List of references to Earth in Star Wars

Despite being explicitly set in a galaxy far, far away, various sources have established what appear to be connections between the Star Wars universe and the real world (i.e. Earth). This page attempts to make a List of references to Earth in Star Wars.

Many of these examples, of course, could be the result of clever, multi-layered, Tolkien-style "translations" from Galactic Basic Standard to English.



Star Wars draft scripts
Early drafts of the original film featured references which suggest that Earth's galaxy was the setting. The story treatment, for instance, sets the film in the 33rd century, and both it and the Journal of the Whills, Part I mention the planet Ophuchi, derived from the real world constellation Ophiuchus; likewise, the planet Aquilae was derived from the constellation Aquila. By the first draft, however, both elements had disappeared or become brief mentions, suggesting that Lucas had placed his saga in a secondary universe as his mythology became more defined.

Alien Exodus
In the outline and sample chapters for Robert J. Sawyer's cancelled novel Alien Exodus, Earth is revealed in a flashback story to be the original home of the Human species. A group of refugees and dissidents from Earth commandeer a spacecraft and flee a computer-controlled society (a society which, apparently, will later become the setting of George Lucas's first film, THX 1138). They accidentally travel backwards through time and through intergalactic space to arrive in the Star Wars galaxy.

In addition to exploring the prehistory of the Star Wars galaxy, and featuring the ancestors of the Skywalker and Solo families, Alien Exodus would have linked THX-1138, American Graffiti, and possibly Willow with the Star Wars universe.

Christmas in the Stars
Christmas in the Stars, a 1980 record album, has R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca, among others, singing Christmas songs and celebrating the Earth holiday.

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas
Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas, a book combining photos and concept art from the Original trilogy and other Lucasfilm productions with a variety of short fiction pieces, contains two significant references to Earth. In the first, a supermarket tabloid parody attributed to Trebor Uarrac of The Galactic Gossip, two Duros newlyweds named Etro and Droza Edthatt are "abducted by human beings" from the planet "Urthha". After over four solar periods of bizarre experiences, they somehow use a "matter catalyst", which the humans call a "blender", to get back home. A picture of the Edthatts, originally a production photo from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, is included with the story. The Duros in the picture are, however, canonically identified as Baniss Keeg and Ellorrs Madak.

The next reference occurs in "Sightings by Twang", a gossip column attributed to Dyslogia Twang. This column describes the celebrities seen at a Vector Day party thrown by Mrp-Mrp Poo. Most of these are clearly aliens, except for Madonna.

Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas is not considered part of the Star Wars canon, making these two stories non-canonical. It was, however, used as a source for Alien Exodus.

"Into the Great Unknown"
In "Into the Great Unknown", a short comic story in Star Wars Tales 19, Han Solo and Chewbacca are caught in a hyperspace misjump, and are forced to land the damaged Millennium Falcon on a primitive planet. They land in a forest reminiscent of Endor, where Han is killed by the native Human inhabitants. Chewbacca survives to roam the woods.

126 years later, an archaeologist and his sidekick investigate rumors of a large beast in the forest, known to the locals as "Sasquatch". When he comes across the Falcon and Han Solo's remains, he finds them eerily familiar. He decides to leave the remains, the spaceship, and the Sasquatch as part of the "great unknown."

Though the planet Earth is not specifically named, the story obviously takes place somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, and the two archaeologists are clearly Indiana Jones and his sidekick Short Round. (This explains why Dr. Jones finds Solo's remains familiar, since both characters were played by Harrison Ford on film.)

In his Star Wars Timeline Gold, Nathan Butler analyzes this non-canonical story and calculates the years that the major events in the Star Wars universe would take place in (based on the story's clues) according to our calendar. His calculations give a date of 1798 for 0 BBY, assuming Indiana Jones's part of the story is set in 1939.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
The Steven Spielberg film E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, though not released under the Star Wars banner, is a strong link between Star Wars and Earth. In the film, a small alien (dubbed "E.T.") visits Earth, and is accidentally stranded there during a mission to collect botanical samples from various planets across the galaxies. His friend, a Human boy named Elliot, shows E.T. some action figures which he names on screen as Boba Fett, Han Solo, Greedo, and Lando Calrissian among others. Later, E.T. mixes in with a crowd of Halloween trick or treaters on a suburban street, and encounters a human child in a Yoda costume: E.T. excitedly greets the child, saying "Home, home."

The novel E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, a sequel to E.T., establishes that E.T.'s species possesses highly advanced technology, capable of traveling not only between planets, but galaxies as well. In The Book of the Green Planet, E.T. mentions a "Former World" that his people left eons ago.

