The First Order may have surprised the Resistance, as well as the audience, with its latest rebel scum-stopping device. But if Rogue One was any indication, it was a technological development we shouldāve seen coming from light years away.
The Resistance spends most of Star Wars: The Last Jedi fleeingĀ just out of reach from the First Orderās cannons when they realize they can no longer escape using lightspeed, as the First Order has figured out how to track ships in hyperspace. This was pretty shocking, for both the rebels and the series. Normally, Star Wars puts the Rebellion on a planet until they get attacked. But here, director Rian Johnson chose to have them engaged in a tense movie-long chase sequence akin to Mad Max: Fury Road or the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
However, as one Twitter user pointed out, it isnāt actually all that shocking, as the Empire had already been working on developing that technology. During a scene in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story whereĀ Jyn Erso is searching the Empireās archives for the Death Star plans, thereās an important file sheās heard briefly mentioning:
Resident Star Wars expert Pablo Hidalgo later confirmed on Twitter that this wasnāt a coincidence, sharing a passage from his latest book, The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary, which came out on December 15.
The next technological terror in Huxās arsenal is ready to be deployedāactive hyperspace tracking. Originally explored in its infancy by the secret Imperial think tank known as the Tarkin Initiative, it has now evolved from theory to reality. Huxās engineers have perfected the system.
Itās a cool Easter egg that connects Rogue One with the newer franchise in more ways than one, since Finn and Roseās infiltration plan mirrors Jyn and Cassianās. Plus, it gives us an indication of how the hell the First Order came up with this technologyābut I am curious why the Empire hadnāt already finished making this technology themselves. Iām assuming they hadnāt because otherwise they wouldāve tried to use it earlier on the Millennium Falcon. Granted, the Death Star was a huge project, but youād think being able to find any ship at any time would be something to commit a few scientists to for some ASAP work.
The only explanation would be if the destruction of the Imperial base on Scarif destroyed the files, meaning the First Order had to start from scratch, but I canāt imagine the Empire wouldnāt have back-ups somewhere, right?
