Holographic dancers, ancient lightsabers, and actors brought back from the dead, are
just some of the Star Wars easter eggs, call-backs, and cameos in Rogue One.
In this video, I'm going to look at some of Rogue One's best Star Wars connections from
the original trilogy and prequels to the animated TV shows Rebels and Clone Wars.
Obviously there are spoilers ahead for all things Star Wars-related, so be aware of that,
or you can click or tap here for my spoiler-free Rogue One review.
The infamous surgeon with a death sentence in 12 systems, Cornelius Evazan, is back in
Rogue One causing trouble again and almost picking a fight with Jyn and her friends,
when they knock into each other as they're walking by.
He's on Jedha with Ponda Baba and, of course, the pair first appeared in A New Hope where
Evazan and Ponda Baba deliberately picked a fight with Luke Skywalker in the Mos Eisley
cantina.
Some of the aliens in Saw Gerrera's cave are playing what looks like a physical version
of the Holochess that Chewbacca played on the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope and which
Finn accidentally turned on in The Force Awakens.
And Saw Gerrera's cave contains a wealth of fascinating characters and objects including
a nod to the Twi'lek alien Oola from Return of the Jedi.
Look out for the dancing hologram of Jabba's slave dancer, who, as you'll remember, he
fed to his pet rancor in the third film in the original trilogy.
One of the aliens we see in Saw Gerrera's lair is the alien Beezer Fortuna, who could
be related to Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hut's majordomo.
Bib Fortuna first appeared in Return of the Jedi when C-3PO and R2-D2 arrived at Jabba's
palace to deliver a holographic message from Luke Skywalker.
The inspiration for Rogue One's Beezer Fortuna actually came from early Return of the Jedi
models for Bib Fortuna.
Saw Gerrera's words "it's a trap" when he's contemplating Galen Erso's secret message
and why Jyn has come to see him now are a callback to those famous words exclaimed by
Admiral Ackbar in Return of the Jedi during the Battle of Endor when the Rebel forces
are ambushed by the Empire.
Also in Saw Gerrera's hideout are easter eggs to Rogue One director Gareth Edwards' previous
movies Godzilla and Monsters.
There are cave paintings of Godzilla and the MUTO from Edwards' 2014 movie as well as the
aliens from Edwards' first movie Monsters.
Chirrut tips his hat to Obi-Wan Kenobi when he tries to tell the Stormtroopers on Jedha
to let Jyn, Cassian and K-2SO "pass in peace".
Chirrut Imwe is a strong believer in the Force but his attempted mind trick doesn't work
as it did for Obi-Wan when he convinced Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley to let Luke and himself pass
by saying "these aren't the droids you're looking for."
Star Wars veteran Warwick Davis who famously debuted as the ewok Wicket in Return of the
Jedi, plays the role of Weeteef Cyubee, a member of Saw Gerrera's Partisans.
Warwick Davis will be appearing again in episode eight and cameo-d as Wollivan in The Force
Awakens and several characters in The Phantom Menace.
And just before Krennic meets with Darth Vader, we see a glimpse of Vader's body suspended
in a bacta tank.
We first saw a bacta tank in The Empire Strikes Back when it was used to help Luke Skywalker
recover from the wounds he suffered at the hands of a Wampa on the icy planet Hoth.
Remember that at the end of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan slices off Anakin Skywalker's
arms and legs leaving Anakin horrifically scarred and injured until the Emperor has
his missing limbs replaced with mechanical parts.
The process was clearly agonising for him, and in Rogue One, Vader is presumably using
a bacta tank to keep in good health.
Darth Vader's bacta tank is located in a castle on a planet streaked with lava flows, and
that planet has been confirmed as Mustafar by Pablo Hidalgo from the LucasFilm Story
Group.
Mustafar is the location of Anakin and Obi-Wan's fateful duel in Revenge of the Sith, and the
idea for having Vader's Castle in such a location actually comes from unused concept art from
the original trilogy by Ralph McQuarrie.
And when Vader force chokes Krennic at his castle, he quips "be careful not to choke
on your aspirations, director."
The line ironically foreshadows Vader's own death in Return of the Jedi when he asks Luke
to remove his mask, despite the fact it's what helps him breathe.
Via the magic of CGI and voice technology, Rogue One brings back Peter Cushing's image
and voice as imperial villain Tarkin.
