The following contains mild spoilers. No Bothans were harmed in bringing you this information.
The majority of Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s nods to other installments in the Saga are as unmissable as a Wookie with sinusitis snoring. However, there’s one reference to Star Wars Rebels that may have flown below many fans’ radars.
Whilst out-pokerfacing Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover) in a bid to win the Millenium Falcon, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) gets a little creative with his bargaining chips. With the stakes getting high in their Sabaac (/sa-bark not /sa-back) face-off and in an effort to draw out his opponent, the scruffy-looking nerfherder puts his own ship on the table: A VCX-100.
The fact that Solo, at this point, can only dream of owning his own ship signposts his developing status as a no-good swindler. But the eagle-eared have picked up on the link to Star Wars Rebels, Disney XD’s animated series which began in 2014. Amongst many other fan favorites, the canonical cartoon series heavily featured a similar Corellian Engineering vessel, appropriately known as Ghost.
Ghost was a modified VCX-100, as well as possibly the third coolest ship (after the Falcon and Slave 1) in the Saga. Piloted by Hera Syndulla, a figurehead in the early rebellion, Ghost earned its name due to her knack of being able to evade Imperial sensors. Han may have found this useful later on to avoid cargo-droppage, but where’s the fun in that?
Solo: A Star Wars Story also features Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Thandie Newton, with Joonas Suotamo as the mighty Chewbacca and Phoebe Waller-Bridge as sure to be fan favourite, L3. It’s now playing in theaters everywhere, too, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t done so already!