Star Wars in Stranger Things: Yoda, Mike's Falcon and Dustin's “Gold Leader”
References · From 1983 to 1986 · Yoda and the Falcon
Here, in order, are the scenes in which characters cite Star Wars: the Yoda figure and the Millennium Falcon in 1983, Darth Vader and Lando in the party's arguments, the Death Star and Owens's line in November and December 1984, “Gold Leader”, the teddy bears and Han Solo in 1985 and 1986. Then comes what the Duffers have said about The Empire Strikes Back, their acknowledged model.
In Stranger Things, Star Wars runs through the group's words and toys: Mike imitates Yoda in front of Eleven, Dustin announces himself as “Gold Leader”, Steve remembers only the teddy bears. From 1983 to 1986, the saga becomes a way to argue, to voice distrust and to mock.
The essentials
- The figure: Yoda, whom Mike imitates in front of Eleven in November 1983
- The toy that flies: Mike's Millennium Falcon, which Eleven floats on her own
- The arguments: R2-D2 against Darth Vader, then Lando
- 1984: The Death Star, and Owens's line to Hopper
- 1985: “Gold Leader”, then Steve's teddy bears at Family Video
- 1986: A Han Solo line at the Hellfire Club
- The Duffers' model: The Empire Strikes Back
Contents
- A saga the group cites, from 1983 to 1986
- November 1983: Yoda in the bedroom, the Falcon that floats
- Lando, R2-D2 and Darth Vader: the party's arguments
- 1984: the Death Star, Will's toys and Owens's line
- 1985 and 1986: “Gold Leader”, Steve's teddy bears and Han Solo at the game table
- The Empire Strikes Back, the Duffers' model
- Another analogy from Dustin
A saga the group cites, from 1983 to 1986
On November 8, 1983, Mike picks up a Yoda figure and makes it talk in front of Eleven. On March 21, 1986, at the Hellfire Club table, Dustin borrows a line from Han Solo, according to the wiki. Between those two dates, the saga comes up in three ways. Toys: the figure, Mike's Millennium Falcon, and, according to the wiki, an R2-D2 at Dustin's. Comparisons: R2-D2 facing Darth Vader, Lando's name and the Death Star when the party argues, Yoda at the hospital, in front of Will. Names, finally: the call sign “Gold Leader” and the title Steve reduces to teddy bears.
When Will disappears, in November 1983, Return of the Jedi is already out in the United States: it came out on May 25, according to Wikipedia. All three films of the first trilogy have therefore been released there.
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November 8, 1983 Yoda
Mike imitates the figure in front of Eleven.
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November 9, 1983 The Falcon
Eleven floats it, on her own.
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November 12, 1983 R2-D2
The comparison aimed at Lucas's slingshot.
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November 1, 1984 The Death Star
Thrown at Dustin, who is defending Dart.
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December 1984 Owens
A line in the manner of Han Solo, according to the wiki.
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Late June 1985 Gold Leader
Dustin comes back from camp and calls base.
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Fall 1985 The teddy bears
Steve answers Keith at Family Video.
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March 21, 1986 Han Solo
Twenty to one, at the Hellfire Club table.
Dustin in building bricks, with a big curly head, a white and blue cap with a red brim, a navy jacket open over a blue T-shirt with a red collar: the boy who bets, in 1983, that Eleven can make Mike's Falcon fly.
In the shopBuildable big-head figure Dustin Henderson19,90 €See the product
November 1983: Yoda in the bedroom, the Falcon that floats
On November 8, 1983, in the second episode of season 1, Mike shows Eleven his things, in his bedroom. He picks up a small Yoda figure and imitates the voice. “Ready are you?” Then: “What knows you of ready?” The wiki ties these two questions to The Empire Strikes Back. Mike goes back to his normal voice: “His name's Yoda.” And: “He can use the Force to move things with his mind.” He mimes the gesture. He moves on to his dinosaur Rory, which roars, and to his science-fair trophies.
On the morning of November 9, 1983, at Mike's, before school, Lucas still doubts Eleven's powers. Dustin, according to the wiki, bets she can make Mike's Millennium Falcon fly. “I bet… that she could make this fly!” It does not work. Later, alone in the house, she floats it. According to the wiki, it is the first time she is seen levitating an object, and she gets bored quickly before letting it drop.
