Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally hit US cinemas this week, allowing us to see the much-anticipated finale to the Skywalker saga at long last. Unfortunately, early critical reception has not been kind, but maybe that’s because what director J.J. Abrams has done is craft something that’s 100% intended for Star Wars fans and not critics, as it’s stuffed to the rafters with references to the franchise’s 42-year history.
Many of these are overt and hard to miss, including the much-signposted return of Emperor Palpatine, Billy Dee Williams making a comeback as Lando Calrissian and a visit to the second Death Star from Return of the Jedi. However, there are a load more that will fly past even the most dedicated diehards as there are simply so many on display.
Something Abrams was clearly keen to do in TROS was tip his hat to as much of what’s come before in the Star Wars universe as possible. In that way, he’s succeeded. And on the following page, we begin running down 10 awesome easter eggs from the film that you may’ve missed.