Here’s Every Easter Egg in ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’

With Solo: A Star Wars Story serving as both a standalone adventure and also a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope, it’s difficult to determine what is a specific Easter egg and what is merely a reference to something in Star Wars’ history or future. An Easter egg typically isn’t directly related to the plot and serves as an opportunity to reference something that die-hard fans would recognize, yet you’d be hard-pressed to find someone completely unfamiliar with the galaxy far, far away.

Lucasfilm’s latest adventure offered audiences a variety of nods to the furthest reaches of the universe, with some Easter eggs referencing events from previous films (which technically take place in the future) while others name-check long-forgotten video game titles.

In an attempt to be comprehensive, we aim to break down all of the acknowledgments to the rest of the series, whether they be obscure or obvious.

Scroll down to see all of the film’s Easter eggs!

***WARNING: Spoilers below for Solo: A Star Wars Story***

Familiar Faces

When audiences first met Han Solo in A New Hope, we learned that there was a bounty placed on his head by vile gangster Jabba the Hutt, making many audiences wonder if the character would appear in this spin-off film. Jabba never makes an appearance, nor is his name ever said aloud, yet he is referenced multiple times by various characters. Most notably, Tobias Beckett claims that a gangster on Tatooine is putting together a crew, leaving Han and Chewbacca to set their sights on the desert planet towards the end of the film.

Jabba isn’t the only villainous character that is featured in Solo, as there are also references to Bossk, who was a bounty hunter hoping to capture the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back, as well as Aurra Sing, a bounty hunter who briefly appeared in The Phantom Menace and played a more prominent role in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Maul’s Return

Were Jabba to have made an appearance, it would have been somewhat expected, though many audiences were shocked to discover that Darth Maul, who was “killed” in The Phantom Menace, was alive and somewhat well in Solo.

Fans of Star Wars animated series weren’t as shocked with this reveal, as we’ve seen how the former Sith, who now refers to himself merely as “Maul,” survived his encounter with Obi-Wan. Maul channeled his anger and hatred into his will to survive long enough to obtain a pair of robotic legs after being chopped in half. He ultimately partnered with his brother Savage Opress to form a crime syndicate, though he eventually let his rage get the best of him and drove him mad.

One unique twist with his appearance is that, while Ray Park reprised his physical role from Phantom Menace, Sam Witwer lent his vocal abilities to the character, while Peter Serafinowicz voiced the character in the 1999 film. Witwer also voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels.

Maul wasn’t the only Phantom Menace character to make a return, as Warwick Davis reprises his role as Weazel from that film in Solo, though he is now a member of Enfys Nest’s Cloud-Rider gang.

‘Rogue One’

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was the first attempt by Disney to create a standalone film, with its narrative explaining how the plans for the Death Star came into the possession of the Rebel Alliance.

While much of the marketing materials painted Enfys Nest as a villain, we discover she’s an early member of the Rebel Alliance who attempts to thwart Crimson Dawn and the Galactic Empire. One of Nest’s cohorts is Benthic “Two Tubes,” who we previously met in Rogue One as one of Saw Gerrera’s allies. It appears as though aligning himself with the Rebellion served him well for at least a few years.

Solo also identifies Scarif as a planet with an abundance of coaxium, a valuable fuel, which would eventually get blown up at the end of Rogue One.

Return of ‘Return of the Jedi’

As Han looks for a way to ditch the Galactic Empire and join Beckett’s crew, he is labeled as a deserter and must suffer the consequences. Much like an iconic scene in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi when Luke is thrown into a pit to face a hideous beast, ultimately revealing itself as a rancor. In Han’s case, rather than having to battle a rancor, we learn that Chewbacca is the savage beast, with the duo teaming up to escape this pit.

In hopes of rescuing Han from Jabba, Lando went undercover in Return of the Jedi by wearing Tantel armor to disguise himself as “Tamtel Skreej.” This armor is also worn by Beckett when the crew in Solo heads to Kessel, proving that Lando has had the armor for years.

Han Really Shoots First

Fans discovered just how deadly Han Solo was when we saw his confrontation with bounty hunter Greedo in A New Hope. Their encounter confirmed the price on Han’s head and, when he’s backed into a corner, he uses the element of surprise to shoot Greedo under the table at the Mos Eisley Cantina and kill the Rodian.

