How Aliens inspired an episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

When James Cameron's Aliens was released in 1986, it quickly took the world by storm and became one of the most iconic sci-fi movies ever made. The beloved sequel expanded on the world of Alien, providing depth to lead character Ripley, showing more of the evil Weyland-Yutani corporation, and, of course, throwing in more of the titular aliens. Nearly 40 years later, a new Alien film is set to hit theaters this month, and fans are indeed revisiting the iconic franchise in anticipation. However, both Alien and Star Wars fans may notice a few striking similarities between the action/horror icon and an episode of the beloved series, The Clone Wars.

During the second season of The Clone Wars, the Republic army returns to the planet of Geonosis, where the war first began, to battle the Separatist forces of Poggle the Lesser. After successfully landing on the planet and destroying a significant weapons factory, the episode "Legacy of Terror" sees Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker search for a missing Luminara Unduli, who zombified Geonosian forces have taken hostage. They later find her, deep within the catacombs, being held before the Geonosian queen, Karina the Great. Visually, Karina looks strikingly similar to the Xenomorph queen seen in Aliens, with both having a large head crest and long egg sacs.

The undead Geonosian army also behaves similarly to the Xenomorphs, acting as a unified hive mind and capturing their victims, taking them to the nest before implanting them with something. While not exactly the same concept, both species implant their captive with a foreign object. In Aliens, the Xenomorph queen lays eggs that spawn facehuggers, which attach to their victims' faces and impregnate them with an alien embryo, which ultimately spawns from and kills the host. The Geonosians are far less graphic. They welcome subjects to their hive by introducing them to a brain worm, which crawls up the victim's nose and essentially turns them into a zombie, which is in tune with the hive mind. Not quite the same, but both invasive processes ultimately take over the autonomy of their respective hosts and add more minds to the hive.

Both queen appearances also play out similarly, though with slightly different tones. Aliens is, after all, an R-rated horror movie, so the scene is naturally much darker. After the child she has come to care for, Newt, is taken to the alien hive, Ripley goes into the belly of the beast to rescue her. She finds Newt bound to the wall, where a facehugger will inevitably find her. After saving the girl, Ripley encounters the queen before setting fire to the nest of eggs and escaping in the elevator as the structure counts down to self-destruct.

The Clone Wars takes a much lighter approach, with plenty of comedic bits, but the scene is still ostensibly the same. Obi-Wan and Anakin dive deep into the catacombs (which look similar to the Xenomorph hive in some shots, thanks to the architecture), only to find Luminara suspended against the wall in front of the queen, waiting to be infected with one of their brain worms. After some banter, the Jedi and their clone companions distract the Geonosians with light, which they are averse to. They rescue Luminara and escape up an abandoned shaft just before the catacombs collapse. Despite playing to different audiences, there is no denying that the series of events depicted in "Legacy of Terror" is a clear homage to the climax of Aliens.

The Clone Wars episode being so clearly based on such an iconic sci-fi film may come as no surprise to die-hard fans of both franchises, but it still makes for a charming connection. "Legacy of Terror" is one of the best episodes from Season 2, and it's made all the better by acting as a tribute to such a great movie. With both the Alien and Star Wars franchises having such lasting legacies with new projects on the horizon, fans are surely wondering when the series will effectively cross over next.