The Star Wars beer meme has left a galaxy far, far away and has found itself in Helldivers 2, Diablo 4, Yakuza, and more

Helldivers 2 intro man
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

The Star Wars beer meme based on a real-life advertising campaign has made its way into Helldivers 2, Diablo 4, Yakuza, and more. 

If you've been online at all over the last week, you're sure to have come across the resurfaced Star Wars beer adverts that basically rewrote some of the original trilogy back in the early 2000s. The story is that when the original Star Wars trilogy was first aired on TV in Chile back in 2003, broadcasters wanted to avoid cutting to commercial breaks, so instead, they weaved the advertisements into the films themselves. 

This means that certain scenes of Star Wars Episodes 1 - 3, as well as other classic films, were slightly altered to feature an appearance from the beer brand Cerveza Cristal. This must have been so jarring for people watching Star Wars for the first time, who must have wondered why Obi-Wan Kenobi was searching for a beverage for Luke instead of his father's lightsaber. It's a hilarious advertising technique and has since become an even funnier meme.

It didn't take long for Cerveza Cristal to start (unofficially) popping up in other films, TV shows, and games. Just a few days after the original post was made, I've seen the meme appear in games like Assassin's Creed, Doom, Metal Gear Solid, and more. Fans have made some of these posts, whereas others have been made by the studios that developed the games. You can see our favorites below. 

My favorite thing about this meme is the anticipation you feel as you wait to find out where the beer has been squeezed in. Sometimes it's obvious, like in the Yakuza one, and sometimes it's a little more drawn out, like in the Diablo one. It's safe to say that if you didn't know about Cerveza Cristal back in the day, you certainly do now. 

Check out our new games 2024 list to find out where Cerveza Cristal could pop up next.  

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.