After being betrayed by Beckett, the two face off against one another late in the movie, as they both realize that only one of them will make it out alive. While Beckett begins to ramble on during a monologue, Han interrupts him with a blaster shot, reminding audiences that Han is the type to shoot first and ask questions later.

Classic Quotes

The saga has regularly repeated key phrases, while Solo takes some of those memorable interactions and circumvents the expectation.

A variation of “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” has appeared in all of the live-action Star Wars films, though Solo instead offers up the opposite, with Han claiming, “I’ve got a really good feeling about this.”

In The Empire Strikes Back, Leia Organa professed her love for Han right before he entered a carbonite freeze, replying to her “I love you” with, “I know.” In this film, Lando vents his frustrations about Han and says, “I hate you,” to which Han replies, “I know.”

Another callback to Leia’s dialogue towards Han, in which she would dismiss him as a “flyboy,” was also used by Rio to refer to Han in hopes of insulting him.

Lando’s Legacy

When audiences met Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back, we saw a politician who was running the mining colony Cloud City. Han mentioned that they had a history together in their rougher days and the two got into a friendly argument over who truly was the owner of the Millennium Falcon.

Han claims to have won the ship “fair and square,” which takes on a new meaning in Solo. While playing sabacc, Han offers up a ship he claims to own while Lando offers the Falcon, only for Lando to win the game by cheating. Later in the film, the two have a rematch and, thanks to Han stealing Lando’s pocketed cards, wins the Falcon back without having to resort to cheating. The ship Han mentions, a VCX-100, is the model of the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels.

Lando also mentions after a disastrous mission in the spice mines of Kessel that he hates mines, made all the more ironic given his ultimate political role on Cloud City.

Iconic Items

A more recent recognizable trinket in the Star Wars saga are Han’s gold dice that he had in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon. These dice hung in the cockpit in the ship in each film, dating all the way back to A New Hope, despite audiences never getting a good look at them.

In a scene deleted from The Force Awakens, Han replaced the dice after he reunited with the ship, while the dice had a part in multiple touching moments in The Last Jedi. Throughout Solo, Han considers them his good luck charm, hanging them from various vehicles he pilots. He also gives them to Qi’ra at one point for safe keeping and luckily reunites with them years later.

Another familiar staple of the Falcon plays a role in Solo, as Chewbacca faces off against Beckett in a game of dejarik, with audiences seeing similar holograms perform maneuvers which we saw in a match between the Wookiee and C-3PO in A New Hope. When Chewbacca loses the game in that first movie, Han notes that Wookiees are known to rip a winners’ arms from their sockets, a violent maneuver which we see Chewbacca perform on Kessel.

Potpourri

Anthony Daniels has appeared in every Star Wars film as C-3PO, with Solo marking the first absence of the protocol droid. Daniels instead appears as a humanoid character during the revolt on Kessel. Other cameos include director Ron Howard’s brother Clint as the orchestrator of droid cage matches and actress Linda Hunt voicing the criminal overlord Lady Proxima.

During the revolt on Kessel, Lando’s droid companion L3-37 is seemingly killed, though with some quick thinking, her “brain” appears to be uploaded into the Millennium Falcon as to help access her navigational memories. Fans have debated if this means that the droid’s consciousness is forced to live inside the ship forever, which might be why Han Solo speaks to her in A New Hope as if she’s a living thing when he says, “Hear me, baby? Hold together,” during a firefight.

This film featured a new score by composer John Powell, though there are many familiar musical cues that we’ve heard at other points in the saga. One of the more surprising moments includes a recruitment video for the Galactic Empire that uses an iteration of “The Imperial March,” which often accompanies the arrival of Darth Vader. Given that we never hear this song in-world, it’s a meta moment for audiences when we hear the familiar fanfare.

The ’90s were full of Star Wars video games, as developers attempted to cash-in on the property however they could. One of the worst video games released was Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi, which was essentially a Tekken ripoff. When Qi’ra demonstrates her impressive fighting abilities, she claims that she is trained in the skills of Teräs Käsi, which video game fans are sure to quickly recognize. The martial art was also demonstrated by Snoke’s praetorian guards in The Last Jedi.