46 Rogue One Easter Eggs: How Many Of These Did You Catch?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is filled with easter eggs and references to previous pieces of the Star Wars saga. What follows is a complete Rogue One easter eggs compilation I have seen on the internet. It includes cameos, references, characters, locations, tributes to other films and previous Star Wars history and much much more. In all, there are over 40 Rogue One easter eggs.

I've tried not to include the most obvious things (like Darth Vader, Yavin IV, moisture vaporators, familar alien species like the mon calamari or ships), although some prominent appearances are included.

If you look carefully around Saw Gerrera's cave, you might see some references to Rogue One director Gareth Edward's previous films. The filmmaker revealed on the Star Wars Show that some of the paintings on the wall pay homage to his early career:

In Saw's cave, there are some cave paintings. One of them is of the creatures that were in my first film, called Monsters, and then there's some MUTOs and Godzilla. I didn't ask for it, they just did it as a joke. I came in one day and spotted it in the middle of a take.

The above image if from Pablo Hidalgo's great Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide. On eight-year-old Jyn Erso's bed we see a bunch of her childhood toys which feature a bunch of cool Star Wars easter eggs and references.

The toys include a stormtrooper doll she called "Stormie", a stuffed Loth Cat named "Koodie the Tooka", a wampa doll, an IG-88 looking figure she calls "Mr. Iggy," and a bunch of homemade toys including an R2 series Astromech, an Alderaan cruiser, a TIE Fighter, a Jedi cruiser, Imperial star destroyer and Jedi Fighter with hyperspace ring and more. My favorite might be "Bad Mister Good" which appears to be a monster in a Jedi robe — Imperial propaganda for children perhaps?

Director Gareth Edwards gave himself a cameo in the film. On the latest Empire podcast, Edwards admits that he appears somewhere in the final scene of the movie. A fan has spotted the filmmaker as the rebel soldier who disengages the Tantive IV from Admiral Raddus' ship. The filmmaker gave himself a very important minor role, saving Princess Leia, C-3PO and R2-D2, and the Death Star plans.

"I have a bad feeling about this" is a well-known phrase in the Star Wars series which has become a running gag. The phrase is spoken at least once in every Star Wars movie released so far and has appeared in every LucasArts Star Wars video game and most of the books and comic books.

In Rogue One, K-2SO says the infamous line as he accompanies Jyn and Cassian in Imperial disguise to infiltrate an Empire base.

When we first see adult Jyn, she is being transported as a prisoner in a  Juggernaut Tank on the planet Wobani (which just so happens to be an anagram for Obi-wan). The Juggernaut Tank is also a throwback to the prequel trilogy, an Imperial version of the tank seen in Revenge of the Sith on the Wookie planet of Kashyyyk, as well as the Clone Wars animated series.

I'm not sure if this is intentionally a callback or not, but Saw Gerrera says "It's a Trap!" when talking to Jyn about the Imperial pilot's defection. This is most likely a reference to the infamous line "It's a trap!", which Admiral Akbar says during the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi.

Darth Vader's castle on Mustafar is an idea that George Lucas originally conceived for Empire Strikes Back. The Star Wars creator originally envisioned that Vader would have a villainous castle on a lava planet in the original Star Wars sequels. Legendary artist Ralph McQuarrie even sketched out a few concepts for the castle (one design can be seen above), but ultimately Lucas decided not to use it in the original trilogy.

This is also set on the planet Mustafar, which is where Anakin Skywalker lost the infamous lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is basically where Darth Vader as we know him was born.

More than three decades after he first appeared in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, Warwick Davis has returned to the galaxy far, far away to play an alien creature named Weeteef Cyu-Bee. The character seen on Jedha is one of the most destructive members of Saw Gerrera's militia, specializing in explosives and sharpshooting with his Tibanna-jacked DH-17/E-11 hybrid custom blaster.

I debated on if this was even worth including in this round-up as it's one of the most obvious cameos in the film. But I came to the conclusion that if I did not, readers would call me on it in the comments. So yes, R2-D2 and C-3PO make a brief appearance on Yavin IV near the end of the film before the Rebel fleet takes off to Scarif. Anthony Daniels provides an uncredited voice-over for Threepio.

