Star Wars Easter Eggs To Watch Out For In The Force Awakens
No self-respecting movie franchise is complete nowadays unless they come loaded with hidden in-jokes, references, and Easter eggs for the hardcore fans to spot, and ‘Star Wars’ is no different.
With 30+ years of history to fall back on, ‘The Force Awakens’ has more Easter eggs than you can shake a gaffi stick at. Heck, even the cast is a callback in itself.
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Here are some of the best Easter eggs you may have missed in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.
Warning minor spoilers coming up…
Simon Pegg
We knew the long-time ‘Star Wars’ fan and JJ Abrams collaborator was appearing in the film when he cropped up in a behind the scenes video, and we can now reveal he’s playing Unkar Plutt, the unscrupulous junk dealer who tries to buy BB-8 off Rey on Jakku. (Image: Disney)
Thomas Brodie-Sangster
The ‘Maze Runner’ and ‘Love Actually’ star crops up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo role as a First Order officer who gets one line when Finn and Poe escape in the TIE Fighter. According to the ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary’ Brodie-Sangster plays Petty Officer Thanisson. (Image: Getty)
Daniel Craig
Daniel Craig DOES cameo in the film, despite the James Bond star quashing the rumours earlier this year. If you listen carefully, he’s playing the Stormtrooper that Rey fools into letting her go with the Jedi mind trick. According to IMDB his character’s codename is JB-007 although it’s an uncredited performance. (Image: Disney)
Admiral Ackbar and Nien Nunb
Although they’re never explicably named in ‘The Force Awakens’ these two ‘Return of the Jedi’ veterans appear in the Resistance base when the gang plan their attack on Starkiller base. (Image: 20th Century Fox)
Lost Alumni
Ken Leung and Greg Grunberg, both veterans of JJ Abrams’ hit sci-fi show ‘Lost’, crop up as a Resistance leader and X-Wing pilot in the second half of the film. Another alien pilot has been named “Ello Asty” as a double tribute to The Beastie Boys and ‘Lost’, as his name spells out the show’s name phonetically. (Image: ABC)
The Raid stars
Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, the athletic stars of Indonesian martial art epics ‘The Raid’ and ‘The Raid 2’ crop up as Razoo Quin-Fee and Tasu Leech, the leaders of the Kanjiklub gang who board Han Solo’s ship near the start of the film. (Image: Getty)
Bill Hader & Ben Schwartz
‘SNL’ star Bill Hader and ‘Parks and Rec’ actor Ben Schwartz were “voice consultants” for BB-8. They worked with JJ Abrams to create the bleeps and bloops he makes throughout the film. (Image: IB Times)
Alec Guinness, Ewan McGregor, and Frank Oz
The three ‘Star Wars’ veterans appear in voice form during Rey’s “vision” in the dungeon of Maz’s castle. Frank Oz rerecorded a Yoda line from ‘Empire Strikes Back’, McGregor recorded “you’ve taken your first steps”, while Guinness can be heard saying “Rey”. They chopped down an old recording of the original Obi Wan to saying “afraid” to achieve the effect.
Minor cameos
It seems every man and his dog that was able to get on set for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ has snagged a cameo in the film. Celebrity appearances that have already been confirmed include Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, ‘30 Rock’ star Judah Friedlander, ‘Star Trek’ composer Michael Giacchino, and The The front man Matt Johnson.
We also know that Warwick Davis appears as Wollivan a patron of Maz Kanata’s bar, and ‘Star Wars Rebels’ exec producer Dave Filoni gets a mention in the credits as does director Kevin Smith for some voice work.
12 Parsecs
When Rey first meets Han Solo and she realises she’s on board the actual Millennium Falcon that helped defeat the Empire, our female hero reels off the fact that the ship was famed for making the Kessel Run in “14 Parsecs”. Han looks genuinely miffed and quickly corrects her: “12 Parsecs”. It’s a reference to his very first scene in the 1977 ‘Star Wars’ where he’s boasting about the prowess of his ship to Luke Skywalker. (Image: Disney)
Famous Line
The line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” is a running gag that has appeared in all six ‘Star Wars’ movies to date. It’s present and correct here and uttered by Han Solo when the two gangs confront him on his new freighter. (Image: Disney)
Vader hats
Keep an eye out on the background extras while on Starkiller Base and Hux’s Star Destroyer. Some of the officers wear black hats shaped identically like Darth Vader’s iconic helmet. The First Order are obviously still in thrall to his legend and the Empire.
The name Starkiller is an Easter egg in itself as the first draft of the original film, Luke’s full name was Luke Starkiller. (Image: Disney)
Remote
When Finn is on the Millennium Falcon and rooting around, he pulls out the floating ball “remote” that we first saw when Obi Wan was helping Luke to train in the ways of the Force in the first film. It’s not referenced, but it’s clearly the same one. (Image: 20th Century Fox)
Holochess
Another neat callback occurs when Han is talking to Finn and the wayward Stormtrooper accidentally leans on the Falcon’s Holochess board activating a game of Dejarik. (Image: 20th Century Fox)
Maz’s Castle
The entrance to Maz Kanata’s castle is littered with flags from around the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy and includes flags for Boba Fett’s home world Mandalore, and a bunch from the Pod Race in ‘The Phantom Menace’.
Also, the scene in Maz’s bar – hive of scum and villainy - is basically lifted wholesale from the Cantina scene in ‘A New Hope’. (Image: Disney)
Trash Compactor
When Han and Finn are discussing what to with Captain Phasma towards the end of the film, Han suggests throwing her into a trash compactor as nod to the trash compactor scene in the first movie. (Image: Disney)
Kelvin
Here’s an Easter egg that JJ Abrams just threw in for his own benefit. When Rey gives BB-8 directions to the town, she mentions the “Kelvin Ridge”. This is a tribute to Abrams’ grandfather Harry Kelvin and he’s included it in many of his films including 2009’s ‘Star Trek’ which featured the USS Kelvin, ‘Mission: Impossible III’ where Ethan Hunt receives a postcard addressed to “H. Kelvin”, and ‘Super 8’ which features a convenience store called “Kelvin”.
That’s all the Easter eggs we spotted, but there are sure to be tons more yet to be revealed. Let us know if you see any more and post them in the comments below.
‘Star Wars; The Force Awakens’ is in cinemas now.
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