Was Luke Skywalker's Shuttle In 'The Force Awakens'?

A few hours ago, a photo emerged on the subreddit r/StarWarsLeaks and it’s been causing a bit of a stir.

The image in question is a frame from Star Wars: The Force Awakens supplemented with an insert of a picture of Luke Skywalker’s shuttle as it appeared in a Star Wars comic from 1984.

It bears more than a passing resemblance to the craft we see speeding away from Rey on Jakku. Naturally, there’s some, shall we say, “discourse” happening in the comments as redditors theorize about what this might mean.

There’s no denying it: the shuttles look alike, save for a few things being in slightly the wrong place. But what does it all mean, Basil?

This comes right on the heels of the release of the Rogue One teaser trailer, which reignited debates surrounding the many theories of Rey’s parentage. The redditors are decidedly split on the matter — some say Luke is obviously Rey’s father. Others say it’s definitely his shuttle but he’s not related to Rey. And, of course, there are some stray mentions of Kenobi and Palpatine.

On one hand, sometimes a shuttle’s just a shuttle. Jakku’s scrap heap of ships proves that there’s no shortage of space-faring vessels, and it’s not as if Luke’s was probably the only shuttle in the galaxy that looked like this. As far as shuttles go, it’s nothing remarkable, and nothing really stands out about it. It feels of a similar design to shuttles we see in games, shows and movies all the time. Surely the Star Wars Universe has plenty of shuttles that look similar to Luke’s but are not, in fact, Luke’s.

On the other hand, though, it does seem a pretty significant and strange coincidence. Everything in the Star Wars-verse is pretty damn intentional and carefully considered. It has to mean something, right? Maybe JJ Abrams & Co. are trying to tell us something. Maybe it was an easter egg that very nearly went unnoticed.

Hang on tight, folks: it’s going to be a long wait for Episode VIII.