Star Wars Actually Predicted Its Own Disney Fate Years Before

screenrant.com:

While Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise back in 2012, one comic hilariously predicted Disney's purchase years beforehand. Initially meant to be a funny satire on the vast influence of the Walt Disney Company in general, a reread of an old Star Wars parody comic is much funnier in the present. Featured in Dark Horse's iconic Star WarsTales anthology series, a short story making fun of Emperor Palpatine and the Death Star gains a new depth of hilarious irony.

Coming from writer Kevin Rubio and artist Lucas Marangon, «A Death Star is Born» is a brief story featured in 2000's Star Wars Tales #4 published by Dark Horse Comics. Imagining Grand Moff Tarkin's pitch meeting with Emperor Palpatine to get approval for the Death Star's construction, the comic is a non-canonical and more humorous take on the assumed encounter. While the story features a collection of funny references in Palpatine's Imperial Palace on Coruscant, one Easter egg in particular carries an unintentional layer of hilarity that wouldn't be realized until over a decade later.

Related: Star Wars Brings a Planet-Killer Superweapon Back Into Canon

At the beginning of the story, Grand Moff Tarkin and his fellow designers are escorted by Darth Vader into the Emperor's throne room. As they enter and greet Palpatine, the receiving chamber features large red banners bearing the sigil of the Galactic Empire covering the walls. However, Marangon added a funny reference to the Walt Disney Company and its ever-present mascot Mickey Mouse as well.

Initially, the joke was simple: the Mickey ears imply that the Empire has a lot in common with the corporate giant that is Disney (which similarly possesses quite a bit of influence on a grand scale).