Image via Disney/Lucasfilm
1.
It is finished. The tale has been told.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker debuted in theaters on December 20, 2020. Four decades of sci-fi fantasy storytelling culminated in this movie—the ninth and final episode in what Disney is calling "The Skywalker Saga."
That's a lot of weight and responsibility for one film to bear. And perhaps that's why the film is so fast-paced and so plot-driven; director J. J. Abrams knew he had one shot at tying up as many loose threads that he could.
This film, like all recent Star Wars films, hasn't been without controversy—one Mandalorian actor called the movie an "absolute f*cking failure." But that, too, will become a part of the Star Wars legacy. The defenders and critics of the film will keep the movie alive, and years from now, they will continue to debate the merits and quality of this sequel trilogy. It has too many connections to the prior films, and too much emotional weight from a new generation of Star Wars fans, for it to be forgotten.
Here are 25 Easter Eggs in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that you may not have noticed. Which ones did you find? We have decades ahead of us to continue searching.
Ed. Note: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker follow; scroll at your own risk!
2.A 'Fortnite' crossover
The first Rise of Skywalker Easter Egg isn't even in the movie; it's only referenced in the opening title crawl. We learn that Emperor Palpatine has sent a galaxy-wide, "mysterious broadcast," confirming the unlikeliest of truths: that he is alive and somehow survived being thrown into the second Death Star's core in Episode VI.
We don't hear the broadcast in the movie, but if you play Fortnite, you might have heard it as part of an in-game live event. It was recited as follows:
"At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith!"
3.Visit to Mustafar
After the title crawl, we see Kylo Ren fighting people in a red-tinted forest. Kylo is on Mustafar, the lava planet where Darth Vader became horribly disfigured in Episode III and built a castle on by the time of Rogue One. The people he is fighting are Vader cultists who remained on the planet. Back in Episode VII, Kylo probably would have loved to hang out here and explore. But he's on a mission this time to find Vader's Sith wayfinder, which will lead him directly to Palpatine.
4.Unnatural Powers
In Episode III, when Palpatine is seducing Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, he drops the following line on him: "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." He then proceeded to tell Anakin a Sith legend about Darth Plagueis, a Sith lord who learned how to create life and prevent death.
Palpatine repeats this phrase when Kylo tracks him down to Exegol. Apparently, Palpatine has continued using this dark Force art to keep himself alive for all these years, and he also used it to create Snoke.
Is this the "original" Palpatine and the Emperor we saw in Episodes I-VI was a clone? Or is this the same Palpatine that somehow survived the second Death Star's explosion? It's hard to say; the movie didn't flesh it out. Hopefully, we'll learn more in comics, books, or another movie.
5."There is another"
In Episode V, Yoda mentions that there is "another" hero who can save them. We find out in Episode VI that he's referring to Leia Organa, the twin sister of Luke Skywalker. She's clearly shown to be Force-sensitive; she senses that her brother is alive at the end of VI, and we see her communicating with her son, Kylo Ren, in Episodes VII and VIII. She survives the vacuum of space in a controversial scene from the latter film.
In Episode IX, it's finally revealed that Leia trained as a Jedi and in fact constructed her own lightsaber. She trains Rey after Luke's death, and she communicates with her son at a crucial moment to sway him to the light side.
6.Rey's training
We see Rey doing her Jedi training in the forest of Ajan Kloss. Part of her obstacle course is taken directly from Episode IV. Just as Luke did aboard the Millennium Falcon, Rey trains with a spherical training droid, with a blaster helmet covering her eyes.
7.A quick game of Dejarik
There is a holographic board game aboard the Falcon called Dejarik. We first see it in Episode IV, when R2-D2 is playing a game against Chewbacca. We see it next in Episode VII, when Finn actually turns the board on. We see it again at the beginning of Episode IX; Chewbacca is playing both Finn and Poe at the same time, and they're losing, much to their frustration.
8.Every 42 years!
C-3PO states that the open-air festival on Pasaana occurs once every 42 years. This is a meta-reference to the Star Wars franchise itself; the original movie debuted in theaters 42 years ago in 1977.
9."I have a bad feeling about this"
This is a classic Star Wars line that's been uttered in every movie, beginning from when Luke sees the Death Star for the first time in Episode IV. In Episode IX, Lando Calrissian says the line when he's helping our heroes escape from the stormtroopers on Pasaana.
10.J. J. Abrams' cameo
J. J. Abrams makes a cameo in Episode IX, not as an actor but as a voiceover. He performs the voice of D-O, the droid that our heroes find in the ship of Oschi, a Sith loyalist, on Pasaana.
11.John Williams' cameo
Franchise composer John Williams has a cameo in Episode IX. He's the bartender with the eyepatch on Kijimi. Our heroes visit the desolate planet to seek out Babu Frik—a tiny mechanic who can reprogram C-3PO to translate Sith text.
12.Came from nothing
In Episode VIII, we learn, via Kylo Ren, that Rey's parents were "nobodies." Episode IX doesn't exactly walk this claim back, but it does split hairs to make this claim technically true. Her grandfather, Palpatine, was definitely somebody. Her parents willingly became "nobodies" in order to hide Rey from Palpatine's clutches, and they sold her for the same reason.
