Star Wars: A New Hope, formerly titled Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, is a Legends novel ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster and credited to George Lucas. It adapts the film of the same name, and it was based on the screenplay by Lucas. The novelization was first published on November 12, 1976 by Ballantine Books, prior to the film's 1977 release. A sequel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was written by Foster and published in 1978. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was later collecte
“implying the hype train could’ve begun with a book”
But it didn’t. Yet your title wasn’t posed as a hypothetical but as a fact.
You say that like the title ever claimed the movie was actually based on the book.