We first saw Tarkin in A New Hope, where he ordered the destruction of Leia's home planet
Alderaan.
In Rogue One, Tarkin is physically played by actor Guy Henry, who you might know from
the last Harry Potter movies, and visual effects merged the actor with Peter Cushing's image.
Leia's adoptive father Bail Organa also returns, having appeared previously in two of the prequel
trilogy movies.
In Rogue One, we see that he made plans to leave Yavin 4 to go to Alderaan, and in A
New Hope he was killed when Tarkin ordered Alderaan to be the first planet destroyed
by the Death Star.
In Rogue One, Organa is working with another Rebel leader Mon Mothma who first showed up
in Return of the Jedi with her unforgettable phrase "Many Bothans died to bring us this
information".
She was played by Caroline Blakiston in that movie, but here she's played by Genevieve
O'Reilly and the resemblance between the two is remarkable.
O'Reilly did already play Mon Mothma in the prequel Revenge of the Sith however her scene
was cut.
Another Rebel leader, General Dodonna, is played by Ian McElhinney, who you might know
best as Ser Barristan Selmy in Game of Thrones.
General Dodonna previously appeared in A New Hope where he led the Rebel attack on the
Death Star and was played by actor Alex McCrindle, who died 1990.
During a quick flashback scene in which we see a young Jyn and her family together with
Krennic, you can momentarily see the cityscape of Coruscant through the windows in the background.
By the way, the Ersos lived on Coruscant with Galen working for Krennic in the Rogue One
novel Catalyst.
And Rogue One also has numerous easter eggs to the Star Wars animated TV shows, in particular
Star Wars Rebels, with Hera Syndulla's ship The Ghost appearing on Yavin 4 and as the
Rebels prepare for the strike on the shield gate.
There's also a reference to the Syndulla clan from the Rebels TV series when General Syndulla
is called to report to command over the tannoy at the base on Yavin 4.
And also buzzing around on the Rebel base is the cranky droid Chopper who serves on
the Ghost.
And when the Rebel Alliance decide they need to help Jyn and her rogue crew on Scarif,
C-3PO and R2-D2 get a little cameo scene with C-3PO complaining about how nobody ever tells
him anything!
And where would Rogue One be without a cameo from Princess Leia herself who hid the Death
Star plans in R2-D2 in A New Hope?
We see a young Leia in the film thanks thanks to a combination of motion capture by actress
Ingvild Deila and CGI to make her resemble a young Carrie Fisher.
By the way, you may have seen Ingvild Deila cameo in another big film that's part of the
Disney family: she was a World Hub Tech in a scene with Robert Downey Jr in Avengers:
Age of Ultron.
There's also a cameo by Star Wars Rebels and Clone Wars voice actor Stephen Stanton who
provided the voice for Tarkin in those (animated) shows.
In Rogue One, he voices the Mon Calamari character Admiral Raddus.
And the Hammerhead corvette is another Star Wars Rebels ship, which itself is a version
of a ship from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, and in Rogue One it ended up as
key to the Rebel's successful destruction of the Scarif Shield Gate.
In fact, the idea for using the Hammerhead Corvette to batter together two imperial Star
Destroyers to smash through the shield gate was actually adapted from an unused idea from
The Force Awakens.
Concept art from Episode 7 shows the idea of a huge Warhammer ship being used to penetrate
Starkiller Base's planetary shield.
Rogue One's Chirrut and Baze also introduce us to the Guardians of the Whills.
The Whills was George Lucas's original term for The Force and he also planned to use "The
Journal of the Whills" as part of a subtitle for Star Wars.
Rogue One also introduces us to kyber crystals, something that has already been explored in
The Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows, but not yet in the movies.
The Empire has occupied Jedha so it can strip-mine the moon of its kyber crystals which it needs
to power the Death Star's weapon.
In Star Wars canon, kyber crystals are used by Jedi to construct their lightsabers and
typically a crystal will turn green or blue once chosen.
Because crystals are inherently aligned with the light side of the Force, a Sith has to
overpower a crystal with their own will which causes it to "bleed" giving a Sith's lightsaber
its distinctive red colour.
And during the Rebel attack on Scarif a couple of Stormtroopers wander past having a conversation
about a T-15 becoming obsolete.
