The fan-favorite Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles has a strange doppelganger in Star Wars, nicknamed “Fake Wedge” by fans, who was brought into the ongoing canon 40 years later. Wedge Antilles is a minor reoccurring character in the original Star Wars trilogy, famous for surviving the Battles of Yavin and Hoth and later proving instrumental to the Rebellion’s victory in the Battle of Endor. The humorous “Fake Wedge” issue is explained two different ways by the canon and Legends Star Wars continuities.

In A New Hope, Yavin IV’s Rebel pilots attend a briefing before their attack on the Death Star, where their seemingly doomed mission of maneuvering down the battle station's trench and firing proton torpedoes into a thermal exhaust port is explained. One pilot complains that the shot is impossible even with the Alliance crafts’ sophisticated targeting systems, prompting Luke Skywalker to reassure him by comparing it to shooting womp rats on Tatooine. The pilot, played by Colin Higgins, is intended by the script to be Wedge Antilles, yet he’s played by Denis Lawson during the battle mere minutes later in the film. Lawson continues to play Wedge throughout The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and content exclusive to canon or Legends, such as Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

Related: A Clone Designed The Rebellion's X-Wings: Star Wars Theory Explained

Observant Star Wars fans humorously began calling Colin Higgins’ character “Fake Wedge,” though the Legends-era explanation for the discrepancy is that Higgins and Lawson both played Wedge. The Disney-owned modern canon, however, opted to address the joke and explain it with a bit of meta-humor. In the 2017 anthology book, From a Certain Point of View, Colin Higgins is retroactively revealed to have played a different character from Wedge Antilles. The short story “Duty Roster” names Higgins’ character Col Takbright, but goes a step further, explaining that he’s often mistaken for Wedge by other Rebel pilots, earning him the nickname “Fake Wedge.”

Wedge Antilles Rogue Squadron

As revealed in a 2008 issue of Star Wars Insider, Colin Higgins was the first choice to play Wedge Antilles, but he’d had issues with memorizing his lines and was fired after one day of shooting. Lawson, the second pick for Wedge Antilles, filmed the Battle of Yavin scenes and reprised his role in the following two Star Wars original trilogy films. Higgins’ initial scene remained in the final cut of A New Hope, however, leading to the “Fake Wedge” issue.

The Star Wars Legends continuity tends to have a far more earnest and sincere approach to the universe than canon. While Legends let “Fake Wedge” remain a behind-the-scenes joke, canon turned the discrepancy into an in-universe joke which Col Takbright was unphased by, considering that he was often mistaken for one of the Rebellion’s most skillful fighter pilots. Canon tends to be far more self-referential than Legends, leading to fun bits of meta-humor like “Fake Wedge” existing in-universe. By giving Colin Higgins’ character a name and separate identity from Denis Lawson’s Wedge Antilles, Star Wars canon gave the “Fake Wedge” an identity 40 years later.

Next: Every X-Wing Squadron In Star Wars Canon Explained

Key Release Dates