SPOILERS for Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi ahead
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There was an amusing Star Wars: The Last Jedi Easter egg snuck into Rogue One: A Star Wars Story further establishing the connection between the First Order and the Galactic Empire. The hyperspace tracking that was basically the bane of the Resistance's existence in Rian Johnson's movie, as it turns out, is tech that the First Order scooped up from their predecessors, intriguing us more about how this new regime actually rose to power to the point that they obliterated the New Republic.
It's no surprise that The Last Jedi is cruising to a massive opening weekend with a $220 million domestic haul and $450 million worldwide considering the massive fanfare of Star Wars. It also promises to reunite fans with Luke Skywalker after that Star Wars: The Force Awakens cliffhanger only offered a glimpse of the Master Jedi following all the build-up in the movie about his mysterious disappearance. Episode VIII dove into his self-imposed exile on Ahch-To and gives us a fitting send-off to one of the most iconic heroes in cinema history.
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On Twitter, a user named Des with the handle @kyleauren shared a Rogue One image indicating that the First Order's groundbreaking tech that allowed them to track the Resistance's cruiser through lightspeed has been in development for decades in the Star Wars universe. In the screen grab, we see Jyn during her covert mission on Scarif with Cassian as they try to locate the Death Star plans in the Empire's catalog. The scene also included a mention of the Black Saber that fans immediately picked up to be the unique Mandalorian/Jedi saber currently used in Star Wars Rebels. Lucasfilm story group member Pablo Hidalgo almost immediately confirmed the reference. Check out the their tweets below.
Y'ALL pic.twitter.com/tWysfnOzbX— Des (@kyleauxren) December 17, 2017
Ah-yup. https://t.co/x3yWQCHO3v— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 18, 2017
This fun nugget of information arrives shortly after Johnson's comments about not having a set story arc for the current Star Wars trilogy. Certainly, there's the format of it telling a three-movie narrative, but specifics about its story beats had not been established before he boarded the project. That means that he was not restricted when it came to crafting The Last Jedi and we presume that J.J. Abrams is given the same license now that he is directing Star Wars: Episode IX.
Granted that Lucasfilm has established a cohesive narrative canon from the prequels to the current trilogy, including the animated series, the group has almost mastered the art of franchise-building. They've been subtly incorporating what initially appears to be some throwaway lines in previous films that end up being pivotal in their succeeding projects. But what makes scouring The Last Jedi for callbacks so fun is that it's not in-your-face Easter eggs. People who did not watch Rogue One are not exactly alienated that they don't understand the reference because the film has basically established the basics of how groundbreaking the First Order's hyperspace tracking tech is. On the flipside, for die-hards, parallels like this tickles their Star Wars fancy, almost like a small treat for knowing the whole lore.
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Source: Des
