This Star Wars article contains spoilers for Jedi: Fallen Order.
We’ve not gotten very far into Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order just yet, but it’s clear from our first few hours of exploring planets and slashing Stormtroopers that the team at Respawn Entertainment went to great lengths to prove its Star Wars credentials and cram heaps of fan-pleasing easter eggs into the new action-adventure game.
It’s particularly impressive that Respawn did more than just scratch the surface: as well as including nods and references to the mainline Star Wars movies, the developers also served up deep-cut references to expanded universe materials (including animated series such as Rebels and The Clone Wars) and real-life stuff that has influenced the Star Wars fandom. You’ve got to love a Star Wars experience that makes such efforts to tie in with the wider universe.
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Whether you’re playing the game or not, we thought you might like to hear about the nerdy nods we’ve spotted so far in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. We’ll update this article as we spot more, but here’s everything we’ve noticed after our first weekend of playtime…
The Films
– Jedi: Fallen Order takes place after Revenge of the Sith, and the game repeatedly makes reference to “the purge” that wiped out most of the Jedi in George Lucas’ final film in the Prequel Trilogy. Having seen the movie, fans know that this purge was officially called Order 66. Emperor Palpatine ordered it using his brain-washed Clone Troopers during the third act of Episode III.
– Early on in the game, a character admits that he didn’t really believe that all of the Jedi could have been traitors to the Republic. He’s referring, of course, to the cover-up story that Palpatine and Darth Vader used to provide the public with a more palatable motivation for their sudden attack on the Jedi Order.
– The game’s main character, Cal Kestis, has the ability to touch certain objects and get a sense of their history through the Force. This draws to mind the moment in The Force Awakens when Rey touches the Skywalker lightsaber and is pulled into a vision. Cal also has a dream/vision thingy early on the game, which has a similar unsettling feel to Rey’s TFA vision.
– Cal can also slow down people/creatures using the Force. This is quite a rare ability in the Star Wars canon, but we did see Kylo Ren halting a blaster-bolt in mid-air during The Force Awakens and (at a couple of different points in the film) stopping Rey from being able to move.
– One of the first planets you visit in the game is Dathomir, which was recently name-checked by Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story (when he summons Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra at the end of the film). Dathomir happens to be the former Sith villain’s home planet. You can also find a double-bladed lightsaber on Dathomir, which feels like a fairly massive nod to the iconic Episode I villain. And given that Solo takes place at a similar time to Jedi: Fallen Order, there’s a sense that you and Maul are passing like ships in the night here.
– Another planet in the game is Kashyyyk, the Wookiee homeworld that was briefly glimpsed in Episode III and referenced plenty of times elsewhere. After Yoda sodded off, it seems safe to assume that Chewbacca’s native planet went through a pretty rough time.
– Although Chewbacca doesn’t make an appearance, it is mentioned that some Wookiees have been “displaced” because of the Empire. This feels like a nod to the fact that Chewie winds up starving in an underground cell, on a totally different planet, prior to meeting Han in Solo.
– Tarfful, the Wookiee general that interacts with Chewie and Yoda during Episode III, appears in the game as a key member of an Empire-resisting movement on Kashyyyk.
– Forest Whitaker reprises his role as Rebel freedom fighter Saw Gerrera, who has previously been seen in The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We’ve explained where the game fits in Saw Gerrera’s personal timeline here.
– There are references made in the game to Saw’s rebellious team, the Partisans, and Saw’s brutal ways of fighting the Empire. We even see some Rebels turning away from Saw because of his extreme views, which hints at the divide between the Partisans and the core Rebel Alliance that Mon Mothma mentions in Rogue One.
– It’s also worth mentioning that heaps of spaceships from the films make cameo appearances in Jedi: Fallen Order, including the Clone Wars transport ships that debuted in Episode II and the Jedi Starfighters that Anakin and Obi-Wan flew in Episode III.
– Speaking of Episode III, there are numerous points in the game where Stormtroopers (before they’ve spotted you) can be heard saying things like “at least we have the high ground.” Of course, it was this advantage that allowed Obi-Wan to defeat Anakin in Episode III‘s Mustafar duel.
– Loads of other planets are mentioned in the game, including the galactic capital of Coruscant, where all of the Senate scenes from the Prequel Trilogy took place.
– You’ll also spot lots of familiar droids scattered about, including a GONK droid from the Original Trilogy and the rusted remains of a “hit the nose” pit droid from Episode I.
