms. > > In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along the main gleebish of his native znoob, and everything might have seemed ever so much more thoroughly alien. But it would also have been ever so much more difficult to make sense out of what we were saying, and that did not seem useful. The essence of this story doesn’t lie in the quantity of bizarre terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth have ever had to deal with. Under the circumstances, it seemed to us better to tell you that someone put on his hiking boots before setting out on a seven-mile walk than to clutter the book with quonglishes, vorks, and gleebishes. > > If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads “vorks” wherever it says “miles,” “gliizbiiz” wherever it says “hours,” and “sleshtraps” where it says “eyes.” Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make no difference when the Stars come out. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/14 "2025-06-13T17:19:33Z")
There was a cancelled book called [Alien Exodus](https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Alien_Exodus) that would have made the original humans refugees from the THX1138 universe who travelled through a wormhole or something like that, to another galaxy in the past. Neeless to say it is non-canon. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/15 "2025-06-13T17:19:58Z")
I think the problem is to try and read Star Wars as if it was Science Fiction, Star Wars is Fantasy, with SF trappings. “A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away” tells you from the start that this is a fairy tale. (It took me an embarrassing amount of years to realize that it was an analogue of “A long time ago, in a kingdom far far away” ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/17 "2025-06-13T17:53:56Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > In my ignorance, I had thought George Lucas was supposed to have been uber anal about creating complete histories and back stories. That’s why he had Leia kiss Luke multiple times. He had an entire storyline about incestuous inbreeding among the Skywalker clan enhancing their mastery of “The Force” detailed in a long passage of _The Journey of the Whills_ that Obi-Wan Kenobi read aloud during the long journey to Alderaan to keep the Luke and the crew entertained but Marcia Lucas thankfully cut it for pacing and time. However, George RR Martin read a shooting script for _Star Wars_ and thought it was a really good idea which he used for the Targaryens, who are basically the ‘Jedi’ of the _Song of Ice and Fire_ series. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/18 "2025-06-13T17:54:52Z")
I find it interesting that the styles in the 5BBY-0BBY era are surprisingly close to the styles of late-1970s America. The haircuts, clothing, sideburns, computers, home furnishings, etc. I’m surprised the Galaxy didn’t get an influx of pastels and wicker furniture in the years post-empire. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/19 "2025-06-13T18:07:51Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > What I thought made this worth asking was that most of the SF I’ve read/watched seems to take place in the future. As opposed to SW occurring a long time ago. The Star Wars movies don’t take place in _our_ past. They’re the myths and legends of the civilization that grows out of the events we see in the movies - it’s meant to represent that, even a thousand years later, people still talk about Luke Skywalker and the fall of the Empire. The whole universe is not meant to have any explicit connection to the real world. There may be an “Earth” somewhere in the setting, but it’s been lost for so long that nobody would even recognize it if they found it again. > [@](#): > > Watching Andor, I find it curious that the humans all speak with British accents. Even including an occasional Scot. Just seems a tad odd. Do you also find it odd when you’re watching a WWII movie, and the Nazis are speaking British-accented English with each other? Does it throw you when movies set in ancient Rome aren’t filmed entirely in Latin? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/20 "2025-06-13T18:11:05Z")
Convergent grooviness ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2025, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592/21 "2025-06-13T18:17:10Z")
It’s inconceivable that the 1970s pornstache could independently evolve in two different galaxies. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-star-wars-question-are-the-humans-homo-sapiens/1019592.md?page=2)