The Mandalorian and Grogu: Top 10 Star Wars Easter Eggs and references, detailed

After years of waiting, Star Wars fans finally got to have the visual treat of The Mandalorian and Grogu this May, and it's safe to say that the film delivered expectations. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni packed this 132-minute film with so much lore that a single viewing barely scratches the surface and if you grew up loving the franchise, there were quite a lot of refrences in plain sight.

Whether you grew up watching the original trilogy or binged The Clone Wars at 2 a.m., this movie had something tucked away specifically for you. Here are the ten biggest, most satisfying Easter eggs and references in The Mandalorian and Grogu, ranked and explained.

The Mandalorian and Grogu proved the Dejarik Creatures are real

Remember that holochess game Chewbacca plays aboard the Millennium Falcon on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope? Those weird, monstrous pieces are called dejarik creatures, and The Mandalorian and Grogu changes everything about that. In one of the film's most inventive sequences, Din Djarin finds himself facing a massive, living dejarik beast in what Mando slowly figures out is a deadly arena game. The holochess pieces were apparently modeled after actual animals that exist somewhere in this galaxy.

Rotta the Hutt has now grown up

Jabba's son Rotta made his one and only appearance back in the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film, where Ahsoka Tano nicknamed him "Stinky" while lugging him around like a baby carrier. He was just a tiny, squirming Hutt back then. Fast forward to this movie and Rotta has grown into a calculating, menacing crime lord voiced by Jeremy Allen White.

The Hoth-like opening and AT-AT return

The Mandalorian and Grogu kicks off on a snow-covered planet that feels instantly familiar and while the movie never explicitly confirms whether it is Hoth, the visual language is unmistakable, and the earlier Super Bowl advertisement for the film even featured Tauntauns, which are native to Hoth. Imperial forces are operating there, winter combat is in full swing, and then, towering over everything, come the AT-ATs.

These enormous walking machines first appeared in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back during the Battle of Hoth.

Zeb Orrelios finally makes theatrical history

Garazeb Orrelios has been a beloved character since Star Wars Rebels premiered in 2014 and he made his live-action debut in The Mandalorian Season 3, but this movie marks something historic for hin: He is now the first character from the animated series to appear in a Star Wars theatrical film.

In The Mandalorian and Grogu he picks up Din Djarin and Grogu from the ice planet in a U-Wing, the workhorse ship first introduced in Rogue One. He is an active participant who fights alongside Mando.

Embo crosses over to live-action

Embo is the kind of Star Wars character who has zero famous lines and somehow still has a huge fanbase. The Kyuzo bounty hunter first showed up in The Clone Wars Season 2 and has since become one of the most requested live-action crossovers in fandom history and he finally makes the leap in this film, hunting Din Djarin on Nevarro with his anooba companion, a dog-like creature named Keibu.

The Mythosaur skull graffiti

Walk through any busy spaceport in this galaxy and you will find all kinds of graffiti. But keep your eyes on the walls during one of the film's cantina sequences, and you will catch a Mythosaur skull spray-painted on a back alley wall. The Mythosaur is the ancient creature that Mandalorians symbolically claim as their heritage, the massive beast that was supposedly tamed by Mandalore the Great himself.

The Sabacc deck of imperial fugitives

Colonel Ward, played by Sigourney Weaver in her Star Wars debut, gives Din Djarin a deck of cards each featuring the face of a wanted Imperial war criminal, which actually has deep roots in Star Wars expanded material. The Aftermath novels by Chuck Wendig and the history book The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire by Chris Kempshall both describe a real New Republic practice of adapting sabacc decks with 76 cards, each printed with the last known image of an Imperial fugitive. Some of those fugitives named in the novels include characters like Rae Sloane and Brendol Hux.

Clone Wars-era battle droids get reprogrammed

One of The Mandalorian and Grogu's most visually arresting moments involves Din Djarin standing inside an abandoned Separatist outpost, surrounded by dormant B1 battle droids from the Clone Wars era. The Anzellans, the tiny goggle-wearing technicians whose most famous member is Babu Frik from The Rise of Skywalker, appear to be involved in reactivating and reprogramming these decades-old machines. The B1 battle droid is one of the most recognizable designs in all of Star Wars.

"I'm here to rescue you"

When Din Djarin shows up at Rotta's cell to break him out, he says "I'm here to rescue you," which is almost word-for-word what Luke Skywalker said to Princess Leia aboard the Death Star in A New Hope. Neither character acknowledges the parallel and the film just lets it sit there for the audience to catch. It is a quiet, confident callback that separates good franchise filmmaking from lazy nostalgia.

X-Wing targeting computers and the Death Star formation

Near The Mandalorian and Grogu's climactic sequence over Nal Hutta, Colonel Ward leads a squadron of X-wings into battle and the targeting computers visible in the cockpits are the exact same design used during the Death Star trench run in A New Hope. Then, as the fighters pull away after the engagement, their formation mirrors the iconic shot of Rebel ships fleeing the explosion of the Death Star.

The ships are the same, using the same instruments, and they form up the same way as the heroes who blew up the Empire's ultimate weapon. It just goes on to say that he galaxy moves forward, but it never fully escapes its own history and The Mandalorian and Grogu understands that very well.