‘The Book of Boba Fett’ sneaks in a bunch of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Easter Eggs

This article contains spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett episode 6

This week’s The Book of Boba Fett went heavy on references to The Empire Strikes Back. Most of these were obvious, but there was one that will have flown under the radar of almost everyone watching it.

Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett episode 6 follow

The Empire influence was front and center in the extended scenes of Luke training Grogu. These made heavy reference to Yoda training Luke on Dagobah, including Luke demonstrating the power of the Force (albeit with frogs rather than an X-Wing), putting Grogu on his back just like he once did Yoda, and quoting Yoda’s line that “size matters not”.

But, let’s face it, everyone picked up on that stuff. The real Easter Egg hidden in the episode concerns a beloved… ice cream maker. The episode saw the Pyke Syndicate plotting on Tatooine, culminating in them blowing up Madam Garsa’s Mos Espa casino. They did it with a bomb concealed in a very familiar container that first glimpsed in Cloud City way back in 1980.

Its appearance comes during Darth Vader’s hostile takeover of the city, with those scenes featuring a background character running away clutching the prop. The fact that it resembles clutching an ice-cream maker became an inside joke, to the point that the character was officially named Willrow Hood and got his own action figure complete with the famous accessory.

This isn’t even the first appearance of the ice cream maker in a Disney Plus show. In the third episode of The Mandalorian it was being used as a container for precious Beskar, with Werner Herzog’s character referring to it as a “camtono”.

As both a creator and megafan I assume Dave Filoni is responsible for its return and it provides a nice little wink for the truly committed viewer. Let’s hope we get more in future Disney Plus Star Wars shows.

The Book of Boba Fett will wrap up on February 9.