One Degree Of Separation / Star Wars

• Star Wars. Not only is the Evil Overlord whom the main character met through a long series of coincidences his father, but the woman that he happened to meet through the same series of events is his twin sister. The prequels exacerbate it by introducing a pitiless onslaught of Already Met Everyone:
  • R2-D2 was owned by Queen Amidala and C-3PO was built by Anakin Skywalker. Boba Fett, as well, is the clone-son of Jango Fett, who is the original model for the entire Clone Army. Chewbacca knew Yoda from the Battle of Kashyyyk near the end of the Clone Wars.
  • Also, in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader and Boba Fett share a brief exchange ("No disintegrations." "As you wish.") In Attack of the Clones, Mace Windu kills Jango Fett while rescuing Anakin Skywalker, along with Obi-Wan and Padme, and then in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin kills (or assists in killing) Mace. So, Boba's dad died because of Vader, but Vader then killed the man who killed his father.
  • A Deleted Scene from The Phantom Menace reveals that, as children, the future Darth Vader and Greedo got into a fight. Fast forward 32 years, Vader is on the Death Star, unaware that now smuggler Greedo has been shot dead by Han Solo, his future son in-law who is meeting with his son and former Master while his trusty old droids are waiting outside.
  • One review mentioned Vader's saying "I sense something..." when he first encounters the Millennium Falcon. No kidding: his son, his mentor, the droid he built and another from his past are aboard. He'd really be losing his touch with the Force if he couldn't pick up on all that.
  • At one point, there were plans to include Han Solo in the prequels, but they were scrapped when they noticed this trope.
  • In the original trilogy, there's no reason to assume Yoda and Chewbacca even know of each other (they have no interaction in it anyway), but Episode III implies them to be good friends. Furthermore, before the prequels depicted Palpatine's rise to power, there was no explicit indication that either Obi-Wan or Yoda ever actually came face to face with the Emperor, much less that the latter at one point locked lightsabers with him.
  • In general, the Expanded Universe pushes this trope even further. The Mighty Chewbacca has Chewbacca meet K-2SO, one of the heroes who would end up stealing the blueprints of the Death Star... on which Chewie helps free Leia and which he will help destroy.
• In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul almost ran over little Annie in his speeder. Over the Clone Wars, circumstances meant that Anakin never met the resurgent Maul while he clashed with his Arch-Enemy Kenobi and then Ahsoka, Anakin's former apprentice. In Rebels "Twilight of the Apprentice", Maul and Vader come within a hair's breadth of meeting and coming to blows. Indeed, the original plan was for Vader to kill Maul, but that was changed so that Maul could have one final confrontation with old Ben.
• Star Wars Rebels: Various characters from the original trilogy of films make guest appearances on the show and interact directly with the main cast, including Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Lando, Obi-Wan, Grand Moff Tarkin, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine.
• Rogue One: Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba had a close call when they bumped into Jun Erso and Cassian Andor, but it was little more than a few days later when they decided to pick a fight with Luke and Obi-Wan, another pair of rebel heroes.
• As of Solo, Han has no idea that his old flame Qi'ra is now a direct lieutenant of Maul, Arch-Enemy of a certain "old fossil" and former apprentice of the Emperor who was embroiled in the same chain of events which led to rise of Han's future father in-law and eventually the birth of his future wife and brother in-law. Maul is even still carrying that "ancient weapon" from his "hokey religion",
• The Mandalorian: While season 1 primarily features the Mandalorian and The Child off on their own adventure, only distantly affected by the events bridging the original and sequel Star Wars trilogies (and sharply distinct from past presentations of Mandalorians), season 2 links them to numerous characters from all corners of the franchise. In the season premiere, he meets Cobb Vanth from the Aftermath trilogy; a few episodes later, he encounters Bo-Katan Kryze of The Clone Wars and Rebels, who highlights the distinction between this show's Mandalorians and those of the wider franchise. Bo-Katan leads him to one of the main figures of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano, who provides some exposition while on a quest for one of Rebels's key villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn. Then the Mandalorian meets Boba Fett, who survived Return of the Jedi and becomes one of the deuteragonists, later joined by Bo-Katan. Finally, in the season finale, main series protagonist Luke Skywalker himself arrives to help save the day, accompanied by R2-D2.
• Star Wars Resistance: In "The Disappeared", after Kaz and Torra help Aunt Z and Hype overpower their stormtrooper guards so they can escape Castilon in a stolen ship, Aunt Z mentions having a friend on Takodana, with the implication said friend is Maz Kanata.
  • An aversion in that one episode would have saw Han Solo visit the Colossus, where Kaz is working for his ex-wife's resistance movement. This was dropped in favor of introducing Jarek Yeager's estranged brother.
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch
  • The Bad Batch worked with Caleb Dume at the Battle of Kaller and helped him escape Order 66, and he would later go on to work with their fellow brother and friend, Rex.
  • Fennec Shand ends up saving Omega's life and thirty years later Fennec's life would be saved by Boba Fett, Omega's genetic brother.