LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga shows its love for the Legends stories with a cool Shadows of the Empire Easter egg. LEGO Skywalker Saga is one of the best LEGO games for a multitude of reasons, but its clear reverence for the source material and the Star Wars franchise at large is one of the most important. While players were likely expecting many references and nods to various canon materials such as The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian, it comes as more of a surprise that the game is willing to touch on the now non-canon Star Wars Expanded Universe, which was rebranded as Legends following Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012.
While visiting Hoth, one of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's hub worlds, eagle-eyed players might spot a familiar ship parked on the planet. The ship is the Outrider, a modified Corellian YT-2400 light freighter. While the Outrider does make a brief appearance in the 1997 special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope leaving the Mos Eisley spaceport, it was originally created for the 1996 Legends storyline, Shadows of the Empire, where it served as the personal starship of Dash Rendar. Shadows of the Empire was an ambitious, multimedia project that included a novel, comic book series, toy line, video game, and more, and to this day, remains one of the best Star Wars stories outside of the films.
Unfortunately, although the Outrider's owner Dash Rendar is not among LEGO Skywalker Saga's 300 playable Star Wars characters, the ship's appearance in the game is still significant. While Disney has continued to republish old Legends novels and comics, and even introduce certain Legends characters into the new canon, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Shadows of the Empire and Rendar aren't among them. With Dash Rendar being one of Legends' most well-known characters, it's no surprise that some Shadows of the Empire fans have been eagerly anticipating the prospect of him one day returning to the new Star Wars canon.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga References Dash Rendar
While Dash Rendar isn't playable in the game, the Outrider Easter egg provides hope that he could one day join the roster alongside LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga's other missing characters. While his exploits are not canon anymore, Rendar would fit in well amongst the game's cast of original trilogy characters. Shadows of the Empire takes place between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with Dash being introduced as an old smuggler friend of Han Solo and Chewbacca. After Solo is taken captive by Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, Lando Calrissian hires Dash to track down and retrieve him. While he is unable to get Solo back, the job leads to Rendar helping the Rebel Alliance on several missions between Episode V and Episode VI, until he is forced to fake his death to avoid retribution from the criminal organization, Black Sun.
With Dash Rendar's many similarities to Han Solo, he would make the perfect fit for one of LEGO Star Wars: Skywalker Saga's Scoundrel class characters. Although Dash Rendar began as an obvious stand-in for Han Solo during the character's absence in Shadows of the Empire, that hasn't made him any less endearing. As one of Legends' most memorable characters, it would be great to start seeing him once again. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's Outrider Easter egg can give some hope that his return may one day be a possibility.