Some people might look at Star Wars and state that a lot of what’s in the franchise was taken from Frank Herbert’s story, Dune. They wouldn’t be entirely wrong, but Star Wars does go into its own story at one point and Tatooine, which is most like Arrakis in Dune, isn’t so close in nature that it could be a complete ripoff. One very notable difference is that unlike the Fremen, the Tusken Raiders are far more savage and have their own ways of surviving in the harsh desert climate. Like the Fremen, they have their own challenges to deal with since water is a scarcity on Tatooine and as a result, the Tuskens have to find a way to survive while conserving as much as they can. Plus, while the Fremen have the sandworms and the other houses to deal with, the Tuskens have Krayt dragons, Sarlaac’s, and various other animals that contend for survival in the wilds of the desert planet. They also have to deal with settlers and moisture farmers that they’re continually at odds with since there’s a continual argument as to who’s in the right when it comes to their raids and the reasons for them. For a long time, the Tusken Raiders have been viewed as a huge problem on Tatooine, and in Attack of the Clones, it was seen that Anakin Skywalker went full psycho on an entire tribe after they captured and tortured his mother. To say that he was justified in his anger was had to deny, but destroying an entire tribe felt like overkill, no matter how he felt.
Whether people want to think of the Tuskens as villains or misunderstood natives of the desert planet it’s likely a good idea to realize that their story is probably a little more detailed than a lot of people realize. They are a brutal race to be certain, but the place they call home is just as brutal, if not more so, and as a result, the Tuskens feel the need to be just as brutal to survive. Creating a story about them might be kind of difficult since while there has been a lot of detail given on the race, it’s getting people interested enough to watch that might be kind of difficult. If the story involved the many threats that they have to deal with it might be kind of interesting, and it might even be more interesting if the story were to go even deeper into their culture and show people that they’re not simply barbaric savages but do have some sense of order to their lives. It might sound like a copout and something that Disney wouldn’t use unless they could warp and twist it to their own design, but the Tuskens actually had a couple of Jedi among their ranks at one point.
Considering that a lot of Star Wars is no longer canon at this point, including the story of future generations of Skywalker’s, the story of Sharad Hett, a Jedi that became a Tusken warlord after making his way to Tatooine to self-exile himself (popular exile spot, Tatooine), might not be one we’d ever get to see. As a short film, it might work, but Sharad did have a son named A’Sharad would become a Jedi during the Clone Wars and would then disappear after Order 66 to emerge as Darth Krayt later on during Cade Skywalker’s time. Throughout all of this, the Tusken Raiders have continued their long and mostly unknown history since they don’t change that much and, upon Sharad Hett’s death during a war between the Hutts and the Tuskens, things would go back to their usual pace once again. There are so many great stories that can be woven from the fabric of so many great Star Wars stories that it’s frustrating that Disney would eliminate so much and then go cherry-picking as they will in order to bolster the stories they’ve created that have been so incredibly lackluster. The Tuskens deserve a movie or a show simply because there’s not a lot that’s known about them, but thankfully if people have seen the first episode of The Mandalorian, season 2, then they’ll see that not only does the Mando understand and speak the language, but he understands their customs as well. Maybe this could be the bridge that will help people learn more about at least one race within the Star Wars universe, as there’s still a lot to figure out about a lot of those that have come and gone within Star Wars lore.
The Tuskens do deserve a story, and whether or not the Jedi are involved really doesn’t matter since their culture could carry the story if it was presented in a way that people could fully understand it. It’s time for Star Wars to expand a bit.
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