Fans have discovered hilarious way Star Wars 'predicted the future'

Fans of Star Wars have been left making double takes after seeing an eerie similarity between the current state of the world, and one of the movies.

The comparison originates in the opening scenario in the first of prequel movies, The Phantom Menace.

As the iconic theme music blares, the opening crawl reads: "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying systems is in dispute."

At the time and for many years afterwards a lot of fans poked fun at this opening to the first Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi.

After all, in a world filled with aliens, space wizards, and gangsters, something as dull as trade route taxation seemed to be a little less exciting than lightsaber duels, force wielding, and spaceship dogfighting.

But with Trump's war in Iran now grinding on, and one part of the world becoming a focus of immense tension, some people are now convinced that Lucas had even predicted the future with this opening.

Trump has been unfavourably compared to some Star Wars characters (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

The Phantom Menace opens with the Trade Federation blockading a planet, with tensions rising as they make ready to launch an invasion.

While it might seem mundane compared to the more fantastical elements of Star Wars, many are now comparing this to the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is a crucial trade route where a large proportion of the oil produced in the world passes, and at the moment the US and Israel's war in Iran has seen Iran threatening ships in the strait, severely disrupting the traffic.

People have also humorously made comparisons between Trump and certain characters in the movies, most notably Jabba the Hutt.

Taking to social media, one person wrote: "I know Star Wars is technically set in the past but I can't help but feel that George Lucas predicted the future by showing us a stupid trade war and a big fat slimy orange worm."

It's not the first time this parallel has been drawn (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Others even drew comparison with an 'army of droids', by referencing the use of drones.

It's not the first time that the comparison between Trump's policies and the opening of the Phantom Menace has been made either.

The US president's flagship policy around tariffs draws a rather direct comparison with the opening, as it's directly related to how goods are taxed when they're moving between countries.

There is a slight absurdity that someone as supernatural and terrifying as Darth Vader could come about because of a trade dispute, but if the politics of recent months has shown anything it's that reality can be even stranger than fiction.