The final scene of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker seemingly references an obscure deleted scene from 1977’s Star Wars. The finale of the modern canon’s sequel trilogy features many references, large and small, to the rest of the Star Wars franchise, from previous saga movies to major storylines from the original Legends continuity. While the majority of these references are quite overt, one of the last callbacks in the film seems surprisingly subtle.

The Rise of Skywalker ends with Rey traveling to the Lars homestead on Tatooine and burying the lightsabers of Anakin Skywalker and Leia Organa. After this, an old woman approaches her and asks who she is, to which Rey responds “Rey Skywalker.” While Rey’s adoption of the Skywalker family name is the focus of the scene, the old woman herself is seemingly a reference to an obscure moment in the Star Wars franchise.

A New Hope’s Deleted Scene Featured An Old Woman On Tatooine Too…

The old woman in The Rise of Skywalker vaguely resembles another unnamed Tatooine local seen in a deleted scene in A New Hope. The first Star Wars film almost had an extended opening with Luke Skywalker being introduced far earlier than he is in the final cut. Upon witnessing the brief battle between the Tantive IV and Devastator, Luke rushes to Anchorhead in his landspeeder, coming dangerously close to hitting an elderly woman, who yells at him for his reckless driving.

This brief moment, along with other elements of A New Hope’s extended opening, may have been cut from the film, but they were canonized in other properties, such as the A New Hope novel and comic adaptations. While possibly coincidental, it is easy to see the similarities between the two unnamed Tatooine locals in A New Hope and The Rise of Skywalker. The final sequel film does, after all, include a mulтιтude of callbacks and parallels to other Star Wars properties.

Rise Of Skywalker Really Did Play With A Lot Of Easter Eggs

Like its predecessors in the sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker borrows heavily from the plots of the original trilogy films – particularly Return of the Jedi. Fittingly, the movie appears to be significantly inspired by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy’s Dark Empire comics from the original Legends continuity. This indicates that The Rise of Skywalker‘s filmmakers were willing to reference Star Wars material that the average viewer might not be familiar with, such as a deleted scene from A New Hope.