In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, three members of E.T.'s species are shown occupying one of the senatorial pods during the Senate room scene. Later Expanded Universe materials mention the planet Brodo Asogi, represented by a senator named Grebleips ("Spielberg" in reverse) who funds an extra-galactic survey. Brodo Asogi is one of the names given for E.T.'s homeworld in E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet.

The only problem with E.T.'s Earth/Star Wars link, is that on the Earth E.T. visits, Star Wars is a work of fiction, as established by the existence of action figures and Halloween costumes based on the films.

Soulcalibur IV
Soulcalibur IV, the fourth installment in the popular Namco fighting game series set primarily on sixteenth-century Earth, features guest appearances by Darth Vader, Yoda, and Galen Marek (a.k.a. Starkiller). The premise of the storylines is the war between two swords, Soul Edge and Soul Calibur, on a planet wracked by constant wars, is causing a disturbance in the Force in the Star Wars universe, so all three set out with different goals to subdue the two swords.

Star Wars: Visions of the Blade, an online comic released on StarWars.com, provides further back story, featuring Astaroth, Taki and Mitsurugi from the game.

Appear on their own
These species appear on screen "as themselves", or are mentioned in text without qualifiers (i.e. as "Turtles" rather than "Space Turtles".)
 * Bats
 * Cats
 * Chickens
 * Deer
 * Dinosaurs (of Trammis III)
 * Dogs
 * Ducks
 * Dung beetles
 * Frogs
 * Giant squid
 * Hermit crabs
 * Horses and ponies (not to be confused with bordoks)
 * Humans
 * Humming Bird
 * Jellyfish
 * Manta rays
 * Owls (on the Forest moon of Endor)
 * Pandas
 * Portuguese man-o'-war
 * Pterosaurs
 * Rabbits
 * Ravens
 * Sharks
 * Snakes
 * Swine

Have namesakes appear
These animal species have something named after them in the Star Wars galaxy (like a starship, or another animal), but may not exist itself. They may also have been specifically named, but depicted in a way which shows that they are probably not identical to any Earth species.
 * Barnacles
 * Bears
 * Beetles
 * Boars
 * Buzzards
 * Calamari
 * Catfish
 * Cobras
 * Condors
 * Cougars
 * Crows
 * Eagles
 * Eels
 * Elephants
 * Falcons
 * Ferrets
 * Fish
 * Fleas
 * Foxes
 * Frogs
 * Geese
 * Hamadryas baboons
 * Hawks
 * Hogs
 * Hound dogs
 * Lions
 * Lizards
 * Lynx
 * Mice
 * Moles
 * Moths
 * Orcas
 * Panthers
 * Pigs
 * Pigeons
 * Piranha
 * Pythons
 * Rats
 * Salamanders
 * Seahorses
 * Sealions
 * Shrikes
 * Sloths
 * Slugs
 * Snakes
 * Spiders
 * Squid
 * Tigers
 * Turkeys
 * Vultures
 * Wasps
 * Whales
 * Wolves
 * Zebras

Mythical creatures
These creatures exist on Earth only in legend, but their names, at least, are reused in the Star Wars galaxy.
 * Basilisks
 * Cerberus in "Cerebus", a possible misspelling.
 * Chimaerae
 * Dragons
 * Gorgons
 * Hydrae
 * Jackelopes
 * Manticores
 * Airen Cracken was nicknamed "Kraken" by his Imperial foes,
 * The Alliance Starbird was commonly described as a Phoenix.
 * Leviathan

Plants

 * Dandelions
 * Goldenrod (one of Han Solo's names for C-3PO)
 * Most plants seen in Naboo, Tatooine, Kashyyyk, or Forest Moon of Endor location shots are arguably "playing themselves" on screen.
 * Mint (in hot chocolate in tapcafe on New Cov)

Food, drink, etc.

 * Blue milk
 * Hot chocolate also known as "hot milk"
 * "Trix"-brand breakfast cereal is alluded to, but not named, in the description of the constellation known as the Silly Rabbit. This does not establish its existence, but it does establish the existence of raspberries, oranges, and lemons.
 * Numerous characters are depicted smoking what appear to be cigars, cigarettes and pipes.
 * Hutt pizza is mentioned in Jedi Chef.
 * Caf seems to be a representation of coffee. The name "caf" is similar to the pronunciation of "coffee" in other languages (Italian "caffé", Spanish and French "café") and is also similar to the term "caffeine", itself derived from the word "coffee".

Character names
These characters have first or last names which wouldn't be out of place in an Earth phone book (or in some cases, first and last names).
 * Ada
 * Ana
 * Jenna Zan Arbor
 * Armstrong
 * Wil Asani
 * Hermione Bagwa
 * Barney
 * Quentin Bartog
 * Biff
 * Bobby
 * Boga
 * Chuck Bratz
 * Donni Bratz
 * Burtt
 * Caleb
 * Carl
 * Zayne Carrick
 * Cecil
 * Chang
 * Dergar Chester
 * Tsui Choi
 * Brodie Coburn
 * Coby
 * Condi
 * Dana
 * Hanna Ding
 * Nathan Donar III
 * James Ortell Donovan
 * Jericho Donovan
 * Josephine Donovan
 * Hanna Doshun
 * Lucien Draay
 * Dan Drexel
 * Emily Janse
 * Evan
 * Falcon
 * Jake Farrell
 * Niles Ferrier
 * Adi Gallia
 * Garth
 * Zakarisz Ghent
 * Samuel Tomas Gillespie
 * Grant
 * Carole Grawley
 * Katie Grawley
 * Aleson Gray
 * Simon Greyshade
 * Grissom
 * Josef Grunger
 * Gwen Habbert
 * Halley
 * Bret Hanson
 * Blaine Harris
 * Cory Herndon
 * Bob Hudsol
 * Ibtisam
 * Jade
 * Jake
 * Wes Janson
 * Skorg Jameson
 * Jenny
 * Jess
 * Jessica
 * Dexter Jettster
 * Amber Jevanche
 * Kara
 * Saul Karath
 * Kyle, Patricia and Morgan Katarn
 * Coleman Kcaj
 * Keith
 * Ken
 * "Ben" Kenobi
 * Danielle Kieran
 * Jimbo Kinnison
 * Titus Klev
 * Jaden Korr
 * Kozar
 * Angela Krin
 * Alec Lamere
 * Lana
 * Larry the Shriek
 * Beru and Owen Lars
 * Jenna Lars
 * Liam
 * Hokkor Long
 * Lou
 * Hesha Lovett
 * Mary
 * Casandra Mateil
 * Jasper McKnives
 * Pharl McQuarrie
 * Michael
 * Elise Montagne
 * Janice Nall
 * Julias Narn
 * Killian Neb
 * Nik
 * Jocasta Nu
 * Alfonso Luiz Obota
 * Beuga Odell
 * Didi Oddo
 * Joey Orsel
 * Otto
 * Nile Owen
 * Brion Peck
 * Perry
 * Piers Petan
 * Lee Phenets
 * Phoebe
 * Cris Pieterson
 * Alec Pradeux
 * Arica Pradeux
 * Meghan Rivers
 * Loreli Ro
 * Nick Rostu
 * Rushing
 * Sadie
 * Sami
 * Samuel
 * Philip Santhe
 * Guun Han Saresh
 * Helena Shan
 * Silas
 * Simon
 * Anakin, Luke and Ben Skywalker
 * Starkiller (Bendak)
 * Jaina Solo
 * Eron Stonefield
 * Tammi
 * Michael Tandre
 * Ganwick Trag
 * Coleman Trebor
 * Gray Tucker
 * Junas Turner
 * Michael Unther
 * Shawn Valdez
 * Kelly Vermillion
 * Elke Vetter
 * Benedict Vidkun
 * Waldo
 * Lt. Watts
 * Wil
 * Lt. Williams
 * Alexandra Winger
 * Xiong Wong
 * Aubrie Wyn
 * Demetrius Zaarin
 * Stuart Zissu

Geographical locations
The following are characters whose names refer to a location found on Earth.
 * Wedge Antilles&mdash;the "Antilles" are islands in the West Indies.
 * Tyber Zann&mdash;the "Tiber" is an Italian river.
 * Tigris&mdash;the "Tigris" is a Middle-Eastern river.

Places
These planets or other locations have names which bear a close resemblance or are identical to places on Earth.
 * Aargau
 * Aboukir
 * Belarus
 * Camden
 * Dor
 * Chenini
 * Chiron (mythological reference)
 * Endor
 * Everest (actually a company in-universe with the mountain's name)
 * Giza
 * Halifax (starship)
 * Helena Shan (the name Helena means "woman from Greece")
 * Ibleam
 * Jerba=Djerba (a Tunisian island)
 * Mercury (starship that is both mythological and astronomical reference)
 * Megiddo
 * Mersel Kebir (starship)
 * Nefta (a village in Tunisia)
 * Salisbury
 * Seoul
 * Tatooine=Tataouine
 * Tozeer=Tozeur (a village in Tunisia)
 * Thule (Thule Airbase in Greenland, also a mythological reference)
 * Wayland (also a small town near Boston, MA, USA)
 * Zug

