Spicey Speculation on Ron Howard’s Latest ‘Han Solo’ Hint
In a recent tweet, Ron Howard (director of the untitled Han Solo movie) posted a picture from the set of the film with an interesting hint about the location of the shot. Read on as we speculate about Howard’s latest clue.
To set the stage for our speculation, here’s the tweet in question:
Spicey? pic.twitter.com/dLhop8S60T
— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) September 20, 2017
Along with the picture, Howard posted the one-word question “Spicey?”. Obviously, this is most likely a reference to the mining and smuggling of spice, and contrary to what I always thought as a kid, we’re not talking garlic or paprika here. Spice is a naturally occurring mineral in the GFFA that can be processed into a dangerous recreational drug. We know that before breaking good and joining the rebellion, Han Solo was a smuggler for Jabba the Hutt, and spice was one of the shady commodities that Han transported on his YT-1300 light freighter for the crime lord (cue the realization as an older teen that my favorite Star Wars character at the time was a reformed drug dealer).
If you remember C-3PO’s concerned statement in A New Hope where he was afraid of being captured and “sent to the spice mines of Kessel” and the fact that Solo’s own ship “made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs”, then you’ll immediately see the connection between spice, Han Solo, and the planet known as Kessel. But what do we know about this mysterious planet and what is its significance in Star Wars?
In the old expanded universe, Kessel was a misshapen asteroid-like planet where unlucky folks were sent to work in the dark mines in the most hazardous conditions imaginable. In the book Jedi Search, Book 1 of Kevin J. Anderson’s Jedi Academy Trilogy, Han Solo and his partner Chewbacca are taken prisoner and forced to work in the fathomless depths of the spice mines on Kessel. It is there that they meet a Force-sensitive boy named Kyp Durron who would later go on to be a prominent student to Luke Skywalker.
The planet has appeared and been mentioned numerous times in the expanded universe, but it wasn’t until after the premiere of Star Wars: Rebels Season 1 in Spark of the Rebellion that we got our first official look at the planet and its uses under the Imperial regime. In the show’s premiere, the Ghost crew learned that a group of Wookiees had been sent by Agent Kallus to a labor camp on the planet.
The Wookies are forced to work in the mines and have zero hope for survival with minimal life expectancy, very similar to what happens on the regular on the EU version of the planet. There are some differences in the official version and the Legends version, like the planet’s terrain and appearance for instance, but the general concept is the same. Kessel is a place, much like the world of Wobani in Rogue One, where prisoners are forced to work against their will for the betterment of the Empire.
In the photo, we see what definitely could be the entrance of a mine, and given Howard’s use of the word “spicey”, we can speculate that this could very well be a spice mine on the planet Kessel, which will no doubt be appearing in the movie, given Solo’s history with the planet. Could this even be where he finds Chewbacca and frees him from the yoke of slavery? We know from various canonical sources that Chewbacca was once a slave and that he owes a life debt to Han Solo for rescuing him, but the details of this event have not been fleshed out.
There are three things which I think are definitely going to be shown in this movie: one being Han winning the Falcon from Lando, the second being Han making the Kessel Run in the Falcon, and the third being the origin of his relationship with Chewie. With this in mind, I think Han meeting up with Chewie on Kessel and rescuing him from the Empire is a safe bet.
We also know that filming for the Han Solo movie has taken place on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries. Interestingly, the setting seems to be in sync with that of Kessel: hot and barren. Of course, I realize that explains the terrain and climate of myriad other planets in the GFFA, but it’s possible that Fuerteventura could be standing in for a particular location on Kessel as well. Regardless, I am convinced that the set photo Howard shared is the very entrance to a spice mine on the barren wasteland of a planet.
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Jordan Pate is Co-Lead Editor and Senior Writer for Star Wars News Net, of which he is also a member of the book and comic review team. He loves all things Star Wars, but when he's not spending time in the galaxy far far away, he might be found in our own galaxy hanging out in Gotham City or at 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center, NY.
These Happy Days are yours and mine.
If that gets stuck in my head so help me… 😛
Will the spice be orange and make their eyes blue?
No, but it WILL flow. It must.
Wondering how the fandom will complain about this somehow.
(A) Not original enough?
(B) Too Fan Service-y?