13.Emperor's throne room
Rey's search for a Sith wayfinder eventually leads her to the ruins of the second Death Star. Kylo goes there as well, and in the scene where they're staring each other down, they're actually in the ruined throne room from Episode VI, where the Emperor tried (and failed) to convert Luke to the dark side. This is also where Vader turned back to the light side, when he killed the Emperor and saved Luke. It's an appropriate parallel since Kylo Ren also turns back to the light side immediately after this scene.
14.Having the strength
In Episode IX, Kylo Ren repeats a line he said in Episode VII: "I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it."
The first time we hear this line, he's referring to killing his father Han Solo, thus solidifying his path to the dark side. In Episode IX, however, he's referring to his renouncement of the dark side, and subsequently tosses his red lightsaber into the sea.
15."i know"
When Leia tells Han that she loves him in Episode V, Han replies with a simple, iconic two-word response: "I know."
Kylo's vision of Han repeats this line; Kylo tries to tell his father that he loves him, and Han interrupts him by saying, "I know." Star Wars, and particularly Episode IX, is filled with little verbal callbacks like this one.
16.The Holdo maneuver
In Episode VIII, Admiral Holdo buys the Resistance some time to escape by ramming her ship into a massive First Order ship at hyperspeed. It raised all sorts of questions amongst fans—the main one, of course, was, "Why hadn''t anyone tried this before?"
In Episode IX, while planning the attack on the Final Order, our heroes spend a few seconds explaining, for our benefit, that the "Holdo Maneuver" was a one in a million shot, which is why no one will be performing it again. And then, they quickly move the plot along. The less time the audience has to think about it, the better.
17.Lightsaber care
After Rey learns that she is a Palpatine, Rey decides to protect the galaxy from herself. Like Luke did in Episode VIII, Rey isolates herself on Ach-To, and she tries to throw her lightsaber into the sea. Luke's Force Ghost, however, snatches the lightsaber out of the air, and admonishes her for treating the Jedi weapon with disrespect.
This is a reference to the opening scene in Episode VIII, when Luke receives his lightsaber from Rey and tosses it over his shoulder in disdain. That scene was much criticized for being too jokey and out-of-character for a principled character like Luke.
18.Ship levitation
Luke gives Rey a way to get off of Ach-To by levitating his old X-Wing out of the nearby water. This is a direct callback to Episode V, when Yoda levitated the same X-Wing out of the swamp on Dagobah.
19."Good shooting, Wedge!"
In the final space battle, you might notice an aged, familiar-looking man working the laser turret of the Millennium Falcon. This is legendary Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, who took part in and survived both Death Star attacks in Episodes IV and VI, and was part of the defensive line on Hoth in Episode V.
20.Those Jedi voices
When Rey falls during her battle against Palpatine, she hears the voices of notable, dead Jedi whispering words of encouragement. The end credits list these voices as follows:
Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker
Olivia d'Abo as Luminara Unduli
Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
Jennifer Hale as Aayla Secura
Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu
Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi
Frank Oz as Yoda
Angelique Perrin as Adi Gallia
Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan Jarrus
Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn
21.Force healing
Force healing, which multiple characters perform throughout Episode IX, has not appeared in the main movies prior to this, although it has been going on the Expanded Universe for some time, both before Disney took over the franchise and since. But most fans, if they've seen Force healing, before probably recognize it from The Mandalorian show on Disney+. It's one of Baby Yoda The Child's most notable abilities.
22.Cloud City, Ewoks, and Jawas (Oh My!)
After the Resistance defeats the Final Order, we see people rejoicing on Bespin (the location of Cloud City in Episode V) and Endor (the location of the second Death Star's shield generator in Episode VI); we even see Wicket the Ewok (Warwick Davis), reprising his role.
Later, when Rey returns to Tatooine to visit Luke's childhood home, we see a Sandcrawler filled with Jawas, who first sold R2-D2 to Uncle Owen.
23.Chewbacca finally gets a medal
A running joke amongst long-time Star Wars fans is that Han and Luke received medals at the end of Episode IV, and Chewie, who was up on the dais with everyone else, deserved one too. Maz Kanata finally rectifies this at the end of Episode IX and gives Chewie his long-awaited medal.
24.Owen and Beru's homestead
Rey goes back to the Tatooine homestead of Luke's Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru at the end of Episode IX. Once there, she buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers in the sand, thus bringing the "Skywalker Saga" full circle to its humble beginnings.
25.Rey's brand-new lightsaber
We see Rey's new lightsaber at the end of the film, which signifies that her Jedi training is complete. It is yellow (a relatively rare color in the Star Wars universe) and its handle is modeled after a section of her trademark staff.
26.Rey... Skywalker?
At the very end of the movie, Rey, despite being a Palpatine by lineage, calls herself Rey Skywalker, thus adopting the name of her surrogate parents, Luke and Leia. It underlines a concept that's been pushed in the past three movies: that where you came from and who you're descended from matters less than who you emulate, and the choices you make.
Even though Rey is not a direct descendant of the Skywalkers, she does have something in common with them. We've been led to believe that Anakin was created via the Emperor's Force powers, which is why Shmi Skywalker said that Anakin was the product of a virgin birth in Episode I.