The same day, Hopper arrives at the front gate of Hawkins Lab with Callahan and Powell. Callahan says they build space weapons there: “like, Reagan's Star Wars”. The Strategic Defense Initiative, made public by Reagan on March 23, 1983, is nicknamed Star Wars in the media, according to Wikipedia.
Lando, R2-D2 and Darth Vader: the party's arguments
On November 12, 1983, in The Monster, Lucas wants to do without Eleven. He is asked whether he really means to face the Demogorgon with his slingshot. Dustin, according to the wiki, quips: “That's like R2D2 going to fight Darth Vader.” Lucas sets off alone. According to the wiki, he climbs a tree and watches the lab through binoculars.
The same day, in The Bathtub, the party is hiding and Nancy calls on the radio. Dustin, according to the wiki, says not to answer. “It's like Lando Calrissian.” Lando, according to the wiki, is the ally who betrays his friends. Only after that does Hopper take the radio, and Mike answers. During the wait, the name comes back. One of the boys cuts in: “Would you shut up about Lando?” When vehicles arrive, someone repeats it, out of breath.
In the eighth episode of season 1, at the middle school, when the agents find them, the word comes back again. “Lando.” At the hospital, the party tells Will what he missed and talks to him about Eleven, who is gone. “But she's gone now.” Then, according to the wiki, Mike compares her to Yoda. “More like a Yoda.”
1984: the Death Star, Will's toys and Owens's line
On November 1, 1984, in the third chapter of season 2, Dustin defends Dart in the AV room. Coming from the Upside Down, he argues, does not make him bad. One of the boys throws the Death Star back at him: “That's like saying just because someone's from the Death Star doesn't make them bad.” Dustin then talks about a bond between the creature and himself.
On November 4 and 5, 1984, in the eighth chapter of season 2, Will is tied up in the Byers' shed. Joyce reminds him of March 22, his birthday. For his eighth birthday, she gave him a box of 120 pencils. His friends gave him Star Wars toys, but he only wanted to draw. He drew a big ship that wasn't from any film: one of his own. “A rainbow ship is what you called it.” This date of March 22, forgotten in a later episode, is among the series' inconsistencies: the Duffers joked about it as “George Lucas-ing”.
In December 1984, one month after the gate closed, Owens hands Hopper, the police chief, a birth certificate in the name of Jane Hopper. He quips: “Sometimes I impress even myself.” According to the wiki, it is a line in the manner of Han Solo.
Pin, 3 cm by 2.7 cm: Dustin, in a pink and white cap and a purple jacket, with an orange bag, beside Dart, a green creature with a blue collar, head open in red petals, in a later form than the one he defends on November 1, 1984.
In the shopDustin and Dart pin13,90 €See the product
1985 and 1986: “Gold Leader”, Steve's teddy bears and Han Solo at the game table
Season 3 opens on a prologue set a year earlier, in the USSR. After the machine fails, Grigori strangles the chief scientist. According to the wiki, the image recalls Darth Vader strangling a rebel in A New Hope.
On Saturday, June 29, 1985, according to the wiki's chronology, Dustin comes back from a month at Camp Know Where. In the first chapter of season 3, he calls base under the call sign “Gold Leader”, four times, with no answer. “This is Gold Leader, returning to base. Do you copy?” According to the wiki, the call sign is a nod to Star Wars, and Dustin owns an R2-D2. At his house, the toys start moving: Eleven animates them to lead him toward a surprise.
Three months after July 4, 1985, at Family Video, Keith asks Steve for his favorite films. Steve answers: “Star Wars.” Keith follows up: “A New Hope?”, then: “Which Star Wars?” Steve decides: “The one with the teddy bears. Duh.” An Ewok impression follows. According to the wiki, these teddy bears are the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi, and Keith, who holds the saga in high regard, is annoyed by the answer.
On March 21, 1986, at the Hellfire Club table, only Dustin's and Erica's characters are still alive in the game. Dustin is told: “The chances of success are 20 to 1.” He answers, according to the wiki, with a Han Solo line: “Never tell me the odds.” The line comes from The Empire Strikes Back. His roll fails, according to the wiki.