– Speaking of Episode I, at one point Cal has to use a “breather” device to swim underwater, which looks a lot like the ones that Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon used to reach the Gungan city on Naboo.
– In all of his flashbacks to his Jedi training, the younger Cal has a braid in his hair like a lot of the Padawan learners from the Prequel Trilogy.
– In one such flashback, Cal’s master tells him to “let go of what you fear to lose.” This must be a stock piece of Jedi wisdom, because Yoda said similar words to Anakin when he was worrying about Padme’s imminent death during Episode III.
– In another of Cal’s flashbacks, we see him hanging upside down while attempting to use the Force and pull his lightsaber into his palm. This seems like a deliberate nod to Luke Skywalker’s memorable moment with the Wompa creature on Hoth, from The Empire Strikes Back, where he hung upside down and had to Force pull his own lightsaber.
– We won’t spoil it here, in case you haven’t got to it yet, but there’s a moment when one of the villains removes their helmet and reveals their true identity. Big secrets relating to baddies’ identities have been a trope of Star Wars since Vader’s “I am your father” moment in The Empire Strikes Back.
Star Wars Rebels
– Following similar story beats to the Rebels animated series, Jedi: Fallen Order puts you in the role of a young Force-sensitive goodie with a reluctant former Jedi for a master, both of whom are struggling to find their way in the “Dark Times” between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
– Much like Rebels‘ Ezra and Kanan, Cal and Cere are trying to locate ancient ruins that might hold Jedi secrets. The planet Zeffo, which was home to a species of ancient Force users, is new for Jedi: Fallen Order, but you can easily imagine Rebels‘ Ghost crew exploring it instead of the Mantis crew.
– The Second Sister is one of the main villains in the game, and she is a member of the Inquisitorius, the same group of Force-sensitive Imperial employees that hunt the core cast of Rebels. We’ve got more info on the Inquisitors here.
– During an early cutscene where Cere explains what a Holocron is, she briefly plays a clip from a Holocron that starts with these words: “This is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Fans of Rebels will recognize this as the same Holocron that Kanan played in his private chambers during season 1. The whole clip is available online here. This is almost an easter egg within an easter egg, since the original scene in Rebels was a nod to the fact that Obi-Wan recorded a message off-screen from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during the events of Revenge of the Sith.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
– The game also plays more than a little bit of homage to The Clone Wars animated series, the events of which will be relatively recent history to the characters in the game. The planet Dathomir was visited in seasons 3 and 4 of the show, and, as we mentioned earlier, it is a playable location in Jedi: Fallen Order.
– On Darth Maul’s homeworld of Dathomir, the player can learn about the legend of the Nightsisters, a group of Force-users who were wiped out some years prior. A popular dark side character from The Clone Wars, a Nightsister named Asajj Ventress, is mentioned by name in the game.
– The player can unravel the story of what happened to the Nightsisters, which fans of The Clone Wars have already witnessed – they were wiped out by General Grievous on the orders of Count Dooku. These characters aren’t seen in the game, but the stories about them are told through dialogue and collectables.
– “This guy still thinks it’s the Clone Wars,” says the sarcastic pilot Greez when Cal comes up with a daring plan to hijack an AT-AT and help out the Wookiees on Kashyyyk. This is one of the game’s very overt nods to the Clone Wars era of the franchise.
Other Star Wars References
– At one point, Cal has to descend into the murky Shadowlands of Kashyyyk. This location previously appeared in a brace of brilliant Star Wars games, Knights of the Old Republic and Republic Commando, neither of which are in the official canon anymore. The Shadowlands were also referenced in the Aftermath trilogy, a series of books by Chuck Wendig, which are in the current canon.
– Early on in the game, Cal has a flashback to his time in Jedi training. This playable flashback (where the player learns a handy wall-running technique) has notably more retro graphics than the rest of the game, playing like a homage to some of the classic Star Wars games of bygone gaming eras. It’s a nice touch.
– During that very same training sequence, Cal’s master (Jaro Tapal) dishes out an instruction that will be familiar to a lot of Star Wars fans: “Faster! More intense!” This, famously, was one of Lucas’ favorite pieces of direction to lob at his actors on the set of the original Star Wars.
Those are all of the easter eggs we’ve spotted so far! If we missed your favorite wink or nod, let us know in the comments below…
