''"...I am your father."
— Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker
The tales of a galaxy far far away have been making their mark on the world around us since Luke first look out to the twin suns on his home world of Tatooine in 1977, and have become iconic enough that even the people least interested in such stories will know the basic revelations that've been made throughout the entire franchise's existence. This is a list of the many things that is mostly now common knowledge among the general public, so everything relating to the Skywalker Saga until the newer animated shows and live-action series Disney+ will be left entirely unmarked. You have been warned.
- The Phantom Menace:
- The now iconic teaser poster for the film, showing young Anakin's shadow, as formed by his mushroom-top hairdo, forming the outline of Darth Vader's helmet.
- The film's soundtrack was released before the film. Two tracks were called "Qui-Gon's Noble End" and "The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral."
- And even for newcomers watching the movies in chronological order, it is quite hard to remain unspoiled about the relationship between the Queen of Naboo and her handmaiden when so many materials about Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith talk about Senator Padmé Amidala.
- Revenge of the Sith:
- Palpatine wasn't actually named on film in the original trilogy, being referred to only as "Emperor" (his name comes from the A New Hope novelization). So, theoretically, if you watched the films in release order and never saw any of the action figures, comics, books, or other non-movie material, or paid attention to the credits and realized it was the same actor in the prequels as in Return of the Jedi, you might not know that the seemingly Reasonable Authority Figure Palpatine is the same person as the Evil Overlord Darth Sidious, whom most would realize is the same person as the Emperor from the original trilogy. Until the last film came out, there was some discussion among Star Wars fans (who obviously would know) that Lucas might pull one out of the hat and reveal Sidious wasn't really Palpatine. He was.
- The trailers naturally gave away the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader as the main selling point for seeing the movie in the first place, and attempted to subvert the trope by teasing the audience into exactly how this transformation comes about. People who had been reading supplemental materials, however, knew it would happen in a Battle Amongst the Flames between Anakin and Obi-Wan.
- The Empire Strikes Back:
- The 1990 fullscreen VHS boxset release of the original trilogy opened with a trailer for the full trilogy on video, including the line "Is Darth Vader my father?" from Jedi, ensuring that even the most ignorant first-time viewers weren't surprised. The later FOX Video copies don't have this preview, preserving the twist.
- The Last Jedi:
- Anyone watching The Force Awakens after this film will know that Rey will indeed find Luke Skywalker by the end.
- Kylo Ren being the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia is an open fact.
- The Rise of Skywalker:
- While Han Solo's absence in The Last Jedi could be for any number of reasons, his appearance as a ghost in this film makes it clear that he died in The Force Awakens.
- Luke Skywalker also appears as a force ghost, so his fate in The Last Jedi is clear.
- Snoke, the Big Bad of The Force Awakens, is conspicuously absent, and the Sith are not big on peaceful retirements from power.
- The Mandalorian:
- There is a child of the exact same species as Master Yoda, and Mando, whose name would later be revealed as Din Djarin, takes it on himself to help him find his people and protect him from what remains of the Empire from getting their hands on him, in what turns out to be the official plot line for the show's first two seasons.
- Yes, we do get to see Pedro Pascal's face without his helmet on in the show, with the first time being in the Season 1 finale, with the next two being the respective final two episodes of Season 2.
- The series' main antagonist, Grand Moff Gideon, has the Darksaber from Star Wars: The Clone Wars & Star Wars Rebels respectively, which plays a central role in Season 2 with Mando eventually gaining hold of it.
- Despite multiple news outlets reporting beforehand, Disney never confirmed prior to release that we would be getting our first on-screen live-action appearances of Bo-Katan Kryze, and Ahsoka Tano respectively, complete with the former character's actor reprising the role from The Clone Wars.
- What turned out to be the only surprise character in Season 2 who, unlike the examples mentioned above, was actually kept a surprise, with Mark Hamill reprising the role as an imperfectly-deaged Luke Skywalker coming to the rescue of Mando and company as they ended up being entirely surrounded by Gideon's forces, with him leaving with the baby, whose name having been revealed to be Grogu up to that point, to train him in the ways of the Jedi.
- The Book of Boba Fett:
- The show itself makes it clear to those who hadn't seen The Mandalorian that Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac in Return of the Jedi.
- Characters that returned with no prior confirmation by Disney before release include Din Djarin, Ahsoka, Grogu, and Luke Skywalker (with better CGI this time around), who all appear in Episodes 5-7 and directly set off the events for The Mandalorian's 3rd season.
