Star Wars: New Kylo Ren Comic Features Hilarious Reference to Prequel Meme

With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker currently in theaters, audiences are curious to see exactly what stories will be told next in a galaxy far, far away. While future movies and TV shows are still at least a few months away, there are quite a lot of Star Wars comics that are expanding on the saga's narrative. The latest miniseries, Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren, chronicles Ben Solo's (Adam Driver) descent into the Dark Side, and it looks like it's dropping some pretty delightful Easter eggs along the way. Marvel.com recently previewed the first five pages of Rise of Kylo Ren's second issue, which showcase Ben and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) visiting a Jedi archive. Mild spoilers for this week's issue of The Rise of Kylo Ren below! Only look if you want to know!

Just as Ben and Luke inspect the artifacts, they begin to sense that something is wrong, before being visited by the Knights of Ren. Ren, their leader, makes an entrance that feels very fitting for Star Wars fans, as he triumphantly announces "Well, hello there".

This bears a delightful similarity to an iconic Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) scene in Revenge of the Sith, in which he proclaims "hello there" while jumping down to fight General Grievous. While it's unclear exactly how intentional this parallel is, the very mention of "hello there" is sure to delight diehard fans of the prequels.

"George Lucas wanted to do something very different with the prequels," McGregor said in an interview last year. "That's why people felt cheated. It was upsetting when people would laugh and joke about it. Now, many years later, the prequels meant a lot to the generation that were kids then. So from smirking, cynical opinions, now I'm getting feedback from the kids they were made for. I'm really happy about that."

"Episode III was all green screen: they had us on green disks on a green floor with a green background, and a guy on the floor rotating us like chickens, as we lunged at each other with lightsabers," McGregor added. "What keeps you emotionally grounded is the other actor. Episode II, I was on my own, speaking to thin air. But this scene was harrowing for Obi-Wan. I lose Anakin, and we see the danger of what it might lead to in Episodes IV, V, and VI. For all my moaning about green screen, I did enjoy playing Obi-Wan and this link to Alec Guinness."

What do you think of Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren getting its own "hello there" moment? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren is available in stores this Wednesday, January 8th.