Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Novel Includes Connection to Fan-Favorite Battlefront Character

For some, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker raised just as many (if not more) questions than it answered with regards to the galaxy far, far away. This was especially the case for the film’s climactic battle scene, a sequence that showcased a wide array of well-known and obscure ships from the franchise for only a few seconds of screentime. Fans have spent months dissecting and debating which ships and characters could be part of that final fight, and new details from The Rise of Skywalker’s Expanded Edition novelization provide a bit of an answer. As GamesRadar recently discovered, the novelization features a line of dialogue referencing Star Wars Battlefront II — and particularly, the game’s Inferno Squad.

“Zay Versio with Inferno Squad standing by. Look at all these ships!” the line reads, Zay Is cut off by another pilot in the sequence — Star Wars: Resistance‘s Kazuda Xiono.

As fans will remember, Zay was a starfighter pilot whose family had previous ties to the Galactic Empire. As fans saw in Battlefront II‘s “Resurrection” DLC, Zay was tasked by Leia Organa to help find allies for the Resistance, following the events of The Force Awakens.

To an extent, it makes sense that Zay would be one of the pilots involved in The Rise of Skywalker‘s final sequence, as she also factored into one of the film’s tie-in novels, Rebecca Roanhorse’s Resistance Reborn. Before that, she had been alluded to in both the Expanded Edition and Junior Novel of The Last Jedi.

Zay’s ship is just one of several memorable crafts that factors into The Rise of Skywalker‘s sequence, including several of the ships from the franchise’s various animated series.

“J.J. was very keen on us getting some of that Star Wars history and nods to other series in there, because he loves that stuff so much,” creature and special effects make-up supervisor Neal Scanlan shared in a previous interview. “The Fireball from Resistance is in there, and there are some other ships from the other animated series. You throw them in the giant fleet, and they get a lost a little bit in the mix.”

This is just the latest potential tie that Battlefront could have to the live-action Star Wars canon, as rumors from earlier this year seemed to suggest that Janina Gavankar could be reprising her role as Iden Versio in Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

What do you think of The Rise of Skywalker‘s tie to Star Wars Battlefront II? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!