On Scarif, two troopers are discussing the retirement of the T-15 Skyhopper, which is a reference to A New Hope. When Obi-Wan Kenobi sneaks past a pair of Stormtroopers, who are discussing the introduction of a new T-16 ship.

Saw Gerrera's men are playing a non-holographic version of the Holochess game Dejarik seen on the Millennium Falcon. It's funny that Saw's Rebels are too low-rent to afford an actual holographic chess, so their pieces are hand-carved.

Another one of the more obvious returns in this film, but I have some trivia to relay about this one.

While James Earl Jones returned to voice Darth Vader, original on-screen actor David Prowse did not return. In the film, Vader is played on screen by two people, Daniel Naprous (a stuntman and horse master on the Harry Potter films) and Spencer Wilding (a stuntman who played one of the League of Shadows Warriors in Batman Begins). I'm assuming one of them worked on the principal photography; he was unavailable for the reshoots (Naprous' resume says he was busy on Kingsman: The Golden Circle during the time Disney was conducting the reshoots).

While Jyn and Cassian search for the hard drive containing the Death Star plans, they go through a bunch of file names including Black Saber.

"Darksaber" was a sleeker a lightsaber-esque hand-to-hand weapon favored by the Mandalorians in both Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. The Darksaber was an ancient lightsaber created by the Jedi Order, that was stolen by Clan Vizla of the Mandalorians and passed down through generations of warriors. The last known Mandalorian to own the blade was Pre Vizsla, the leader of Death Watch during the Clone Wars.

The weapon resurfaced recently in Star Wars canon in Star Wars Rebels where Sabine Wren, a member of the early rebellion and a descendant of House Vizsla, acquired the weapon on Dathomir. It seems evident we will learn more about the Black Saber in the coming years. Why did the Empire have a file on the black saber?

The list of file names in the Imperial library also included Ord Mantell and Pax Aurora.

Ord Mantell was a planet Han Solo references in The Empire Strikes Back as a world where he "ran into" a bounty hunter. The planet is located in the Bright Jewel system of the galaxy's Mid Rim that was the homeworld of the Mantellian Savrip species. Wookieepedia tells us that "in the waning days of the Galactic Republic, Ord Mantell City housed a base of operations for the Black Sun crime syndicate" before it "came under control of the Galactic Empire and became home to an Imperial deepdock." So this may explain why the planet is listed in the Empire's file library.

With the destruction of Imperial base on Scarif, most of the data for these secret projects was probably lost forever. Still, it's interesting to think that the Empire had all sorts of other plans that weren't the Death Star. What other terrible ways are there to rule the galaxy?

There are other files listed, here is an excerpt from the Rogue One novelization:

She spoke sternly, demanding Cassian's attention as she read from the screen. "Project code names: Stellarsphere. Mark Omega. Pax Aurora..." Were all of them weapons like the Death Star, designed for terror and genocide? Had her father known about the others? She couldn't afford to think about it — there were too many horrors down that road. "War-Mantle. Cluster-Prism. Black-Saber."

The prequel novel Catalyst implies that a few of them are actually subcomponents of the Death Star itself:

The Imperial Energy Division was new, but it, too, operated under the umbrella of Project Celestial Power. In fact, each separate department of the battle station project had its own cover name and cover agency, and Galen wasn't alone in working for a counterfeit division and having his research put to alternative uses. Scattered across the galaxy were teams of scientists working on conventional weaponry, tractor beam and hyperdrive technology, even hull cladding systems. Each project was concealed behind names like Stellar Sphere, Mark Omega, and Pax Aurora. But all those paled in comparison with research on the superlaser.

One of the things we see in Saw Gerrera's hideout is a hologram of a Twi'lek slave dancer. While this isn't Oola from Return of the Jedi, it is a tribute to this moment.

Another obvious cameo: Princess Leia has an appearance in the final scene of the movie. Norwegian actress Ingvild Deila is the body double for Princess Leia in the film, while her face was computer generated to recapture the look of Carrie Fisher's character from A New Hope. Deila played World Hub Tech in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Director Rian Johnson was in London prepping Star Wars Episode 8 while Rogue One was shooting, and when he visited set, they gave him a chance to have a cameo in the film. Johnson and producer Ram Bergman play the laser operators on the Death Star. Rian repaid the favor by giving Rogue One director Gareth Edwards a cameo in the eighth installment of the Skywalker saga.

