11 Star Wars Easter eggs hiding in plain sight, ranked

Star Wars has hidden things in plain sight that are way cooler than another familiar ship flying through the background. I'm talking about a character quietly returning after almost 20 years, a costume from a game sitting in a live action show, and Chewbacca breaking something that explains a detail from the original movie.

Here are 11 Easter eggs worth going back for, counting down from number 11. My number one exists because somebody broke the set.

11. Finn tosses aside Luke's training remote in The Force Awakens

In The Force Awakens, Finn searches the Millennium Falcon for medical supplies for Chewbacca. He briefly pulls out a little training remote and casually tosses it aside. It's the same type of remote Luke practiced against in A New Hope.

The scene keeps moving seamlessly, so the callback to Luke's first lightsaber is remarkably easy to miss. Finn needs bandages and has wounds to tend. The audience gets a tiny piece of history along the way.

10. Rey's Niima Outpost on Jakku uses unused Return of the Jedi art

Look at the big arch at Niima Outpost on Jakku. Its design comes from Ralph McQuarrie's artwork originally intended for Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi.

An abandoned visual idea became part of Rey's home decades later. That background structure has a history most people would never guess from the scene itself. I never would have caught it, and I never would have known.

9. Warwick Davis returns as Weazel from The Phantom Menace in Solo

When Enfys Nest's crew shows up in Solo, keep an eye out for Weazel, played by Warwick Davis. That isn't Davis appearing as another new alien or background character. He is returning as the same character he played in The Phantom Menace, where Weazel was one of the spectators at the podrace.

By Solo, he has gone from hanging around a gambling event to fighting alongside Nest. Davis explained that the production explored different looks before somebody brought out a picture of Weazel, and they developed an older version of him.

That gives this background character an entire implied life between the movies. Most people are focused on Han in that scene. Meanwhile, the guy next to him has been around since Anakin was racing for his freedom as a kid.

8. Chopper from Star Wars Rebels rolls through Rogue One

During the action at the Rebel base on Yavin 4, watch the background for a very short glimpse of an orange and white astromech rolling through the scene. That's Chopper from Rebels making a brief live action appearance.

The behind the scenes story is almost as good. Lucasfilm's Matt Martin was there working on other material when somebody handed him the Chopper controls, so he ended up operating the droid for the movie. Imagine showing up to do your job and accidentally getting promoted to Chopper chauffeur.

The cameo is fast, but it places an actual member of the Ghost crew inside the growing rebel operation. You can get through the entire film without noticing him. Catch him once, and you'll wonder how you missed that little troublemaker, and you'll never miss him again.

7. Rogue One promotes Hera Syndulla to general over the speakers

This one needs your ears. At the Yavin base in Rogue One, listen for an announcement calling for General Syndulla. That's a reference to Hera Syndulla from Rebels.

The choice of title matters. It isn't somebody saying a familiar name; it establishes that Hera has become a general by this point in the story. When the movie came out, Rebels hadn't finished telling the crew's journey yet, so that background announcement gave audiences a glimpse of where Hera was heading without stopping the film to explain it.

Chopper gets a visual cameo, and Hera gets a military promotion over the PA system. It's an efficient way to connect two stories while the main characters are busy dealing with the Death Star.

6. Skeleton Crew rebuilt the holographic circus from the 1978 Holiday Special

In the first episode of Skeleton Crew, the kids in Neel's house have a little holographic circus playing, with colorful performers dancing and juggling. It's the kind of background entertainment you would easily ignore.

That performance is a recreation of the holographic circus from the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. The production didn't simply drop the old material onto the screen. It rebuilt the costumes using original design references, recreated the performance, and even redid the music because suitable original material wasn't available.

That's a ridiculous amount of effort for something plenty of people probably assume was random alien TV. Whatever you think about the Holiday Special, somebody loved that little scene enough to rebuild it decades later. It's strange, and it's that very specific affection that makes Easter eggs so much fun.

5. Luthen's gallery in Andor holds the Sankara stones from Indiana Jones

Luthen's gallery in Andor is already suspicious before you start inspecting the inventory. Then you discover he apparently stocks items from another Lucasfilm franchise. In the fifth episode of season 1, look in the gallery's back room for the Sankara stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. StarWars.com confirmed the reference.

They blend into the collection beautifully. If you don't recognize them, they're more unusual objects owned by a wealthy antiques dealer. If you do, you'll be pointing at the screen and wondering what he charges for something Indiana Jones nearly died recovering.

It's a production wink. Of course, it's not proof that Indy had been traveling around Coruscant, but it does suggest Indy would have an exhausting argument with Luthen about what belongs in a museum.

4. Jedi: Fallen Order lets you build your Galaxy's Edge lightsaber

In Jedi: Fallen Order, some of the lightsaber customization options have a connection outside the game. Pieces available for Cal's saber match components from Savi's Workshop at Galaxy's Edge. Somebody who built a saber at the park could hunt down the matching parts and recreate that design in the game.

It's a clever connection because it doesn't require the story to stop and advertise anything. To most players, those are simply more lightsaber parts. To somebody who recognizes the design they picked in person, it becomes their saber showing up in Cal's hands.

If you spent that much time choosing a hilt, you're going to notice when it turns up somewhere else. Some of us put more thought into fictional weapon accessories than actual furniture. It's a thing.

3. Rey hears Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor in one Obi-Wan line

During Rey's lightsaber vision in The Force Awakens, Obi-Wan addresses her. The name Rey uses Alec Guinness's audio, while the rest of the sentence was voiced by Ewan McGregor. One brief message combines both actors' performances.

I think this was a cool production trick that connected two eras of Obi-Wan without announcing the handoff. It was fast and subtle. Once you know, it's a nod to legacy characters, and I think it's pretty awesome.

2. Andor hides Starkiller's Force Unleashed helmet in Luthen's gallery

Back to Luthen's gallery, because one item deserves its own spotlight. Look at the armor near the rear wall in the fourth episode of season 1. That helmet references Starkiller's dark lord appearance from the dark side ending of The Force Unleashed.

This isn't fans deciding two helmets look vaguely similar. The official Star Wars site identifies the Easter egg. It doesn't establish that Starkiller's entire game storyline is canon, though. An object appearing in the background doesn't automatically import every event associated with its original appearance.

As a visual nod, this is great. While Luthen is having conversations that could get everyone in the room arrested, a reference to one of Star Wars gaming's most memorable alternate outcomes sits directly behind him.

1. Chewbacca breaks the holochess table in Solo, explaining the missing pieces

In Solo, Chewie gets frustrated playing holochess with Beckett and smacks the table. Look closely and buttons pop loose, the table sparks, and two creatures disappear.

There's a reason those two go missing. For Solo, Tippett Studio brought back two creature designs originally made for the first Star Wars but never used in the finished scene. That gave Lando's earlier version of the table 10 pieces instead of the familiar eight. Then Joonas Suotamo hit the table hard enough during filming to break two plastic buttons. The effects team recognized an opportunity and made the two extra creatures glitch out.

An accident became an explanation for why the later table had fewer pieces, and that's why it's my favorite. It rewards you for noticing something incredibly small, it connects back to the original production artwork, and it turns Chewie losing his temper into a lasting problem for the Falcon. Han inherited a ship with broken entertainment equipment because his future best friend couldn't handle game night. That's awesome.