Crait

"Crait? I've never even heard of that system.''" "''With good reason. There's nothing there&mdash;or there shouldn't be."

- Ress Batten and Leia Organa

Crait was a small mineral planet located in a remote sector of the galaxy's Outer Rim Territories. Covered with a layer of white salt over its red soil, the planet once hosted a Rebel Alliance outpost during their early rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Many years later, the uninhabited planet became a haven for Leia Organa's Resistance, which resulted in a battle between the Resistance and the First Order on the planet's surface.

Description
"Not exactly the hottest holiday spot in the galaxy, is it? Though I guess if you really want to get away from it all, this is the place."

- Ress Batten

Crait was a small, desolate and uninhabited planet located in a remote star system of the same name. The planet was rich in minerals and orbited one star. A thick crust of white-colored salt covered nearly the entire planet surface, with red-colored mineral base beneath. Dominated by large salt flats, the planet also featured mountains, canyons and deeply sunken waterways&mdash;which were possibly home to aquatic creatures. The planet had a Type 1 atmosphere&mdash;it was breathable to oxygen-breathers, such as humans. The white salt-covered surface reflected the planet's sunlight, which would be blinding at midday. The sodium-containing salt also made the planet surface slippery, hard to travel; with gusts of wind sending up flumes of white salt. The planet was also inhabited by Vulptices, fox-like creatures with white, crystalline fur that lived within the burrows and tunnels beneath the surface of Crait.

Imperial Era
"I find you in the middle of some kind of&hellip;insurgent camp, and I'm the one who has to answer questions?"

- Leia Organa, to Bail Organa

During the reign of the Galactic Empire, the early rebel movement&mdash;a loose network of rebel cells led in secret by Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan &mdash;established a secret outpost on the northern continent of the planet Crait. In the year 3 BBY, one of these rebel groups attacked Calderos Station, a large Imperial facility used as a deep-space waypoint, to weaken Imperial control and cover rebel shipment tracks to Crait. Although the rebels presumed that all data about Calderos Station was erased, Bail's adopted daughter, Princess Leia Organa, managed to find some old space traffic data which linked Crait and Calderos Station. To discover the identity of the attacker, Leia Organa and her guard Lieutenant Ress Batten traveled to Crait aboard the Polestar. After the ship landed on the planet surface, Leia was detained by rebel soldiers as she refused their proposal to leave Crait immediately. Upon being taken to the base, Leia found out that it was her father who was in charge of this facility, and her parents were secretly organizing a rebel movement against the Empire.

The rebel movement eventually turned into a more organized Rebel Alliance, and the Crait outpost was abandoned some time before the Battle of Scarif in 0 BBY, which marked the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War.

Later in the Galactic Civil War, Rebel heroes Leia, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker led the Rebellion to Crait while searching for a location for a new Rebel base. During the search, they encountered Trusk Berinato, a male individual who employed some mining droids to work in the Mines of Crait. As Berinato showed the site to Leia and Solo, the Empire's SCAR Squad had arrived and fought Leia's team. However, SCAR squad was forced to limp away and Leia knew that Crait was not a viable location for a newbase.

First Order–Resistance war
Many years later, some time after the destruction of the Starkiller Base in 34 ABY, Crait became a haven for the fleeing forces of the Resistance, a small military force founded by Leia Organa to combat the First Order. As a result, the planet became a battleground between the two factions, which involved V-4X-D ski speeders and the Millennium Falcon facing off with All Terrain MegaCaliber Six walkers, First Order AT-ATs, TIE/fo and TIE/sf space superiority fighters.

Locations
"Are there any life signs?''" "''Some movement in the canyons, possibly aquatic creatures, but on the surface&mdash;we've got one tiny scratch of a settlement up here on the northern continent."

- Leia Organa and Ress Batten

Crait was a desolate and uninhabited world which had neither orbital stations nor spaceports. Prior to 3 BBY, the early rebellion against the Empire established a secret outpost on the northern continent of the planet. The outpost was still there and became a haven for the Resistance some time after 34 ABY. Additionally, Crait hosted mines to extract the planet's minerals.

Behind the scenes
"It's way out there. It's very remote. It's uncharted. It's a mineral planet and so there are mines on it."

- Rian Johnson

Crait was created and developed for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the eighth film in the Star Wars saga, which was released on December 15, 2017. The planet was first mentioned in Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, a reference guide for the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, written by Pablo Hidalgo and released on December 16, 2016. Crait made its first appearance in Leia, Princess of Alderaan, a young-adult novel written by Claudia Gray and released as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi series on September 1, 2017.

First footage of Crait was revealed in the very first teaser trailer for The Last Jedi, which premiered during The Last Jedi panel at Celebration Orlando on April 14, 2017. The real-world location for Crait was Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, located in Bolivia. According to the film's writer and director, Rian Johnson, Crait would "play a key role in the movie."

Crait was also included in Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Disney's simulator ride theme park attraction. Anthony Daniels reprised his role as C-3PO for the new sequence, which debuted at Disneyland Park and Disney's Hollywood Studios on November 17, 2017. Additionally, Electronic Arts has announced that Crait would be included in the video game Star Wars Battlefront II as a "Galactic Assault" map on December 13, 2017, coincident with the release of The Last Jedi. Crait is the subject of the Marvel Comics title Star Wars: The Last Jedi – The Storms of Crait 1, written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker with art by Mike Mayhew, released on December 27, 2017.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Leia, Princess of Alderaan
 * Star Wars: The Last Jedi – The Storms of Crait 1
 * Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi

Non-canon appearances

 * Star Tours: The Adventures Continue