General Dodonna was re-cast in this film, played by Ian McElhinney. In A New Hope, British actor Alex McCrindle played the general, who formulated the plan that led to the successful Battle of Yavin and the destruction of the Death Star. It's interesting that they chose to recast this role (as the original actor died in 1990) rather than do the CG face replacement that was done on Leia and Tarkin.

Another returning character is Mon Mothma, a politician in the Galactic Senate and leader in the rebel alliance to restore the resistance. Irish actress Genevieve O'Reilly reprised her role from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The character was played by English actress Caroline Blakiston in Return of the Jedi.

It's a shame that the characters in Star Wars Rebels don't have a bigger role in Rogue One. You can see their ship, The Ghost, in the final battle above Scarif (that image is in the header of page one of this piece). Rogue One's visual effects supervisor (and story creator) John Knoll initially pitched that the crew of the Ghost should be present for this decisive battle. The ship can also be seen, if you have eagle eyes, on a launch pad at the Rebels base on Yavin IV (see the image above).

I wonder if the series finale of Star Wars Rebels will connect with this in some way? Will the final moments of the series see the Ghost crew get a call to Scarif? Or perhaps their role in this battle will play out in the television show as part of their series conclusion. Filoni tells EW that Rogue One's action may someday be retold from his characters' perspective on a future season of Rebels: "I already have some theories about the story behind it. I can imagine doing that entire [Scarif] battle from their point of view, whoever is on the Ghost at that point."

And yet another returning character is Bail Organa, Senator of Alderaan and the adopted father of Leia. He was married to Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan which is why Leia is a "Princess." Adrian Dunbar originally played the character in scenes shot for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, but they didn't make the final cut of the movie. Jimmy Smits, who took over the role in Episodes II and III, reprises his role in Rogue One. The character has also been voiced by Phil LeMarr in eight episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and two episodes of Star Wars Rebels.

Jyn wears a necklace given to her by her mother, a Kyber Crystal that contains an inscription in the alien Star Wars language Aurebesh. What does it say? "Trust the Force"

On Jedha we see a cameo from a famous duo of Star Wars characters from A New Hope. This one is less obvious to non-Star Wars fanatics. During their trip to Jedha, Jyn bumps into Ponda Baba and Colonel Evaza, the two tough guys that threaten Luke Skywalker while at the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tattooine. As you might remember from A New Hope, they are wanted for a death sentence on 12 systems. It is remarkable or convenient that these two were able to get off this planet before the Death Star blew it up later in the day. We first heard a rumor about this appearance in July.

Cader Pedrin Gaul is X-Wing fighter Red Five in Rogue One. During the climactic battle, we see Red 5 crash and die, which leaves his callsign open to being eventually filled by Luke Skywalker in A New Hope.

The flashback that we see of Jyn as a young girl watching her parents talk with Krennic actually takes place in the Erso family's living quarters on Coruscant. You can see the city outside the window.

Mon Mothma consults with Bail Organa, who says he'll get someone (Leia Organa) he "trusts with his life" to get the Death Star plans to a Jedi that he knows (Obi-Wan Kenobi). Bail walks out a doorway and starts talking to Captain Antilles, telling him to "get ready." We see Antilles again at the end of Rogue One, giving the Death Star plans to Princess Leia.

Antilles is probably best known to Star Wars fans as Darth Vader's first on-screen kill in A New Hope. The captain of the Tantive IV gets strangled by Darth when he refuses to give up the plans to the Death Star, claiming his ship hasn't intercepted any transmissions. We also saw the character at the end of Revenge of the Sith, where he takes ownership of C-3PO and R2-D2. This explains why R2-D2 and C-3PO are at the Yavin IV base and connects Antilles to the plan to transport the plans to Obi-Wan.

Galen Erso is trying to stay far away from the Empire and his farm are understandably far off the grid. When we see a shot of the interior of the family's home, we notice a tall container of blue milk, first introduced in Star Wars: A New Hope. It's possible that the Erso family have a Bantha and produce the milk themselves.

