In the lead up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s release on Blu-ray (look for it on April 4th), we’ve been learning a ton about the spinoff thanks to all the various interviews director Gareth Edwards and some of his crew have been doing to promote it. From the fact that Jyn’s mom was almost a Jedi to a few alternate endings and even some scrapped cameos, it’s been a non-stop parade of fun facts for fans to feast on. That continues today, too, as Edwards has now revealed a new easter egg in his film, and it’s actually pretty interesting.
As you no doubt know, Rogue One didn’t include any Jedi, but there was still plenty of the Force to be found in the prequel. Aside from Donnie Yen’s Force-sensitive Chirrut Imwe, the city of Jedha is also closely tied to the metaphysical power. That’s because, according to Edwards, it’s “got a very high density of Kyber Crystals,” which are what Jedi use to power their lightsabers.
In a recent interview with Collider, the director shared a bit of trivia about Jedha, revealing yet another easter egg from the prequel that fans may not have been aware of:
“If you look at the establishing shot of Jedha from above, the layout of it is this giant, circular rock formation around where Jedha is — the idea was that there was a meteor impact that hit Jedha and it came at such a force that it was what created the Kyber Crystals at the center of that crate of impact. So Jedha is like this very unique place in the galaxy in that it’s got a very high density of Kyber Crystals, which is what the Jedi need for lightsabers. So it became this holy city as a result of that meteor impact. But that must’ve happened maybe millions of years ago. We tried to tell that story in the establishing shot, you see the circular formation and at the heart of it is Jedha city.”
Though not an earth-shattering easter egg by any means, it’s nice that Edwards thought to include Kyber Crystals in some way here, as they’re an important part of the lore and having them factor into Rogue One only strengthens the spinoff’s ties to the franchise. Not to mention that it also shows the director’s deep knowledge of and love for all things Star Wars.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will blast onto Blu-ray next week. Do you plan on taking it home and diving back into the first of the Anthology films? Sound off in the usual place and let us know.