Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Just Made a Major Rogue One Plot Point Even Better

This Star Wars Jedi: Survivor article contains spoilers.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor visits several classic locations from throughout the saga as well as a few new ones, including the hidden planet of Tanalorr, the place all the different factions in the game are trying to use for their own gain. At one point, Cal Kestis and his allies visit Coruscant, the dangerous capital of the Galactic Empire, but that’s hardly the most noteworthy callback in the game — after all, the planet has featured prominently across three Disney+ series in just the last year, most recently on The Mandalorian season 3.

But then there’s the other major blast from the past in the game: the desert moon of Jedha, which we first visited in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In that movie, we follow Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and K-2SO as they navigate Jedha City, which has become the site of a guerilla war between Imperial occupiers and Saw Gerrera’s Partisan terrorist group. Jyn and Cassian need to track down Saw on Jedha in order to find out more about the Empire’s newest superweapon, the Death Star. (Heard of it?) Of course, it’s the Death Star who finds them when the Empire runs a weapons test on Jedha, destroying its ancient city and everything in its vicinity. With Jyn learning firsthand what the Empire is willing to do to “bring order to the galaxy,” this is the moment this criminal loner finally decides it’s time to fight for a cause bigger than herself and join the Rebellion in earnest.

Of course, the Jedha players visit in Jedi: Survivor is still in one piece. That’s because the game takes place about nine years before the events of Rogue One. Jedha City is still standing and the moon still serves as a sacred sanctuary for the Jedi survivors who are trying to hide from the Empire and its cruel Inquisitors. Because of this, Cal’s time there visiting his mentor Cere Junda allows us to learn a lot more about the moon’s history before the events of Rogue One.

If you’re caught up on your Rogue One lore, you already know a few things about Jedha as Cal explores the moon, including the fact that it was home to one of the first generations of Jedi. Some historians even believed that it was the site of the very first Jedi Temple, although it’s impossible to know for sure. It also has rich deposits of kyber crystals, the key resource needed to power a Jedi’s lightsaber, and as we learn in Rogue One, the thing that powers the Death Star’s superlaser, too. Because of its ancient Jedi history — remains of statues of proud Jedi wielding lightsabers litter the vast desert beyond the city — several religious groups visited and settled on the moon to worship these Force wielders, including the Guardians of Whills featured in the movie as well as the Church of the Force.

But in Jedi: Survivor we also discover one other Jedi group calls Jedha home: the Hidden Path, the underground rebel faction that works to ferry Order 66 survivors to safety. We first met the Hidden Path in Obi-Wan Kenobi and learn in this game that Cere and her master Eno Cordova are key members of this group. They build a sanctuary in Jedha’s desert that also serves as an archive of ancient Jedi knowledge — it’s even revealed that the Sacred Texts from The Last Jedi were kept here for a time! And knowing what we know about Jedha’s history with the Jedi, it makes total sense.

Unfortunately, the attention this sanctuary brings to the moon is also what eventually kicks off the Imperial occupation we witness in Rogue One. Learning of the Sanctuary from the treacherous Bode, the Empire launches a full-scale attack on the Hidden Path on Jedha. Darth Vader claims Cere’s life in the process.

You can pretty much fill in the gaps regarding what happens next. With the Empire now occupying Jedha, it can fully launch into its kyber mining operation, which will fuel the construction of the Death Star, the very weapon that will one day soon destroy the moon’s surface. And we now know how Cal’s own adventures, and the work of the Hidden Path, set up those events. It’s a deft bit of storytelling that not only works in the game but also informs one of the best Star Wars movies of the Disney era. It’s just too bad Jedha has to suffer for a such a great setup and payoff.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.