Forest Whitaker plays Saw Gerrera, a Rebel extremist who was first introduced in a four-episode arc of the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In an episode titled "A War on Two Fronts," Saw is introduced as a resistance soldier fighting against Separatist forces on the planet Onderon. Their insurgency against the occupying Droid armies was unsuccessful until the Republic sent Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ashoka Tano, and Captain Rex to advise and train Gerrera and his fellow soldiers. Ultimately, the resistance took control of their planet from the Separatists, but Saw's sister, Steela, was killed in the process. This particular arc lasted four episodes.

Claudia Gray's novel Star Wars: Bloodline, which takes place a few decades after the events of Return of the Jedi, mentioned that Saw Gerrera and his "Partisans" still cast a shadow over memories of the Rebel Alliance, with one of Senator Leia Organa's rivals citing the "terrorist tactics" that the more extreme cells utilized in their war against the Empire. The character is set to make an appearance in a future episode of Star Wars Rebels.

Okay, so this easter egg you can't see in the final cut of the film. Alan Tudyk, the actor who performance captured K-2SO, was originally scheduled to have a cameo in the movie appearing as his human self, but it was cut:

"I had a cameo I just found out got cut. Yeah, I guess it's a cameo — Wray Nerely, so the character that I play in Con Man. Sort of my alter ego in Con Man had a role in Rouge One Star Wars I played a pilot, and the scene got cut I just found out. Like did Wray Nerely survive? I was really looking forward to seeing Wray Nerely in Star Wars, but truthfully Wray Nerely would never get that good of a job. So it was probably pretty good that he didn't.

Chirrut Îmwe and Baze Malbus use to be part of the now almost extinct order called The Guardians of the Whills, which were devoted to protecting the Temple of Kyber in the holy city of Jedha. The Whills is a reference buried in Star Wars history. The 1973 outline of the story that would eventually become Star Wars was titled "Journal of the Whills, Part I " by George Lucas. It follows a "Jedi-Bendu" named "Mace Windy" and his padawan "C.J. Thorpe."

The second draft of Star Wars: A New Hope was titled "Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode I: The Star Wars." The film script begins with a quote:

"...And in the time of greatest despair there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as: THE SON OF THE SUNS." ?Journal of the Whills, 3:127[src]

George Lucas conceived of the Journal of the Whills as a plot device for connecting the Star Wars galaxy to the real world. The idea was dropped, but it was mentioned in the novelization of the original film. The Journal of the Whills was made official canon by the novelization of The Force Awakens, which opens with a quotation from the journal. And now Rogue One gives the Whills a deeper meaning in new Star Wars canon.

While we don't see Wedge Antilles in the final X-Wing battle above Scarif, we do hear David Ankrum, who voiced Wedge in A New Hope. Dennis Lawson played Wedge in the 1977 original, but his voice was dubbed over because he couldn't perfect his American accent. Ankrum is not credited here bit it was reported that Ankrum recorded new voice overs for the film.

While at the Rebel base on Yavin IV, if you listen carefully you can hear "General Syndulla" being paged over the intercom system.

"General Syndulla, please report to the briefing room."

This is a reference to Star Wars Rebels. It's likely that Hera Syndulla has been promoted to General in the year and a half between the current events of Star Wars Rebels and the start of Rogue One. Or it's also may be possible that a relative, like Hera's father, is now a General in the Rebellion.

Star Wars Rebels creator Dave Filoni credits sound designer Matt Wood for the inclusion and confirms it is in fact Hera that is a General during the events of Rogue One: "I can clarify that's absolutely Hera being paged, not her dad.The movie gives that away, but I would rather have all the [references] be right. Hera will eventually become a general in the Rebel Alliance."

As we've been writing about Rogue One for the last couple years, it has always been obvious that the movie would be based on the opening crawl for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. But it's easy to forget somewhere along the way that the crawl tells us more about this movie than just the heist of the Death Star plans. The crawl also tells us that the plans were stolen during the Rebellion's first victory against the Empire, a battle we see in the film on Scarif.

Another Star Wars Rebels reference featured in Rogue One is the loveable droid Chopper, who can be viewed in the background on Yavin IV. Apparently, they shot scenes with him prominently in the background, but most of those shots did not make the final cut of the film. I spotted him speeding by on the left side of the screen right before Mon Mothma Is told about the Rebels on Scarif. The photo above comes via EW. Rebels creator Dave Filoni was on set when they shot these scenes.

