Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has a hidden story element connecting Kylo Ren to Lando Calrissian. (Spoilers ahead!)
The Aftermath book series, released between 2015 and 2017, laid a lot of groundwork to set the stage for the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, with elements such as the Emperor’s secret Sith Fleet being set up over the course of three books. The final book in the series, Aftermath: Empire’s End, features a scene where Lando Calrissian gives the future Kylo Ren a gift for when he’s older: a blaster that Lando Calrissian used during the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Kylo Ren had to have kept the blaster somewhere safe in spite of his insistence to distance himself from his own past, an effort which ultimately fails when he accepts his role as Ben Solo and goes off to face the resurrected Emperor with Rey. When making a rush to face off against Palpatine, he’s shown using the weapon to dispatch several Sith Troopers before facing off against the Knights of Ren. One fan connected the dots, which you can see below:
The blaster #BenSolo uses on Exegol is Lando’s from Solo, which Lando gifts to him as a baby in @ChuckWendig’s “Empire’s End”
I LOVE THIS.
“Kid’s gonna get into trouble one day. He’s gonna need some help. And that’s where Uncle Lando comes in.” pic.twitter.com/QQ3zhabHIM
— Brad Whipple is a Ben Solo Stan (@bradwhipple) December 28, 2019
There are several small connections in the Aftermath trilogy that suggest that broad details for the conclusion of The Rise of Skywalker were planned out in advance, in spite of the finer details in the Sequel Trilogy itself being left up to the directors of the films. As such, giving this kind of connection between Lando Calrissian and Kylo Ren is a neat nod that connects the movies not only to the spin-off films, but non-movie material as well.
Directed by J. J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Naomi Ackie, Richard E. Grant, Keri Russell, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Ian McDiarmid, and Billy Dee Williams. Carrie Fisher also appears as General Leia Organa through the use of previously unreleased footage shot for previous Star Wars films.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now playing in theaters.
Source: Twitter