Real astronomical objects
Despite being real astronomical objects in Earth's neighborhood, these names appear in Star Wars sources.
 * Altair
 * Antares
 * Cetus
 * Chiron
 * Cygnus
 * Fornax
 * Oort Cloud
 * Rigel

It should be specifically noted that, contrary to some fanonical ideas, Coruscant cannot be a futuristic Earth. While Earth is far from our galaxy's core (in the "Outer Rim" of the Milky Way), is the third planet from the Sun, and has only one moon, Coruscant is close to the galactic core, is the sixth planet in the Coruscant system, and has multiple moons. Also, Star Wars is set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away."

People
Some real-world historical figures, politicians and celebrities are referenced in the Star Wars galaxy.
 * Kevin Bacon - Cebann Veekan
 * Santa Claus - Santa Claus
 * Galahad - Halagad Ventor
 * Metternich - Metternich
 * Enver Hoxha - Enver Hoxha
 * Sergei Korolev - Korolev
 * Ferdinand Magellan - Magellan
 * Josip Broz Tito - Tito
 * Kirk Watson - Acros-Krik
 * Xerxes I of Persia - Xerxes
 * Ronald Reagan - Nute Gunray
 * Knute Rockne is the title character in the film which gave Ronald Reagan the lifelong nickname, "The Gipper." Nute Gunray's surname is a transposition of Reagan's (Gunray - Ray-gun - Reagan).
 * Trent Lott and Christopher Dodd - Lott Dod

Other fiction
The settings of other fiction stories are referenced in Star Wars sources. See also Book of Imperial Shuttle Plans: Cygnus Spaceworks, a non-canonical work sometimes mistaken for canon. This piece of fanart makes extensive references to other science fiction franchises.
 * Back to the Future: Flux capacitator connector (Flux capacitor)
 * Barsoom: Barsoom Boulevard
 * Blade Runner: Spinner (Spinner)
 * The Chronicles of Narnia: White Witch (White Witch)
 * Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future: the Kon'me were named after (The Mekon)
 * Doctor Who
 * Sonic Screwdriver
 * Dune
 * Spice (Melange)
 * Halleck (Gurney Halleck)
 * Blenjeel Sandworm (possibly, Sandworm)
 * Tatooine (and later Blenjeel) was seen by many as inspired by Arrakis
 * As a side-note, Kevin J. Anderson wrote Dune books after he stopped writing Star Wars books
 * E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet
 * Children of the Green Planet
 * Brodo Asogi
 * Fire Breathers resemble the Martian tripod war machines from H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds
 * Firefly: Firefly-class transport (Serenity)
 * Isaac Asimov's Foundation series:
 * Corell/Corellia (Korell/Korellian Republic)
 * Encyclopedia Galactica (Encyclopedia Galactica)
 * FarStar
 * Hyperdrive (Hyperdrive)
 * Jhantor and Trantor (Trantor)
 * Hari Seldona (Hari Seldon)
 * Seswenna Sector (and later Seswenna, possibly, Siwenna)
 * Stars' End
 * Terminus (Terminus)
 * Camper indirectly (but intentionally from the point of the author) mentions the Three Laws of Robotics in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 5: Commencement, Part 5.
 * ''The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 * Encyclopedia Galactica (possibly, Encyclopedia Galactica)
 * Old Janx Spirit (Ol' Janx Spirit)
 * Tizowyrm (Babel fish)
 * Homestar Runner: possibly Homestar cantina
 * James Bond: Casino Royale
 * Lord of the Rings
 * Arda-2 (Arda)
 * Endor, another name for Middle-earth (though also biblical)
 * In Star Wars Republic: The Devaronian Version, in Vilmarh Grahrk's description of the Yinchorri Uprising, Yoda is depicted as a being who walks on four legs, bites people, and cries out, "Treasure...my preciousss...", a clear reference to Gollum
 * A creature on Crseih Station says, "Has it got a coin in its pocketses?", in a manner reminiscent of Gollum's line "What has it got in its pocketses?" from The Hobbit
 * The planet name Derilyn, also the name of a river in Tolkien's mythos, although with different spelling
 * The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
 * Beilert Valance (named after Liberty Valance)
 * Shinbone (Liberty Valance's hometown)
 * The Once and Future King: "The Queen of Air and Darkness" is a sabacc card. (The card may also reference an unnamed poem by A.E. Housman.)
 * Solaris: Solanus is very similar to the planet in Solaris, and may originally have been referred to as Solaris.
 * Star Trek: Numerous; see Star Trek
 * The Super Dimension Fortress Macross:
 * Acros-Krik named for Macross
 * Ataria Island (former name of Macross Island in Macross)
 * Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Nemo (Captain Nemo)
 * ''Transformers": Project Starscream (Starscream)
 * Watchmen - the slogan of the series, "Who watches the watchmen?" is spoken in HoloNet News Vol. 531 51.