At Star Wars Celebration Europe, ILM Chief John Knoll revealed that they didn't have an original copy of the Death Star plans animation shown in A New Hope. So they had to recreate the wire-frame Death Star plans frame for frame.

We see appearances in Rogue One of other memorable droid units including RA-7, a mouse droid, and an Imperial probe droid.

Probably the least obvious of all of the reoccurring Star Wars appearances. Actor Guy Henry played the character in Rogue One, with production using CG to bring Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin to life.

Before meeting Jyn, Chirrut can be overheard telling passersby, "May the Force of others be with you." While this might just sound like a tweak on the franchise's famous blessing, "The Force of others" is a callback to George Lucas's original Star Wars screenplay drafts. The original expression of good luck recognized a larger, unifying bond between living things. Lucas later expanded the idea into a literal "Force" that binds us, connects us all, and can be manipulated by a select few.

While the Rebels battle the Empire above Scarif in the Rogue One finale, Admiral Raddus orders a Hammerhead Corvette be used to ram one of the Star Destroyers. This tactic is essential to disabling the Shield Gate protecting the Imperial Base on Scarif allowing Jyn to broadcast the Death Star plans.

But did you know that we previously found out how the Rebellion got its hands on the Hammerhead Corvettes in an episode of Star Wars Rebels? In the episode titled "A Princess of Lothal," we see Princess Leia Organa help the Rebels steal the Hammerheads which actually belong to her family on the planet Alderaan. She used her inside connections to help the Alliance while keeping her connection to the Rebel Alliance publicly a secret.

Red Leader (Drewe Henley) and Gold Leader (Angus MacInnes) appear in the final X-Wing battle above Scarif, resurrected using unused footage from Star Wars: A New Hope which has been digitally touched up and de-grained. You can read more about that here. Drewe Henley passed away in 2016, but Angus MacInnes is still alive.

Another cameo that almost happened. Han Solo directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller almost made it into Rogue One as part of the Jedha sequence. They were in costume on set ready to shoot their parts, but both had to leave as shooting was running behind and they had a scheduled meeting with a school for their kids to attend during their Han Solo shoot. You can see a photo of them in costume on the set, above.

This would have been Chris Miller's second appearance in a Star Wars film. While interning at Lucasfilm, he appeared as a Stormtrooper in the Empire Strikes Back Special Edition.

20 years ago Chris Miller interned at ILM and got to cameo as Stormtrooper in Empire Strikes Back special edition pic.twitter.com/ocTtz6UHa6

— Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) July 17, 2016

The name of the prison planet that Jyn is rescued on is called Wobani, which is an anagram for the name Obi-Wan.

On the Yavin 4 base with Lucasfilm's mighty @raynemikele ❤#throwbackthursday #tbt #RogueOne pic.twitter.com/GrLnCerzDT

— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) December 22, 2016

It's unclear if you can actually see him in the movie itself, but Rogue One screenwriter Gary Whitta filmed a background cameo as an X-Wing pilot on the Yavin 4 base. The writer joked on twitter that his cameo did not make the final film:

In case Wookieepedia needs the info, my pilot's name is Gray Leader and he died heroically on the cutting room floor.

— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) December 22, 2016

You may not see actor Dermot Mulroney on screen in Rogue One, but you can hear him. Or rather, you can hear him play the cello on the soundtrack, because Mulroney has been playing that instrument since grade school and has been playing in the orchestra for composer Michael Giacchino for years now.

Rogue One utilized the voice of Star Wars Rebels cast members Steve Blum (Zeb), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Sam Witwer (Darth Maul) and Tom Kane (Yoda). In addition, Clone Wars voice star James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi) lent his voice to Rogue One. Even Star Wars Rebels creator and executive producer Dave Filoni can be heard somewhere in the movie.

Along with those familiar voice actors, some key names from behind the scenes provided brief voice cameos. The film's composer Michael Giacchino had a voice cameo along with director Tony Gilroy (who reportedly had a key part in fixing Rogue One in reshoots and post-production) and his brother John Gilroy. There were also these Star Wars veterans giving their voices to the movie:

Please let me know if there is anything I missed in the comments below. And if you haven't yet, check out our previous Rogue One coverage: