Solo: A Star Wars Story was certain to contain throwbacks to the old Star Wars movies, with the prequel focusing on the adventures of Han Solo before he met up with Luke and Leia. However, while fans of the sci-fi franchise were expecting appearances from old faces, they probably weren’t anticipating a reference to an old (and terrible) Star Wars video game.
Warning: the following post contains some spoilers for Solo, so if you haven’t seen the film yet then we’d strongly recommend doing so before reading on.
In the new anthology film, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) is besotted with Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), a childhood friend who eventually finds herself taken in by the villainous crime syndicate Crimson Dawn. During the film, Qi’ra alludes to the unsavory activities she has participated in as a member of the Crimson Dawn, though we don’t see much evidence of this until she’s tasked with taking down a guard. She does so with ease, and when questioned about her hand-to-hand combat ability by the droid L3-37, Qi’ra replies that she has trained in the art of Teras Kasi.
That name won’t mean much to many, but Star Wars fans who owned a PlayStation (or who have dived into the Star Wars Expanded Universe) will know that Teras Kasi is a deadly martial art taught throughout the galaxy. It was also the subject of a 1997 video game, with the critically derided Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi seeing the likes of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, and more go one-on-one in an underwhelming fighting game.
Teras Kasi exists in the Star Wars universe outside of its appearance in the LucasArts game, though it was certainly the most prominent reference to the fictitious martial art. That Solo contains a nod to it is a cool little Easter Egg, and a fun addition for those who had a penchant for playing bad games in the ’90s.
