Jonathan Kasdan confirms connection between Solo and Rogue One

Yes, we realize they’re both Star Wars movies. That’s not the connection we’re talking about. As Slashfilm recently pointed out, Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan confirmed an intended direct link between the two films that was meant to add subtle detail to the ever-growing Star Wars cinematic universe. Fair warning: You may want to have a Wookieepedia tab open for this one. It gets a little obscure.

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Responding to a Rogue One fan who misheard a reference to Donnie Yen’s character, Chirrut Imwe, in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Kasdan notes that he is also a fan of Gareth Edwards’ first anthology installment, which is why he included one of the film’s minor characters in his story. Edrio “Two Tubes” is a Tognath mercenary who gets his nickname from the breathing apparatus he wears over his face. Fans may recognize Edrio as a lieutenant of resistance fighter Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) in Rogue One, but it turns out he got his start some years earlier working with a different rebellious marauder.

As Kasdan says, Edrio “had dialogue which was ultimately cut” that would have drawn a direct line between his current boss, Enfys Nest, and Saw Gerrera. Nest is the leader of the space biker gang the Cloud-Riders that act as antagonists in Solo but are later revealed to have ties to the burgeoning Rebellion. By creating a connection between these two early resistance factions, Kasdan hoped to show the “slowly developing rebellion across the galaxy.”

Some eagle-eyed fans actually picked out Edrio in the earliest promotional images of the Cloud-Riders, though many of them mistook him for his twin—or “eggmate”—Benthic. An honest mistake.

It’s a small connection that’s further diminished by Edrio’s lack of lines, but it’s cool to see that these one-off stories are being used to add more color to an already colorful universe. More importantly, this is all just building public anticipation for the inevitable Edrio “Two Tubes” standalone film that will undoubtedly break box office records.

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