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List of references to Earth in Star Wars

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Earth redirects here. You may be looking for Earth (droid).

Despite being explicitly set in a galaxy far, far away, various sources have established what appear to be connections between the Star Wars universe and the real world (i.e. Earth). This page attempts to make a List of references to Earth in Star Wars.

Many of these examples, of course, could be the result of clever, multi-layered, Tolkien-style "translations" from Galactic Basic Standard to English.

Earth, as seen from space
Earth, as seen from space


Contents

[edit] Non-canonical storyline appearances of Earth

[edit] Star Wars draft scripts

Early drafts of the original film featured references which suggest that Earth's galaxy was the setting. The story treatment, for instance, sets the film in the 33rd century, and both it and the Journal of the Whills, Part I mention the planet Ophuchi, derived from the real world constellation Ophiuchus; likewise, the planet Aquilae was derived from the constellation Aquila. By the first draft, however, both elements had disappeared or become brief mentions, suggesting that Lucas had placed his saga in a secondary universe as his mythology became more defined.

[edit] Alien Exodus

In the outline and sample chapters for Robert J. Sawyer's cancelled novel Alien Exodus, Earth is revealed in a flashback story to be the original home of the Human species. A group of refugees and dissidents from Earth commandeer a spacecraft and flee a computer-controlled society (a society which, apparently, will later become the setting of George Lucas's first film, THX 1138). They accidentally travel backwards through time and through intergalactic space to arrive in the Star Wars galaxy.

In addition to exploring the prehistory of the Star Wars galaxy, and featuring the ancestors of the Skywalker and Solo families, Alien Exodus would have linked THX-1138, American Graffiti, and possibly Willow with the Star Wars universe.

[edit] Christmas in the Stars

Christmas in the Stars, a 1980 record album, has R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca, among others, singing Christmas songs and celebrating the Earth holiday.

[edit] Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas, a book combining photos and concept art from the Original trilogy and other Lucasfilm productions with a variety of short fiction pieces, contains two significant references to Earth. In the first, a supermarket tabloid parody attributed to Trebor Uarrac of The Galactic Gossip, two Duros newlyweds named Etro and Droza Edthatt are "abducted by human beings" from the planet "Urthha". After over four solar periods of bizarre experiences, they somehow use a "matter catalyst", which the humans call a "blender", to get back home. A picture of the Edthatts, originally a production photo from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is included with the story. The Duros in the picture are, however, canonically identified as Baniss Keeg and Ellorrs Madak.

The next reference occurs in "Sightings by Twang", a gossip column attributed to Dyslogia Twang. This column describes the celebrities seen at a Vector Day party thrown by Mrp-Mrp Poo. Most of these are clearly aliens, except for Madonna.

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas is not considered part of the Star Wars canon, making these two stories non-canonical. It was, however, used as a source for Alien Exodus.

[edit] "Into the Great Unknown"

In "Into the Great Unknown", a short comic story in Star Wars Tales 19, Han Solo and Chewbacca are caught in a hyperspace misjump, and are forced to land the damaged Millennium Falcon on a primitive planet. They land in a forest reminiscent of Endor, where Han is killed by the native Human inhabitants. Chewbacca survives to roam the woods.

126 years later, an archaeologist and his sidekick investigate rumors of a large beast in the forest, known to the locals as "Sasquatch". When he comes across the Falcon and Han Solo's remains, he finds them eerily familiar. He decides to leave the remains, the spaceship, and the Sasquatch as part of the "great unknown."

Though the planet Earth is not specifically named, the story obviously takes place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and the two archaeologists are clearly Indiana Jones and his sidekick Short Round. (This explains why Dr. Jones finds Solo's remains familiar, since both characters were played by Harrison Ford on film.)

In his Star Wars Timeline Gold, Nathan Butler analyzes this non-canonical story and calculates the years that the major events in the Star Wars universe would take place in (based on the story's clues) according to our calendar. His calculations give a date of 1794 for 0 BBY, assuming Indiana Jones's part of the story is set in 1935.

[edit] E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

The Steven Spielberg film E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, though not released under the Star Wars banner, is a strong link between Star Wars and Earth. In the film, a small alien (dubbed "E.T.") visits Earth, and is accidentally stranded there during a mission to collect botanical samples from various planets across the galaxies. His friend, a Human boy named Elliot, shows E.T. some action figures which he names on screen as Boba Fett, Han Solo, Greedo, and Lando Calrissian among others. Later, E.T. mixes in with a crowd of Halloween trick or treaters on a suburban street, and encounters a human child in a Yoda costume: E.T. excitedly greets the child, saying "Home, home."

The novel E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, a sequel to E.T., establishes that E.T.'s species possesses highly advanced technology, capable of traveling not only between planets, but galaxies as well. In The Book of the Green Planet, E.T. mentions a "Former World" that his people left eons ago.

