Han’s famous Kessel Run has been all but confirmed to appear in Solo: A Star Wars Story
this May.
We haven’t heard much about that hyperspace route in the current canon, and the movie
will probably change that.
But today I’m going to run through the description given in Star Wars Legends, and then I’ll
talk about what we do know in canon to prep for the film.
The Kessel Run was described as the ultimate test of a smuggler pilot’s expertise in
The Hutt Gambit.
It allowed a pilot to shortcut across a large, uninhabited area of space that would otherwise
have taken a ship two days or more to go around.
But the direct route from Kessel back to the standard, safer trade routes lay perilously
close the Maw, which was a massive collection of black holes that distorted both space and
time.
Many ships had been lost in that area of space.
Flying closer to the Maw meant a pilot could shorten the number of parsecs traveled, but
at great risk.
After the black hole cluster came an uninhabited sector of space known as the Pit.
It was easier to navigate than the Maw, but more ships were lost there, because after
successfully navigating the cluster, pilots were tired, and their reflexes were slower.
The Pit was an asteroid field inside of nebula.
The gas and dust made ships’ sensors less precise, and visibility was decreased.
In the Legends Han Solo Trilogy of books, Han became very experienced flying through
the Kessel Run multiple times.
Shortly before the Battle of Yavin he was chased by Imperials, requiring him to be more
daring to escape, and he wound up setting a record for time and distance through the
Run.
Chewbacca was skeptical that their instruments were working properly, but Han stubbornly
asserted that they had made it through in less than twelve parsecs.
So when Han claims that he made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, he’s talking
about distance traveled, not time.
The original script calls that boast an obvious attempt at misinformation, which I always
kind of liked, but Legends, and now I expect canon are going to retcon that into an event
that actually happened.
So let’s talk about what we know in canon so far, and what we might see in Solo.
The Kessel Run was primarily used to smuggle spice from the spice mines of Kessel for the
Pyke Syndicate, who controlled the spice trade.
An article for Entertainment Weekly seems to confirm that the Kessel Run is littered
with black holes, and in the trailer we see the Falcon flying through a nebula filled
with giant, electrified tentacles, and you can see some asteroids as well.
If I had to guess, I think the Maw and the Pit will be combined to simplify things.
The entire Kessel Run will be a mess of danger.
The nebula will probably still mess with sensors, forcing Han to fly mostly by sight.
He’ll have to deal with asteroids, black holes, and whatever those tentacled creatures
are all at the same time.
I also expect we’ll be seeing his first time through.
I don’t think he will be familiar with the Run by that point, and he’ll just be flying
by the seat of his pants.
And since we mentioned the tentacles, let’s jump back to Legends for a minute, and this
is something I’ve touched on before in a Q&A, but I think it’s fun so I’m going
to mention it again.
The Maw was actually created by the Ones, beings who were immensely powerful in the
Force.
They built the black hole custer as a prison for a shape shifting being called Abeloth.
Her true form had tentacles.
Now, I don’t think Abeloth is going to be or ever will be canon, but Pablo Hidalgo has
a history of making fun references to Legends stories in the Visual Dictionaries.
For example, in the guide for Rogue One, he talked about the Death Troopers being named
after an Imperial biological experiment that was meant to revive dead flesh.
That’s a reference to the Legends book, Death Troopers, about zombie stormtroopers.
That doesn’t make the book canon, it’s just a fun nod.
I could see something like that happening in the guide for Solo.
Something about how the few pilots that survive the Kessel Run come out with stories of a
tentacled being of unimaginable power, kept at bay by the black holes.
Nothing overtly mentioning Abeloth, but enough to make Legends fans perk up.
That’s all we know about the Kessel Run for now.
I’m looking forward to seeing its full canon interpretation on the big screen this May.
Do you think there might be more surprises in store in the film?
Let me know in the comments!
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