Oh? "Jedi" is, practically speaking, "wizard" in SW vernacular. The protagonist desires to be a wizard (Jedi), attends a school (apprenticeship assigned by Jedi council) for wizards, has wizard friends (Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon), and engages in occult practices (uses supernatural powers to win gambling/races, with much more advanced use to come).
Words, terms & names may be different, as may be some of the trappings, but both involve a boy desiring to learn the ways of supernatural manipulation of his environment by training by masters of arcane arts - really not much difference.
Good points. There are some parallels. And to think I used to think it was just pointless "space nonsense."
I read an interview with George Lucas in which he described his philosophy as a syncretic blend of eastern monism and atheism, thus explaining the enigmatic "force."
I believe there is a vast difference in degree between Star Wars and Harry Potter if not in kind.