Star Wars: A New Hope reference in Rise of Skywalker you might miss

The Star Wars franchise is notorious for placing easter eggs across films for eagle-eyed fans to spot – and a new one in The Rise of Skywalker has just been explained.

Director JJ Abrams may have placed a direct nod to the first film in the saga, A New Hope, during the final battle between Emperor Palpatine and Rey, when Palpatine flies up a giant lightning tree and Rey hears the voices of the Jedi.

READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ review: a sufficiently satisfying finale that gives fans exactly what they want

Visual Effects supervisor Patrick Tubach explained the details to Insider: “One small nugget that somebody may not have picked up on is that as you fly up through that giant lightning tree and you get up to that top of the tree and she hears the voices of the Jedi, that starfield you’re looking at is exactly the Episode IV starfield.

“That was very important to JJ [Abrams],” Tubach continued. “He really wanted to have that moment harking back to the very beginning of Star Wars, and that I think was bringing it all back together.

“Seeing those stars and seeing them look exactly that way. It does rotate, but what you end up on is in the beginning of Episode IV.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and final chapter in the Skywalker saga, earned mixed reviews. NME‘s Alex Flood gave the film three stars, saying: “This is a film made almost exclusively with its fans in mind.”

There’s a reference to ‘A New Hope’ in ‘Rise of Skywalker’ you might have missed