(C) Nobody else will get it?
(D) Too Dune-y?
(E) JJ Abrams…or something something
(F) Not-George Lucas’ Vision of Female Jedi Protagonist (oops, wrong film)
(G) Disney something something…
(H) Kennedy isn’t John F. Kennedy or Robert Kennedy….or something something something Kennedy
https://media.giphy.com/media/6uGhT1O4sxpi8/giphy.gif
Spice? That’s not dark enough.
I know some fans are against this movie, but this fan is rooting for it.
Me too, hoping they’ll show some kind of trailer on the big screen with The Last Jedi.
Same here, it’s just cool to hate things nowadays, maybe it makes some people feel intelligent or significant.
or, and stay with me on this, some people have different tastes and the will to express them. just because you are fan doesn’t mean you have to slavishly like everything they do.
Totally agree! But, people are crapping on something they can’t even judge yet. I will respect the crapping on this more after the movie comes out 😉
you’re not wrong, but thats the nature of the beast in the age of the internet. they want as much pub as they can get, but that leads to us parsing over every detail they release. i will say that as much i may criticize this film at the end of the day i want them to succeed.
Well said.
“Slavishly like everything they do”, nope, there are plenty of things i don’t like in Star Wars, but hating a film before you know anything about the plot, new characters etc is pathetic and toxic, i just want the film to be good enough for me to enjoy, i like TFA but i don’t argue with valid complaints about the film(Starkiller Base), unlike you i don’t take it too seriously and get riled up by silly things. Keep an open mind.
speculating on bits of info, be it positive or negative, is kinda the point of this site.
Well shit, i had no idea.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eefdd1392b4cc0e5c9c55e78ca1f29a4345f1f78b80e5e57329775b5a25226c2.jpg
This guy. ^ :-}
I don’t think much of the idea, but I’m still rooting for it too.
I didn’t think Rogue One needed to be made but I’m happy with how that turned out in the end and I’ve watched it a heck of a lot more often than TFA.
It doesn’t matter if fans are (or say they are) “against” it. They’re going to go see it anyway.
I’m sure Disney factors that in to their profit forecast, Lol.
So Han was a drug smuggler, then turned good but then, after ROTJ went back to smuggling, because that’s “the only thing he knew”? Way to go ruining a hero…
I will have to respectfully disagree with your assessment on how a hero was ruined. Han was always a reluctant hero and him getting out of the resistance makes perfect sense to me
He did it for Luke and Leia, really.
Thanks for the kind reply. I thought his arc made sense in the OT, and of course I still keep the original EU in mind (my bad)
You’re deliberately leaving quite a bit of really important stuff out. Han was a smuggler. After he threw his lot in with the Alliance he left the business. And he stayed out of this business for roughly 30 years until he lost his son to the dark side. Then yeah, a rift between him and Leia developed and he returned to his old life.
He lost his son, dude. Is it that surprising that his life was a bit of a shambles?
to be fair, he was also in some sort of racing league.
He was a smuggler, presumably of more than just drugs, as Han himself never mentions spice. He’s a hot pilot who doesn’t mind hauling sketchy cargo of all kinds in and out of places he shouldn’t be, for the right price. Nothing is ruined.
Way to miss the point.
He’s a colossal point-misser, that one.
When did spice become drugs anyway? I always took it for a valuable commodity being smuggled so as to deny the Empire hideous amounts of tax.
I think Spice was turned into a drug in the old EU, but that’s all be thrown away. Personally I can’t see it being a drug in the new canon, but as others suggest spice is something else.
I could see them shoehorning Kessel spice into the Force mythos somehow. Like, it’s what you drop so as to be “closer” to the Force or something.
Similar kind of “logical” contrivance they came up with that Sith sabers are “crying” or some ridiculous melodrama, lol.
Yep, EU, I’m from that era, I forget I’m Legend now
I think, as it’s mentioned alongside all the OTHER straight linguistic lifts from Dune, it was just assumed pretty much from the beginning.
