Star Wars: 10 Best Original Trilogy Callbacks In The Prequels

When George Lucas set out to bring the Star Wars saga to the screen, he started the story in the middle with the fourth chapter. After the original trilogy was a hit, Lucas was able to helm another trilogy extrapolating the backstory of the Imperial era.

Going back to fill in the characters’ origins in a prequel trilogy allowed Lucas to use the inevitability of their dark fate as a dramatic tool. The prequels are also jam-packed with affectionate callbacks and references to their cinematic predecessors.

10 The Jedi Mind Trick

When Qui-Gon arrives at Watto’s junk shop to pick up the parts they need to repair Padmé’s royal starship, he tries to use the Jedi mind trick to convince Watto to accept Republic credits as currency – and it doesn’t work, because Watto’s species is immune to his Jedi powers.

“What, you think you’re some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that?” This scene is a hilariously anticlimactic throwback to the classic scene at Mos Eisley Spaceport with Ben Kenobi and the Stormtroopers in the 1977 original.

9 “I Have A Bad Feeling About This.”

Since the Falcon was drawn into the Death Star’s tractor beam, the line “I have a bad feeling about this” has been repeated in a different context in every Star Wars movie.

The line is used in the prequels when Obi-Wan arrives at the Trade Federation meeting with Qui-Gon at the beginning of The Phantom Menace, when Anakin is chained up in a gladiatorial arena in Attack of the Clones, and when both of them fly into a space battle in the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith.

8 Death Star Plans

The Death Star is the perfect symbol of the bureaucratic oppression that the Empire represents. Palpatine was planning to build a planet-destroying superweapon from the offset, as an early design for the Death Star can be seen at a Separatist conference in Attack of the Clones.

Vader and the Emperor later watch the beginning of construction on the Death Star at the end of Revenge of the Sith when their Empire is a newly established threat in the galaxy.

7 Asteroid Field

One of the most iconic and thrilling action sequences from the Star Wars saga is the TIE fighters chasing the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. There’s a similar asteroid field chase between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. Unlike Obi-Wan, Han Solo didn’t have seismic charges to help him.

Obi-Wan hides out from Fett by landing his starfighter on an asteroid. This explains how Jango’s son and passenger Boba knows where Han is hiding when he parks the Falcon on the back of the Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back.

6 “Join Me…”

Thanks to the Sith’s “Rule of Two,” Sith Lords are always looking for a buddy. When Count Dooku captures Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, he tells him, “Join me, and together, we can destroy the Sith.”

This line is a nod to a similar line that Vader says to Luke during their climactic duel in The Empire Strikes Back: “Join me, Luke, and together, we will rule the galaxy!”

5 Grand Moff Tarkin

Peter Cushing set the template for every Star Wars performance as a smarmy, ruthless Imperial bureaucrat with his iconic turn as Grand Moff Tarkin in the original 1977 movie.

A young Tarkin briefly appears alongside Vader and the Emperor toward the end of Revenge of the Sith as they oversee the construction of the Death Star. Before Rogue One’s CG technology existed to digitally graft Cushing’s face onto a new actor, young Tarkin was played by Wayne Pygram.

4 Jango Fett Bangs His Head

There’s a moment in the original Star Wars movie in which a Stormtrooper famously bumps his head on the ceiling of the Death Star. Since this blooper made it into the final cut, the clumsiness of Stormtroopers has become a canonical plot point.

In the prequels, Lucas took the opportunity to explain why this head-bump happened. In Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett – the genetic template for the Stormtroopers – bumps his own head on his way onto his ship after fighting Obi-Wan.

3 Tantive IV

At the end of Revenge of the Sith, when all the characters are getting into their starting positions for the original trilogy, C-3PO and R2-D2 are assigned to work on Tantive IV with Captain Antilles.

The hallways of this Rebel ship are familiar to Star Wars fans, as it’s where the audience finds the bickering droids at the beginning of the original trilogy when the ship is ominously boarded by Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers.

2 “Why Do I Get The Feeling You’re Going To Be The Death Of Me?”

Lucas is often criticized for his dialogue, but he sometimes uses it to sneak little pieces of foreshadowing into the narrative. In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan asks Anakin, “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?”

When Obi-Wan says this, it’s just a joke about Anakin’s recklessness after a high-speed chase over the streets of Coruscant. Little does he know, his apprentice will later turn to the dark side and strike him down.

1 The Millennium Falcon

The Millennium Falcon, arguably the most iconic ship in the Star Wars canon, can be seen flying into a hangar on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith.

Since the Falcon only makes a brief cameo appearance, the audience doesn’t get to see who’s piloting it. Whoever it is, it’s not Han – this is long before he won the bucket of bolts from Lando in a rigged game of sabacc.

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Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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