The Empire Strikes Back, the Duffers' model
In Chicago, in the seventh episode of season 2, Kali pushes Eleven to draw on her anger to move a train car. About this episode, Matt Duffer tells Tim Stack of Entertainment Weekly, on November 1, 2017: “We talked a lot about Empire Strikes Back.” In August 2016, while season 2 was being written, producer Shawn Levy counted The Empire Strikes Back among the successful sequels the Duffers talked about, along with Aliens and Terminator 2.
The end of season 4 shows the group from behind, on a hill, watching spores fall on the town. In Collider, on July 4, 2022, Matt Duffer explains that he and his brother wanted an ending like that of The Empire Strikes Back, closing on a sense of loss. The last shot draws on the end of the film, where the characters look out of a window. Ross Duffer also cites The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, for the way it leaves you wanting the sequel.
Another analogy from Dustin
Warning: what follows touches on season 5. In Sorcerer, Vecna decimates Colonel Sullivan's soldiers. For this version of Vecna, Ross Duffer cites Darth Vader's arrival in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, released in 2016: Vecna's powers had to be seen fully at work. He says so to Nick Romano of Entertainment Weekly, on October 30, 2025. According to Wikipedia, the reference is to that massacre.
On November 5, 1987, according to the wiki, in the lobby of the lab in the Upside Down, Dustin asks: “You've all seen Return of the Jedi?” Steve brings back his teddy-bear line: “The one with the teddy bears?” Dustin corrects: “Ewoks.” Steve: “Yeah, it's the best one.” Nancy: “Is it?” Dustin: “No, but every child loves it, so tracks.”
Dustin then sums up the film: the rebels must destroy a second Death Star, protected by an energy shield fed by a generator. For him, the circular wall of flesh is Vecna's own version of that shield, supernatural, born of his black magic, and the generator would be in this lab. Later, when Dustin insists the treasures are hidden in the deepest part of the dungeon, Steve mocks him: “Keep your metaphors straight, dude.” At the end of the episode, in Brenner's hidden office, Dustin hears Jonathan on his damaged radio, but Jonathan does not hear him. Dustin runs up the stairs and shouts into the radio that he was wrong: it is not a shield generator. Nancy shoots at the sphere. At the start of the next episode, he tells Steve: “I was terribly, catastrophically wrong.” What he took for a generator, he explains, is exotic matter. The summary of episode 5 describes that shot in the passage on the sphere.
In the same lab, Nancy and Jonathan find soldiers caught in the jelly. According to the wiki, the first has the pose of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, in The Empire Strikes Back. When Mike tells the future of the “storyteller”, his own, the screen shows him studying. According to the wiki, a poster for A New Hope hangs above his desk.
Acrylic keychain, 6 cm, silver carabiner: Dustin with long curly hair, a navy cap with a yellow brim, a long brown coat, in front of a green star. He is the one who announces himself as “Gold Leader” on the radio when he comes back from camp.
In the shop6 cm chibi Dustin Henderson cap keychain12,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Which Stranger Things scenes cite Star Wars?
From November 1983 to March 1986: Yoda and the Falcon, Lando, Darth Vader, the Death Star, Owens's line, “Gold Leader”, Steve's teddy bears and Han Solo at the Hellfire Club.
Which Star Wars toy does Eleven make fly?
Mike's Millennium Falcon, on November 9, 1983, alone in the house, after Dustin's bet fails in the morning.
Why does Mike compare Eleven to Yoda?
Because she has powers. On November 8, 1983, figure in hand, Mike explains to her that Yoda moves objects with the Force, with his mind. According to the wiki, he compares her to Yoda at the hospital, when the party talks about her to Will.
Why does Dustin talk about Lando?
According to the wiki, he wants to stop Mike from answering when the radio calls the party, and he cites the ally who betrays his friends.
Which Star Wars does Steve prefer?
The one with the teddy bears: Return of the Jedi, according to the wiki. Keith asked him whether he meant A New Hope.
What does “Gold Leader” mean?
The call sign Dustin gives himself on the radio when he comes back from camp. A nod to Star Wars, according to the wiki.
Did the Duffers draw on Star Wars?
On The Empire Strikes Back: while writing season 2, according to Shawn Levy in August 2016; for Kali's episode, according to Matt Duffer in 2017; for the end of season 4, according to Matt Duffer in 2022.