Well, he didn’t get into smuggling again until after Ben went all dark side which was just a few years prior to TFA. And even then no one said he was hauling spice. Rathtars are just dangerous – nothing really morally wrong about hauling giant beasts for a client with eccentric tastes. The rebellion changed him. He’s not the same person, he just went back to doing work for himself with Chewie by his side like the old days. In the Han Solo comic, you see a post-ANH Han having a hard time picking up work because his newfound moral compass kept getting in the way. So even by this point, he had changed his outlook on life, and I doubt he would sink to those depths again 30 years later. Rest assured, he died a hero – broken from tragedy, but a hero all the same.
Thanks, well that’s the thing, maybe LFL is leaving a lot to be answered in the movies to sell comics and books, but I haven’t read any of those, so I guess I’ll be left out of the loop many a times in the future.
You don’t have to have read the comics to understand the lion’s share of what he just told you.
this is getting more true every day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEd3DpH_e0
We’re going to look back at this video after this godawful film is released and we’ll be amazed at how prescient it is.
I really have no idea how this movie is going to convince the audience that this guy that looks nothing like Han Solo grows up to be Han Solo.
As long as he acts the part.
There are plenty of guys who can act the part. Oscar Issac acted Han esk in TFA but I never got him confused with Han Solo. I just don’t know if it is going to work.
I don’t know. Acting like Han is a specific trait. if you act the part, the audience will believe.
We will see!
I grew up watching Captain Kirk being played by the Shat; Couldn’t imagine anyone else in the part, but I think Chris Pine nailed it.
If Eicheidensteinenbergson plays the part well and puts in a few Ford mannerisms, like pointing a lot I’m sure it’ll be fine.
Doesn’t the new Star Trek’s take place in an alternate universe from the original movies?
Alternate timeline. With the same characters yes.
I’m a big fan of the first one, but I know plenty of Trek fans weren’t too keen.
Costuming, makeup, camera trickery and some really good acting can do wonders.
I guess if Ewan McGregor can magically turn into Alec Guinness in two decades, Alden E. can turn into Harrison Ford in one. It really all depends on the actor’s performance at this point. I’ll be watching with my fingers crossed.
Ewan McGregor looks similar to Alec Guinness. That was a great casting. But Alden looks nothing like ford. Ford has a big nose, while Alden has small nose for example.
Of all the myriad issues with this movie, this is the least pressing. They picked a really excellent up-and-coming actor and he’ll put his own stamp on the role. Characters have been recast in prequels before and it’ll happen again,
Younger audiences will accept him, those who did not exist as children when the original movies premiered in theaters, just as they accepted a new guy as Captain Kirk.
There’s only One Captain Kirk…
John Bellushi?
Spice? Maybe he was a user
This movie has gotten so much shit in the last few years, at this point I’m actually kind of rooting for it.
That being said, if it’s bad, it was inevitable. Every film franchise, band, TV show, comic book run, you’re going to get some stinkers along the way.
But I’m sure interest will increase a bit once we see a trailer and all of the star warzy things. If anything this film will have some world building and we will get to see some new planets and aliens
People will go see this movie. Most of them will enjoy it. Most of those people will see the movie multiple times, and many of them will also come back to places like this and bitch about it. That’s just how some fans process things. I don’t totally understand it, but it is what it is.
Well, if it is Kessel and we do see the Kessel Run, at least we might get a definitive explanation of why it’s measured in units of distance (parsec) as opposed to time. I know in the old Legends stuff there was probably an explanation but I’m sure that’s been thrown out the window by now.
I always interpreted Han’s Kessel Run thing differently. I always saw this as a race (or smuggling conduit) of sorts through a part of space that is heavily occupied by asteroids, derelict ships, and other such space detritus. Making it through wasn’t just a matter of speed, but also of completing the course having flown the shortest distance. In empty space, the shortest distance is a straight line. We all get that. But if space crowded with junk, it’s not quite so easy. And in order to minimize the distance one would have to travel, one would have to fly pretty close to some obstacles.
That’s sort of a workable in-movie explanation. In reality, it was just something the writers overlooked.
It was explained in books I believe. Kessel was surrounded by black holes, and the shortest distance (in parseks) would require some extraordinary piloting skills to travel between them in very close proximity. Therefore a pilot who’d take the shortest route would be considered more brave and skilled than the rest.
Yeah, but that was the old Legends stuff. All that has been trashed. If they do show the Kessel Run in this movie, it’s likely do be something different. We’ll see….