Star Wars Just Made a Fan-Made Joke Character Part of the Canon (But They Had to Hide It)
With nearly 50 years of history to draw from, every new Star Wars project is bound to feature numerous Easter eggs and references to the larger franchise and lore. The Mandalorian and Grogu is no exception, as the film is jam-packed with nods to past Star Wars movies and shows and even Hollywood royalty (see: Martin Scorsese’s cameo as an Ardennian fry cook. There are so many that it was hard for even the most die-hard Star Wars fans to keep track of them all when The Mandalorian and Grogu was in theaters. But now that the movie is available on home media and viewers can scrub through it frame by frame, a rather amusing Easter egg has been revealed.
Shared by the X account Star Wars Holocron is a screenshot from The Mandalorian and Grogu depicting an advertisement for one of Rotta the Hutt’s gladiator fights. In this particular matchup, his opponent is named Glop Shdo, which is a reference to the viral term “Glup Shitto.” It had to be tweaked a bit for The Mandalorian and Grogu because “Shitto” is obviously too close to a swear word that can’t be used in a family-friendly Star Wars movie.
What Is Glup Shitto?
For those who aren’t in the know, “Glup Shitto” is a now-famous expression that’s essentially become shorthand for a returning random, obscure background character in a popular franchise that only die-hard fans would recognize. Depending on your point of view, “Glup Shitto” can be used to mock fans over their excitement seeing an alien extra or be a term of endearment highlighting the love hardcore fans have for their favorite properties. To some, part of the appeal of massive fictional universes like Star Wars or Marvel is the fact that even the background characters have their own stories to tell, illustrating the vastness of the world, so it can be thrilling when one of those characters come back.
It’s a funny move on the part of Lucasfilm to include this joke, showing that the studio can have a laugh at itself. Fans seem to appreciate the reference. “That might be the best joke in the movie,” wrote one user on X. “I gotta say this is the funniest thing they could do,” said another. “Official come full circle,” remarked another, highlighting how far the joke has come now that it’s in a piece of official Star Wars media. It’s a clever way for Lucasfilm to acknowledge the term because it doesn’t call attention to itself (it’s something that would likely go over a casual viewer’s head) but it’s still a fun Easter egg for the eagle-eyed viewers attuned to look for such things.
Fans can have a good laugh at this, but a case can be made that Star Wars has perhaps become guilty of leaning into the more obscure elements of the franchise in recent years. As The Mandalorian went along, it started to bring in characters from the animated series, and appearances from the likes of Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze meant more if you knew their roles from Clone Wars and Rebels. The live-action Ahsoka series essentially acts as a fifth season of Rebels, continuing storylines and character arcs from the animated show. This led to certain projects appealing more to the die-hard fans than general audiences. Not everyone who’s seen the Star Wars movies is familiar with the TV shows. This approach, while fascinating for the enthusiastic fans, makes it more difficult to onboard new people since the projects aren’t as accessible.
That’s something Lucasfilm is trying to change. Next year’s film Star Wars: Starfighter is aiming to recapture the sense of spirit and wonder of A New Hope and distance itself from the legacy elements that have been prominently featured during the Disney era. One of the main selling points of the film is that it tells a new, standalone story, which is exactly what Star Wars needs right now. The franchise has expanded exponentially over the past decade with several new movies and TV shows. Starfighter presenting itself as a clean jumping on point for newcomers can help Star Wars stay viable moving forward.
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