Star Wars and Hamilton have more connections between them than you think!

Equal to the sensation that A New Hope had in 1977, the play Hamilton has become a cultural phenomenon. Written by playwright and songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Broadway performance has since influenced music, culture, and entertainment since its debut in 2015. The play and those involved in it have several links to the Star Wars franchise.

Starting with Miranda, he has several ties to Star Wars. He wrote the song seen in Maz Kanata's cantina in The Force Awakens in 2015, a song that is an homage to the Mos Eisley Cantina piece by John Williams in A New Hope. Miranda told SFGATE of his experience writing for Star Wars, "I'm supposed to be writing Moana, but every spare second, I have a shared document with J.J. [Abrams] and we're writing the cantina music for Episode Seven."

Miranda also contributed to the score during the celebration on the planet Pasaana in The Rise of Skywalker. However, music wasn't the only way the Hamilton creator joined the universe. He also had a cameo as a resistance trooper toward the end of the 2019 film, having become friends with Abrams since the director attended a screening of Hamilton in 2015.

In addition to Miranda, Daveed Diggs, who portrayed both Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the original Broadway cast, has also lent his talents to Star Wars. He was the voice of Norath Kev in the Star Wars Resistance. Diggs would return to Star Wars animation to voice the character Crux in the Season 2 episode "The Pit" in Star Wars: Visions.

Like Star Wars, Hamilton's music has taken on a life of its own. Like Williams' music from the original trilogy, the soundtrack for the play has become a best-selling album, and each song has been recited and hummed by the musical's fanbase. Both won Grammy Awards, with Williams winning Grammys for A New Hope for Best Original Score and Miranda Hamilton for Best Musical Theater Award.

As Hamilton continues to impact our culture, it easily could join Star Wars as an influence on popular culture for years to come. The coffee mugs in mine and my wife's kitchen cabinet seem to think their staying power will be around for some time.