In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, three members of E.T.'s species are shown occupying one of the senatorial pods during the Senate room scene. Later Expanded Universe materials mention the planet Brodo Asogi, represented by a senator named Grebleips ("Spielberg" in reverse) who funds an extra-galactic survey. Brodo Asogi is one of the names given for E.T.'s homeworld in E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet.

The only problem with E.T.'s Earth/Star Wars link, is that on the Earth E.T. visits, Star Wars is a work of fiction, as established by the existence of action figures and Halloween costumes based on the films.

[edit] Animal species

[edit] Appear on their own

These species appear on screen "as themselves", or are mentioned in text without qualifiers (i.e. as "Turtles" rather than "Space Turtles".)

[edit] Have namesakes appear

These animal species have something named after them in the Star Wars galaxy (like a starship, or another animal), but may not exist itself. They may also have been specifically named, but depicted in a way which shows that they are probably not identical to any Earth species.

[edit] Mythical creatures

These creatures exist on Earth only in legend, but their names, at least, are reused in the Star Wars galaxy.

[edit] Plants

[edit] Food, drink, etc.

  • Blue milk
  • Hot chocolate also known as "hot milk"
  • "Trix"-brand breakfast cereal is alluded to, but not named, in the description of the constellation known as the Silly Rabbit. This does not establish its existence, but it does establish the existence of raspberries, oranges, and lemons.
  • Numerous characters are depicted smoking what appear to be cigars, cigarettes and pipes.
  • Hutt pizza is mentioned in Jedi Chef.
  • Caf seems to be a representation of coffee. The name "caf" is similar to the pronunciation of "coffee" in other languages (Italian "caffé", Spanish and French "café") and is also similar to the term "caffeine", itself derived from the word "coffee".

[edit] Character names

These characters have first or last names which wouldn't be out of place in an Earth phone book (or in some cases, first and last names).

[edit] Geographical locations

The following are characters whose names refer to a location found on Earth.

  • Wedge Antilles—the "Antilles" are islands in the West Indies.
  • Tyber Zann—the "Tiber" is an Italian river.
  • Tigris—the "Tigris" is a Middle-Eastern river.

[edit] Places

These planets or other locations have names which bear a close resemblance or are identical to places on Earth.

[edit] Real astronomical objects

Despite being real astronomical objects in Earth's neighborhood, these names appear in Star Wars sources.

It should be specifically noted that, contrary to some fanonical ideas, Coruscant cannot be a futuristic Earth. While Earth is far from our galaxy's core, is the third planet from the Sun, and has only one moon, Coruscant is close to the galactic core, is the sixth planet in the Coruscant system, and has multiple moons. Also, Star Wars is set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away."

[edit] People

Some real-world historical figures, politicians and celebrities are referenced in the Star Wars galaxy.

[edit] Other fiction

The settings of other fiction stories are referenced in Star Wars sources.

See also Book of Imperial Shuttle Plans: Cygnus Spaceworks, a non-canonical work sometimes mistaken for canon. This piece of fanart makes extensive references to other science fiction franchises.

[edit] Language and culture

[edit] Technology

Certain classes of inventions are likely to be reinvented in a galaxy far, far away. When technology gets overly specific, however, suspension of disbelief is strained.

[edit] Vehicle design

It should be noted that the first three Star Wars films, being produced between 1977 and 1983 featured much more boxy designs for the vehicles, such as the X-Wing, AT-AT walker, Snowspeeder, and pretty much all other vehicles in the films. The last three Star Wars movies filmed between 1999 and 2005 show much more round-shaped vehicles (such as the Naboo Starfighter and Hailfire Droid). This cooresponds to the fact that automobiles on Earth today are aerodynamic and round shaped while automobiles back in the late 70s and early 80s were boxy shaped.

[edit] Units of measurement

       Main article: List of measurement units
  • Many in-universe sources use the metric system. The meter was originally based on the size of the Earth.
  • Parsecs are likewise based on the year and orbital diameter of the Earth, respectively (though in the Star Wars galaxy, the orbit of another planet such as Coruscant is probably used to define these units instead, like in the case of standard days, years etc).
  • Saturday is referred to in the Lando Calrissian Adventures, though it likely represents a translation for Natunda or some other day of the Galactic Week.
  • Likewise, in an early issue of Marvel Star Wars, Han Solo mentions that he didn't go to Sunday School.
  • The Cestus Deception measures temperature in Celsius. This is also (perhaps unintentionally) a reference to the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius.
  • Measures gauss and joule are mentioned in Death Star which is a reference to the real scientists Carl Friedrich Gauss and James Prescott Joule.

[edit] Sources

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ↑ Dark Force Rising
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