'My Hero Academia' Just Dropped A Big 'Star Wars' Reference

My Hero Academia fans have been gripped to the edge of their seats for the third season so far, and after a few weeks of intense action the series finally allowed some time to rest. But that doesn't mean it isn't doing its work to set up even greater challenges for Midoriya and his friends.

But who would have guessed that part of the set up for its next arc included a huge Star Wars reference? Fans of both series were surprised to find that Midoriya arrives in the Kamino Ward, a reference to a famous Star Wars planet.

The latest episode of the series had Midoriya, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida, and Yaoyorozu head into the Kamino Ward in search of the kidnapped Bakugo. In the next episode preview for the series, fans see that this is the creation place of the Nomu, the cloned, monstrous, Quirk infused beasts.

In the Star Wars franchise, Kamino is the name of a planet with beings that had the kind of cloning technology necessary to create an army of clones who eventually went on to fight in the series' famous Clone Wars. So not only is this a playful shout out to Star Wars, but this reference is an in-joke noting the similarities between the clone army and the Nomu beasts.

My Hero Academia is a series full of such references to Western pop culture, as series creator Koehi Horikoshi has essentially crafted a world that blends both Western superhero comic book action with shonen manga sensibilities. His Star Wars connection goes even deeper with an official collaboration with the franchise that had the creator put his own spin on Star Wars: The Last Jedi for a cool poster.

For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut,the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

My Hero Academia's first movie, My Hero Academia: The Movie - The Two Heroes, is scheduled to open August 3. The film will cover a story not seen in the original manga with series creator Horikoshi noting that, "Of course the movie will be filled with Class A's great efforts, that character's past that hasn't been in the manga yet, flashy action scenes, and much more." The film also previously revealed its first key visual depicting a character fans have never seen before, and a trailer revealing an All Might in his prime.