Well, it's a little easter egg to the conversation that a couple of Stormtroopers had in A New
Hope about the VT-16s and which was also referenced in The Force Awakens by a pair of Stormtroopers
talking about the T-17s.
By the way, cameoing as a Stormtrooper in a Rogue One stunt scene is the enigmatic former
Stig from Top Gear, and it's amusing that he's back as another silent helmet-clad character
all-in-white.
Also cameoing as a bad guy is Star Wars: Episode VIII director Rian Johnson, who appears in
this shot where he and fellow producer Ram Bergman are Death Star operators shielding
themselves from the the deadly ray.
And there's an easter egg to an ancient weapon when Jyn Erso is checking through the codenames
of various data files inside the Scarif control tower.
One of the names which crops up is "Black Sabre", which is a reference to the Darksaber,
a black-bladed lightsaber that originally belonged to the Jedi Order.
The Darksaber has featured in The Clone Wars TV series where it was wielded by the Mandalorian
Pre Vizsla until Darth Maul took it from him.
And after the last episode of Star Wars Rebels that aired before the theatrical release of
Rogue One, the Darksaber is in the hands of Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian member of the Ghost
crew.
Before Jyn gets inside that control tower on Scarif, Jyn, Cassian and K-2 enter an elevator
and just before the door closes, we get to hear K-2 say that classic Star Wars line "I've
got a bad feeling about this."
Rogue One has a bit of fun with the line as Cassian cuts K2 off just before he can finish
it, telling the droid to be quiet.
And inside the tower, there's a call-back to A New Hope when K-2 gets into a sticky
situation with imperial troopers just like C-3PO and R2-D2's run in with them on the
Death Star.
In episode 4, C-3PO tricked some Stormtroopers when they stormed into the control room where
he and R2 were hiding.
C-3PO sent the Stormtroopers off claiming that the real infiltrators had left for the
prison level.
K-2 tried a similar tactic on the imperial troopers when they found him in the control
room.
Sadly for K2 though, Cassian blew his cover by speaking over the comm link.
K-2SO's love of quoting statistical probabilities, and his being told by Cassian that he doesn't
want to know, is another homage to C-3PO as twice in The Empire Strikes Back, Threepio
infuriates Han Solo when he starts citing chances of survival.
An RA-7 protocol droid like "Threebee", that was in the Jawa Sandcrawler on Tatooine with
C-3PO and R2-D2, turns up in Rogue One during one of the Scarif interior scenes.
And there are also appearances in the film from other classic Star Wars droids such as
Gonk and mouse droids.
There's also a nod to the blue milk which we first saw in A New Hope in Luke Skywalker's
home on Tatooine when we get a glimpse of some blue milk in the Erso family home on
the planet Lah'mu.
It's interesting that the Ersos in the prologue and Luke's family on Tatooine are all farmers.
When Krennic goes to Eadu to confront Galen and his team about the leaked message from
the research facility, Galen stands up to Krennic and tells him "You'll never win",
to which Krennic replies "Now where've I heard that before?"
This is a little meta-moment and reference to Obi-Wan's final words to Darth Vader in
A New Hope, "You can't win, Darth.
If you strike me down...I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
And director Gareth Edwards has revealed that the planet Eadu was inspired by the original
Alien movie.
The dark and stormy Eadu certainly bears a number of similarities to the Alien's moon
LV-426.
During the Rebel attack on the Scarif shield gate, you might have noticed some footage
that looked uncannily familiar.
Well, the parts of pilot Red Leader and Gold Leader were played by the original actors
from A New Hope: Drewe Henley and Angus MacInnes.
Their scenes in Rogue One were actually archive footage that was cut from episode four and
carefully spliced into the new movie.
[Finally,] Rogue is also littered with references to A New Hope that are inversions of themes
and scenes from episode four.
Here's some to look out for.
Rogue One begins with Krennic arriving on Lah'mu dressed in white and surrounded by
Deathtroopers clad in black armour, in contrast to the beginning of A New Hope which starts
with the black-clad Darth Vader entering the Tantive IV surrounded by Stormtroopers in
white armour.
In Rogue One, Leia's Tantive IV escapes out of the hold of a much larger ship, which echoes
in reverse the beginning of A New Hope where the Tantive IV is pulled into the hold of
Darth Vader's Star Destroyer.
So guys, what other easter eggs or cool Star Wars references did you spot?
And what was your favourite moment in Rogue One?
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