Hangar 718 existed as a hangar at Starkiller Base. Starkiller Base was the First Order's superweapon, constructed within the planet of Ilum. During 34 ABY, when the scavenger Rey attempted to flee the base, sensors in the hangar were activated. A First Order stormtrooper then alerted Kylo Ren, the First Order's leader, to the triggered alert and the ongoing search of the area.
Later on, an officer communicated to Ren that Rey was not located within the hangar, but that all stormtroopers were on high alert. Following this, Ren commanded the officer to initiate a lockdown of all hangars, with the intention of preventing the fugitive from escaping using a starship. Shortly after, the hangar's destruction came about when Starkiller Base was obliterated during an attack executed by the Resistance. The book Galactic Explorer's Guide, authored by the pirate Hondo Ohnaka together with his protocol droid DK-RA-43 sometime following the Battle of Crait in 34 ABY, included the hangar as a location of interest on Starkiller Base.
The 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, the initial entry in the sequel trilogy, was the first time the hangar was mentioned. In Ian Doescher's 2017 non-canon book, William Shakespeare's The Force Doth Awaken: Star Wars Part the Seventh, which is a retelling of the film's plot, a trooper informs Kylo Ren that Rey was not found in Hangar 718, differing from the film where a First Order officer delivers the information.
According to the De Agostini Star Wars Encyclopedia issue titled "Battle Stations of the Empire and the First Order," published on June 1, 2021, the smuggler Han Solo, along with his co-pilot Chewbacca and stormtrooper defector Finn, set off the alarm in Hangar 718 when they infiltrated the base with the purpose of deactivating the facility's shields. However, The Force Awakens depicts Ren being alerted to the alarm prior to Solo's entry into Starkiller Base. This article therefore assumes the encyclopedia contains an inaccuracy.