Star Wars easter eggs you may have missed in Andor

One of the biggest complaints regarding the new Star Wars spinoff shows and movies has been the lack of new content: few to no new planets to explore, too many repeat characters, too many ties to the Skywalker legacy, too much fan service. It’s no surprise that when Star Wars: Andor was announced, half of the fan base rolled their eyes and sighed in distress; did we need another Star Wars show about a character we’d already met in the movies, set before the conclusion of a story we already knew?

As it ends up, yes. With season 1 good and wrapped, Andor has a 96% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and countless positive reviews from critics and viewers alike. It’s gotten praise for being original, gritty, and showing a different side of the Star Wars universe. The show paints the Empire a fascistic machine run by intelligent, cunning, and strategic bureaucrats. They’re scarier than they ever were when staffed by clumsy Stormtroopers.

But while it blazed new trails, showrunner Tony Gilroy still found room to give Star Wars fans some sweet doses of nostalgia along the way with some perfectly placed easter eggs. Let’s discuss some of these below. BEWARE OF SPOILERS!

5 BBY

We see this subtitle pop in the first few moments of the pilot episode. This is a nod to to the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope, released in 1977. “BBY” stands for “Before the Battle of Yavin,” the decisive Rebel win over the Empire where the Death Star was destroyed. So when Andor starts, we’re five years before this turning point. We may not have a lot of prominent cameos on this show, but the writers still take to situate it within the greater context of the Star Wars universe.

Separatist symbol in Kenari

Early in the show, we get a flashback to when a young Cassian Andor was living on the planet of Kenari with other orphan children. A group of them investigate a crashed spacecraft that was carrying some type of biochemical weapon. The symbol of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, or simply the Separatists, is on the uniform of of the people inside. However, when Cassian’s future foster mother Maarva arrives on the scene to scavenge for parts, she claims that the ship is operated by the Repubilc.

As we remember from the Star Wars prequel series, the Separatists were the enemy of the Republic in the days before the rise of the Empire. However, the Republic Senator Palpatine was actually puppeteering the Separatist leadership the whole time, using the threat they represented to increase his own power.

So how does that answer the question of why Maarva would look at people bearing the Separatist symbol and call them Republic officers? Dork Side of the Force writer Ephraim McFarland has a theory that the ship was manned by Republic officers disguised as Separatist soldiers, and that they were on their way to use the biochemical weapon they were carrying on a Separatist planet, crushing the morale of true believers in the movement. According to this theory, it was all ordered at the behest of Senator Palpatine, who was then rapidly consolidating power towards the end of the Clone Wars. As for why exactly the ship went down and how Maarva was able to figure this out, those may be questions for another day.

Cassian Andor’s stuffed bantha

Speaking of Maarva, when she walks through Cassian’s childhood room, she sees a stuffed bantha. A bantha is a peaceful herd animal living on Tatooine, the birth planet of both Anakin and Luke Skywalker. Unlike so many Star Wars stories, Andor never actually visited Tatooine, but we did get this little reference.

Kyber Crystals

Mined on Illum, these are extremely rare crystals that are used to power up lightsabers. The Rebel mastermind Luthen Real gives a kyber necklace to Cassian in the fourth episode of the series, as a symbol as a token of trust he expects Cassian to give back later. In Rogue One, which is the movie where we first meet Cassian, lead character Jyn Erso also wears a kyber crystal given to her by her father Galen. Cassian and Jyn will eventually meet up, and Andor is drawing a parallel between them early on.

Also, when Luthen gives the kyber crystal to Cassian, he says it “celebrates the uprising against the Rakatan invaders.” This references a species of aliens introduced in the Knights of the Old Republic video games.

Ships of Star Wars: Andor

We see lots of ships during this first season of Star Wars: Andor, many of which we’ve seen before in other Star Wars movies or TV shows.

A couple are seen in the shipyards on Ferrix, including the BTL-4 Y-Wing and the T-47. The BTL-4 Y-Wing was one of the ships flown by the Gold Squadron during the battle of Yavin in Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope. The T-47 was used in Star Wars Episode VI – Empire Strikes Back to defend against the AT-ATs. Other ships spotted in Zorby’s shipyard include a Hyrotti D-85 fighter, a WTK-85A interstellar transport, and a Lancer-class pursuit ship, among others.

The Republic LAAT (Low Altitude Assault Transports), seen in the Ketari flashback, was first seen in Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones and then on the show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As you can see above, they looked a little different in Andor, as if the Empire turned them into short range transports.

We also get a scene where Cassian and Luthen escape officers hunting for Cassian on speeder bikes, which were first seen in Star Wars Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Later, when Luthen is trying to talk his way out of getting pulled over by Empire officers, he is set upon by TIE Bombers, which first appeared in Return of the Jedi.

Admiral Yularen

During a meeting of the ISB, we hear a speech from an older Imperial officer. This is Admiral Wulff Yularen, who made his first appearance way back in the original Star Wars movie, where he was played by Robert Clarke. He had a bit role there. His part was expanded for The Clone Wars animated series, where he was one of several characters voiced by Tom Kane. In Andor, he’s played by Malcolm Sinclair.

Blue Milk

When Syril Karn is down on his luck and moved back in with his mother, he eats cereal with blue milk. Luke Skywalker downed similar-looking blue milk in A New Hope and The Last Jedi. You can even drink blue milk yourself at the Galaxy’s Edge theme park in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s become a franchise staple.

Luthen’s Gallery

Luthen Real may be the main guy planning the burgeoning Rebellion, but that’s all undercover. He presents himself to the world as a proprietor of an antique shop, and what a collection he has! We see the following items in his gallery:

• A Gungan shield from Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
• Slabs of carbonite, smaller than the one used to freeze Han Solo in Star Wars Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back.
• Padme Amidala’s headpiece from Star Wars Episode II – Attack of the Clones.
• Starkiller’s helmet from the video game The Force Unleashed.
• Mandalorian armor, seen prominently in The Mandalorian.
• A Jedi Temple guard mask from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
• The Sankara Stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It’s a fun tradition for Star Wars and Indiana Jones to reference each other.
• A Sith Holocron.
• A Wookie Helmet.
• In Star Wars Rebels, we learn about the World Between Worlds, a mystical plain within the Force. A tablet in Luthen’s gallery bears a symbol associated with the World Between Worlds.

Those are some of the hidden treasures you can spot while watching this binge-worthy show. Star Wars: Andor is streaming now on Disney+You can watch it on Disney+.

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