Traveller's Tales isn't being shy about the celebration of Star Wars' history, which can be found all over its latest game, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. The game is chock-full of references and Easter eggs for die-hard fans of the franchise to uncover, whether it be the sad story of Nobot or a running gag about blue milk. However, fans of Star Wars games are sure to get a kick out of one Easter egg in the snows of Hoth, calling back to one of the franchise's most famous games, Shadows of the Empire.
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire was originally released in 1996 for the Nintendo 64 and a year later on PC as part of a multimedia project by Lucasfilm to renew interest in the series ahead of the release of the special edition films. The game puts players in the boots of mercenary and smuggler Dash Rendar, who, following the events of The Empire Strikes Back, aids Luke Skywalker in freeing Princess Leia from the clutches of the Black Sun crime syndicate and its head, Prince Xizor. Rendar's adventure takes him from the snows of Hoth to the sands of Tatooine and sees the hero cross paths with other iconic characters like Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, and IG-88.
Rendar's ship, The Outrider, is his personal ship players got to pilot during the game as Rendar ventured across the galaxy. Traveller's Tales decided to drop the ship on Hoth, where Shadows of the Empire begins, for players to find while playing LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Reddit user apologetic_antelope shared an image of the ship on the official LEGO Star Wars subreddit, showing an Outrider, which has clearly seen better days.
The image apologetic_antelope shared is even more fitting as it shows Han Solo standing in front of the ship. Some longtime Star Wars fans would argue Dash Rendar was, at the time, a modernized take on Han Solo, with both being smugglers and piloting ships that bear some striking similarities, most notably the cockpit design.
Rendar has proven to be a popular enough character that debates continue to rage online about whether the character will ever physically appear in the modern Disney-owned canon. The character is already canon, thanks to a quick mention in the companion book for Solo: A Star Wars Story, but beyond that, nothing. Rogue One co-writer Gary Whitta has previously said it isn't a guarantee this will ever happen, either, as the character is said to be polarizing among the Lucasfilm story group.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.