Thanks To Solo, The Kessel Run Finally Makes Sense

The Kessel Run is finally explained inSolo : A Star Wars Story . When audiences first encounter Harrison Ford ’s Han Solo in George Lucas ' originalStar Warsmovie , A New Hope , they are told that the Millennium Falcon is the fastest ship in the galaxy because it " made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs . " Those were just empty speech at the clock time , as prove by Alec Guinness ' unimpressed reaction as Obi - Wan Kenobi , but they ’re Bible that have live on throughout the franchise .

While the Millennium Falcon ’s caption of making the Kessel Run in a record length was touted in both the original and sequelStar Warstrilogies ( so much that even Rey had heard the story ) , Lucasfilm never nark to explore the actual smuggling path on the big concealment . That is , until now .

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The Kessel Run & Its Problem

the right way from the start , Han Solo always made it a habit of introduce the Millennium Falcon as the ship that " made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs , " but that statement has drawn a considerable amount of muddiness over time . After all , a secpar is a measure of length - equal to some 19 trillion international nautical mile ( or 3.26 illumination twelvemonth ) in both genuine - life andStar Warscanon - not fourth dimension . So , why would Han Solo use that term as substantiation of how fast his spaceship is ? It ’s not like someone would exact they were the fast contrabandist because they race a naut mi in less than 2,000 feet . It just did n’t make sense .

While many lover believedGeorge Lucas simply made an error in the script , other fans have gone to great length to explain the secpar ’s function . A vulgar feeling is that Captain Solo pilot through black holes to cut the distance , but that was never confirmed nor advert to in the movies . One of the raging theories is that Han Solo and Chewbacca are really time traveller , which is owed to the idea that , since they skirted the sharpness of the Maw in the Kessel Run , they were able to travel through time to make the Kessel Run via a short aloofness . Of of course , these are mere theory , and Lucasfilm even had some of their own in Legends .

How Legends Explains The Kessel Run

Long before The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm , the expand Universe - a solicitation of novel , comic strip , video games , and various other issue stories - made up the bulk of the Star Wars saga , and they were all considered canon . But , when the Mouse House came pick apart , all of those tale wereremoved from canon and relabeled under Legends . That move anger dozens of fans because those stories had , in many way , marvelously thrive the Star Wars universe . Plus , they provided solvent to questions fans had been asking for year , not to mention excuse how Han Solo made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsec .

In caption , the Kessel Run is an 18 - parsec route that smugglers would habituate to evade the Empire when enthral spice from the planet of Kessel . The job is , Kessel is surrounded by a clump of black holes called the Maw . So , pilots sail the Kessel Run would need to be conservative of their surroundings ; getting too close to the Maw could bust their ship apart . Of course , Captain Solo likes to live spirit on the edge , so he took a cutoff through the Maw - fly near to the black holes and bending space and time , as explained in A.C. Crispin’sHan Solonovel trilogy - while trying to avoid being enchant by an royal patrol . By doing so , Han Solo was able-bodied to reduce the aloofness needed to make the Kessel Run by more or less 20 tripping yr ( if not more ) , thus setting a record .

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That was the believed answer to how the Kessel Run was done in less than 12 parsecs . But , ever since Disney de - canonized the amplify Universe , Lucasfilm has been slowly but surely reintroducing facet of Star Wars Legends back into canyon - and they are using their anthology films to do just that , includingSolo : A Star Wars Story . While parts of the Kessel Run were altered from Legends for the freehanded cover , there were some aspects that made the jump from the page , which Ron Howard and the film writer used to make their own target on explaining the Kessel Run .

How Solo: A Star Wars Story Explains The Kessel Run

InSolo : A Star Wars Story , Han Solo and his teammake the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs(but they ’re brush up down , of course , because it ’s more impressive ) , despite Lando Calrissian ( Donald Glover ) saying that it ca n’t be done in less than 20 parsec . But , in order of magnitude to make up for lost metre and get to Savareen before the coaxium explodes , not to mention avoid being capture by an majestic blockade , Han Solo decide to fly the Millennium Falcon through the vortex ( aka the Maw ) , but he ca n’t do it without L3 - 37 . That ’s when Lando agrees to download L3 ’s invaluable pilotage charts into the Falcon ’s navicomputer ( something that Screen Rant predicted early on ) so that they could navigate their way through the Maw without dying … or being catch .

Solo : A Star Wars Story ’s explanation for Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon pee-pee the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs is fundamentally the same as what happened in legend : they simply aim a crosscut through the Maw . However , since last through the Maw is considered impossible , the difference in the movies is that they had the aid of L3 ’s navigational charts to direct them . Still , that ’s intend to diminish Han ’s skills as a pilot . Without him ( and a special move he learned from his old pal Needles on Corellia ) , they would n’t have been able to forfend being shot down by the TIE Fighter airplane pilot . Overall , though , the explanation for the Kessel Run being fill out in 12 parsecs , despite it being a 20 - parsec route , is because they choose a cutoff through the maelstrom .