Eternals from Marvel Studios contains a notable Easter egg from the Star Wars franchise -- and many viewers are just now taking notice, more than two months after the film's theatrical release.
The discovery was recently shared by Reddit user u/OscarTM3. A nod to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back takes place aboard the private jet of Kingo, where the reassembled Eternals have gathered to plan their response to the pending awakening of the Celestial Tiamut, one of the universe's oldest and most powerful entities. The classic scene of Han Solo and Leia Organa sharing their last kiss before Han is frozen in carbonite is seen playing aboard the aircraft.
For those wondering, the inclusion of the scene is not new to Eternals' recent release on Disney+ -- it was already present when the movie was playing in theaters. But many viewers, in the convenience of their homes -- and armed with a pause button -- are only now catching a glimpse of the brief snippet.
In Eternals, Tiamut has awakened following the so-called Emergence -- an enormous spike of energy created when half the world's population instantaneously reappeared after Bruce Banner/The Hulk undid Thanos' finger snap in 2019's Avengers: Endgame. In response to the imminent Celestial threat, Sersi, Ikaris, Kingo and the other Eternals assemble for the first time in centuries to determine how to deal with the god-like beings and save the Earth from certain destruction caused by Tiamut’s awakening.
The superpowered Eternals had first came to Earth seven millennia ago to protect the planet from an invasion by the monstrous Deviants. With the threat of the Deviants eventually eradicated, the Eternals ultimately decided to disband come the 16th century, and live their own lives among Earth's population.
The heartbreaking sequence between Han and Leia in The Empire Strikes Back ushers in the would-be couple's own separation -- at that time, viewers wouldn't know when, or if, the two would ever be reunited. The inclusion of that particular scene might have been intended as a broad stroke parallel to the Eternals' own centuries-old dispersal -- or might have been chosen totally at random. Disney owns both the Marvel Studios and Star Wars franchises.
Eternals isn't the first Marvel Studios film to reference the original Star Wars trilogy's middle chapter -- in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man mentions "that really old movie," specifically the scene where Luke Skywalker takes down an Imperial Walker by tripping its legs with cable wire. Armed with Peter's idea, team Iron Man takes down a giant-sized Ant-Man in similar fashion.
Eternals -- not to mention The Empire Strikes Back and all other Star Wars movies -- are currently streaming on Disney+.
Source: Reddit