It’s not uncommon for trailers to feature scenes that never make it to theaters, or for specific scenes to look slightly different than they did in early teasers, owing to changes in visual FX during production. Such is the case with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and while some of the scenes featured in the trailers weren’t included in the theatrical version, those deleted scenes are included on the new Blu-ray release. But there was one thing from the initial trailers that wasn’t restored: a reference to George Lucas’ prequels.

Now that the film is on Blu-ray and VOD, an observant Reddit user discovered that a couple of easter eggs spotted in an early trailer for The Force Awakens do not appear in the theatrical version. You undoubtedly noticed all those flags around Maz Kanata’s castle during the scene in which Han Solo, Finn and Rey walk up to the entrance. If you’re a particularly devoted Star Wars fan, you probably couldn’t wait to buy the movie so you could examine scenes like this one more closely.

If you assumed that some of those flags bore references to other films in the Star Wars universe, you assumed correctly — well, they did at one point, anyway. Photos from the trailer version of this scene show Boba Fett’s Mandalorian symbol, as well as a flag that appears to have the same symbol seen on young Anakin Skywalker’s podracer in The Phantom Menace:

Reddit / Lucasfilm
Reddit / Lucasfilm
loading...
Reddit / Lucasfilm
Reddit / Lucasfilm
loading...

But those flags are removed from the theatrical version:

Reddit / Lucasfilm
Reddit / Lucasfilm
loading...

As to why this scene was changed, Slashfilm points to a Rolling Stone profile of J.J. Abrams, in which the director directly references this scene during the editing process:

Abrams, fresh from his speech about the importance of details, sits at the center of the editing room…They begin by reviewing a shot shown in the trailer, where dozens of flags appear on a castle that belongs to Maz Kanata, a mysterious little goggle-wearing creature, played by Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) via motion-capture and CGI. The flags are designed to drive superfans nuts with references to the earlier movies, but Abrams tells Guyett that too many of them allude to the first of Lucas’ prequels: “I don’t want to be too about podracers,” he says. “I’d rather come up with our stuff.”

So many details can change between the first teasers for a film and the finished product, like this Anakin Skywalker reference. And though it doesn’t exist in the theatrical or Blu-ray versions of The Force Awakens, it lives on as a fun easter egg you can only find in the trailer.

Star Wars Easter Eggs You May Have Missed in Other Movies and TV Shows

 

More From ScreenCrush