Language and culture

 * The healing cross, a symbol appearing in several video games, is the same as the real-world Red Cross symbol.
 * Night/Knight Hammer, "Momma Momen," and "Eating a Boat" are puns which only work in English.
 * The Latin alphabet is used for the names of X-wings, Y-wings, and other spacecraft. The shapes of some of these spacecraft resemble the letter they are named for.  Most droids also use the Latin alphabet for their names.
 * Letters in the Greek alphabet are also frequently used in the names of TIE squadrons, spacecraft such as the Lambda-class shuttles, and units of the Grand Army of the Republic, such as Delta Squad and Omega Squad. The Lambda-class shuttles even resemble the letter Lambda, though other shuttles such as the Gamma-class ATR-6 assault transport do not resemble their namesakes.
 * Many characters, such as Dexter Jettster, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Owen Lars, Ganner Rhysode, Carth Onasi, and HK-47, say "Damn" or "Hell." Additionally, Corellian legends have nine hells. This could refer to a general concept of damnation found in many religions, or specific religious beliefs shared with certain Earth religions.
 * Han Solo refers to "Sunday School" in Star Wars 7: New Planets, New Perils.
 * In Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, Jerec's quarters are referred to as Spartan, and this phrase is used in a number of other circumstances also.
 * Corran Horn swirls his lightsaber in an infinity symbol in the Dark Tide Duology.
 * Trooper Anson Trask is called a "noob" in Star Wars Legacy 4: Noob.
 * Nejaa Halcyon in the novel Jedi Trial, as well as Lorn Pavan in the novel Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, both mention a Pyrrhic victory.
 * In Jedi Trial, Artesian wells are used to collect water. Artesian wells are named after Artois, a former province in France.
 * In Destiny's Way, Taps is played at the knighting ceremony to honor the dead.
 * Also in Destiny's Way, Doppler shift, named after Christian Doppler, is mentioned.
 * In Before the Storm, Han Solo mentions that he couldn't fix up the Millennium Falcon in a year of weekends. However, according to the Galactic Standard Calendar, there are only five days in a week and thus no conventional Earth weekends. It could then be inferred that one or two of the five days represented a "weekend".
 * In Death Star, it used the terms impressionistic and surrealistic to describe hyperspace.
 * In Death Star, Wilhuff Tarkin mentions "fifth column activity", which is reference to Spanish Civil War.
 * In Death Star, Atour Riten mentions luddites.

Technology
Certain classes of inventions are likely to be reinvented in a galaxy far, far away. When technology gets overly specific, however, suspension of disbelief is strained.
 * Chopsticks
 * E-mail
 * Lightsaber
 * Katana
 * Scimitar

Vehicle design
It should be noted that the first three Star Wars films, being produced between 1977 and 1983 featured much more boxy designs for the vehicles, such as the X-Wing, AT-AT walker, Snowspeeder, and pretty much all other vehicles in the films. The last three Star Wars movies filmed between 1999 and 2005 show much more round-shaped vehicles (such as the Naboo Starfighter and Hailfire Droid). This cooresponds to the fact that automobiles on Earth today are aerodynamic and round shaped while automobiles back in the late 70s and early 80s were boxy shaped.

Units of measurement

 * Many in-universe sources use the metric system. The meter was originally based on the size of the Earth.
 * Parsecs are likewise based on the year and orbital diameter of the Earth, respectively (though in the Star Wars galaxy, the orbit of another planet such as Coruscant is probably used to define these units instead, like in the case of standard days, years etc).
 * Saturday is referred to in the Lando Calrissian Adventures, though it likely represents a translation for Natunda or some other day of the Galactic Week.
 * Likewise, in an early issue of Marvel Star Wars, Han Solo mentions that he didn't go to Sunday School.
 * The Cestus Deception measures temperature in Celsius. This is also (perhaps unintentionally) a reference to the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius.
 * Measures gauss and joule are mentioned in Death Star which is a reference to the real-world scientists Carl Friedrich Gauss and James Prescott Joule.

Behind The Scenes
In Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, at the start of the level Doomgiver, if you activate the 'noclip' cheat code which allows you to fly through walls, you can go through the 'hyperspace cone' and see Earth.