The single-player campaign in Star Wars Battlefront 2 not only introduces the new story of Iden Version into the franchise cannon, but also adds a bunch of context to other Star Wars stories. From the comics to books, TV and movies, here are Battlefront 2’s best nods to the greater Galaxy far far away.
Operation Cinder
The most notable connection to the rest of the Star Wars universe – aside from the obvious appearances by series Heroes – is Iden Versio’s involvement in the execution – and ultimately the unraveling of – Operation Cinder.
Originally introduced in the Shattered Empire comics, Cinder is a big part of the Emperor’s contingency plan should the Empire ever fail. Several story missions inject Iden’s actions into the events of those comics – including that spooky Robo-Emperor and the destruction of Vardos.
Most notably, though, is the mission Outcasts, where you’re tasked with destroying the satellites that are disrupting the weather patterns of Naboo.
In the comics, pilot Shara Bey – mother of Poe Dameron – alongside Leia and the reigning queen of Naboo, fight valiantly against the remnant forces, but face imminent defeat until the arrival of Lando Calrissian’s capital ship Mellcrawler 2. He arrives alongside a squadron of fighters, now known to be led by the former Inferno Squad commander.
Corona Squadron
In the prologue, while navigating ID-10 through the maintenance ducts, soldiers can be heard discussing the upcoming assault on the second Death Star.
They mention big players like Admiral Ackbar and General Calrissian, but they also give a shoutout to Corona Squadron – notable for not only taking down one of the (off-screen) AT-ATs during the Battle of Hoth, but also for being the recon team who first learned the Empire was constructing a second Death Star.
Operation Yellow Moon
Also in the opening mission, as Iden sneaks her way past the Alliance briefing room, Admiral Ackbar can be heard mentioning the Gallan system – this is a reference to the events of the Leia novel Moving Target, where the Alliance plants beacons to distract the imperial fleet from their pending assault on the Death Star II.
Merenzane Gold
Merenzane Gold, the beverage being swilled by your Imperial contact in Maz’s castle, is originally from the old EU – now Legends – book Tales from Mos Eisley Cantina.
In Tales, the drink is described as “a sweet, subtle concoction, with many thousands of years of brewing tradition behind it. A single bottle goes for well upward of a hundred credits, depending on vintage… You could use it to clean thruster tubes, except it might melt the shielding.”
Admiral Rax
Your contact also makes reference to an intimidating Admiral named Rax – this is referring to Gallius Rax, the chief antagonist of the Aftermath book series. He oversaw the Emperor’s contingency plan and commanded the Super Star Destroyer Ravager, which you’ll recognize as the one Rey and Finn fly the Millennium Falcon through when escaping from Jakku.
The Black Sun The Black Sun
Upstairs in Maz’s castle, you can overhear two smugglers talking about their trade – one of whom is working for the Black Sun syndicate. You’ll likely remember them from the now-Legends Shadows of the Empire game for N64, but they also appear in several canon stories, such as the Clone Wars series or Darth Maul comics.
Uprising
While infiltrating the facility on Bespin, Iden can eavesdrop on two stormtroopers discussing Governor Adelhard and the Iron Blockade. They’re referring to the lockdown of the Anoat Sector from the mobile game Star Wars: Uprising.
Starhawks
During The Battle of Jakku, one of your objectives is to use orbital strikes to protect allies from an AT-AT assault. The bombardment comes from one of the three Starhawk-class ships that are responsible for defeating the imperial fleet in orbit above Jakku – including Gallius Rax’s Ravager. You can also hear details of their ongoing struggle above if you opt to eliminate the TIE squadrons before proceeding to your second objective.
Captain Antilles
In this same moment, you’ll also hear a request go out from the Alliance to Phantom Squadron – particularly Wedge Antilles, who was a recurring character in the films, as well as several comics and books. Wedge and the other Phantoms were instrumental during the Liberation of Kashyyk, from the novel Aftermath: Life Debt. We also get a callout here to a pilot named “Snap,” which we have to assume is Snap Wexley, the new supporting pilot character played in the latest film by Heroes’ Greg Grunberg.
Additionally, one of the patrons in Maz’s cantina on Takodana can be heard complaining a bout his time at Skystrike Academy. This is the imperial flight school that trained Wedge before he defected to the Alliance.
Del’s Origins
In the final chapter of the campaign, where Kylo Ren interrogates Del Meeko, we learn his first posting as an imperial soldier was on Scarif – the tropical planet that provided the setting for the climactic battle in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
We also learn that Del had some sort of relationship with Lor San Tekka, who provided Poe Dameron with the Map to Skywalker at the beginning of The Force Awakens.
Luke’s Compass
This last one may be pretty obvious, but we’ve got to talk about the compass that Luke finds in the Emperor’s Observatory on Pillio. While it hasn’t been seen in any other media, it seems likely that it will show up in The Last Jedi thanks to some box art for some upcoming Hot Toys mini-figs.
Most superfans – ourselves included – assume that the compass is instrumental in Luke finding the location of ancient jedi temples, or perhaps the ancient-looking texts we’ve seen in trailer.
Honorable Mention: Gonky
We also want to give a shoutout to a great Star Wars story that hasn’t been told… yet: The Adventures of Gonky, the Friendliest Power Droid.
We know Gonky isn’t a member of the Star Wars family… at least, not yet. Personally, I think that the wacky misadventures of a rogue GNK power unit is exactly the type of content we need from the franchise.
JR is an editor at IGN who can usually be found editing our wikis, or skulking about similarly wretched hives of scum and villainy… like Twitter.
