The truth about Earth in Star Wars

Ever wondered if Earth exists in Star Wars? Everyone knows Star Wars takes place in a  galaxy far, far away, but do people in the Star Wars universe know about the Milky Way Galaxy, and a little, blue and inhabitable planet called Earth? The answer to that question is a bit all over the place.

Wookieepedia has a page dedicated to our home planet, containing information on its place in the Star Wars universe. Earth hasn’t made it to any major Star Wars canon material, but it has been acknowledged on a few different occasions.

Earth is a part of Disney’s Hollywood Studios ride called the Star Tours which takes you on a 3D journey into hyperspace where you get to explore different places within the Star Wars galaxy. Just like most of the Star Wars films, the ride has an opening crawl which mentions the “Earth system” and explains that it is connected to canon Star Wars planets such as Tatooine, Coruscant, Hoth, Kashyyk, Naboo and Geonosis. Earth serves as a refueling station for ships.

In legends, or the non-canon Expanded Universe, Earth has been mentioned in various material, including Supernatural Encounters: The Trial and Transportation of Arhul Hextrophon. Hextrophon, a human male, served as a member of the Rebel Alliance. This novel sites Earth, or Urrtha as the planet where humans originated. At some point they left Urrtha and populated Coruscant, destroying the planet’s greenery and covering it with skyscrapers. A while later, Urrtha was thrown out of its orbit and into an unknown region of space. Another book called Monsters and Aliens from George Lucas tells the story of a Duros couple that was kidnapped by humans from Urrtha. None of the mentions of humans from Urrtha are very flattering, but that’s understandable.

Earth was also mentioned in a 2004 non-canon comic book that manages to bring together Han Solo, Chewbacca and Indiana Jones. In the comic, Han Solo met his demise on Earth. His remains were found by Indian Jones, 126 years later.

Finally, in 2013, a petition asking the White House to build a Death Star mentioned Earth. The petition had more than 34,000 signatures, , something the Obama Administration politely and humorously refused to do, due to the costs being too high. In a press release, the Empire asked the Obama Administration to build a Death Star. It was all done in good fun, but about as canon as Earth gets in Star Wars.

For now, these are the only concrete instances of Earth being mentioned and acknowledged in Star Wars. The idea of humans having migrated from Urrtha, where their species originated, to Coruscant is interesting and needs to be explored further. It’s also interesting that Urrthans are mostly described doing terrible things, not surprising, since the humans in the Star Wars Universe have taken part in their fair share of atrocities as well.

Maybe Earth/Urrtha can show up in one of the upcoming Star Wars live action series, or even an upcoming canon novel. Earthlings will have to wait and see.