11 Reasons You're Wrong About Solo: A Star Wars Story

8. The Kessel Run Sequence Is Genuinely Compelling

Solo A Star Wars Story Kessel Run
Lucasfilm

The Millennium Falcon might've always been the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, but to see it do so first hand was particularly impressive.

When it comes to storytelling, some things are best left untold. The Kessel Run, for the vast majority of Star Wars' existence, looked to be one of those things, with Han's claim serving little purpose in the Original Trilogy other than to intimate the qualities of his ship and the distance it's somehow able to circumnavigate.

As soon as a Solo film was announced, however, it became apparent that the Kessel Run was something that Star Wars fans would get to see firsthand. Unthinkable, perhaps, was that it would come to form a pivotal moment in Han's life, serving as the point from which he realises his piloting ability and proves all his doubters wrong. The sequence itself is also breathtaking, with Han outmanoeuvring an Imperial blockade, a tentacled monster, and a colliding asteroid to achieve the impossible and deliver the Coaxium - at that point in time - to Crimson Dawn.

Placed in that context, that line from 1977's Star Wars takes on a whole new meaning. This was the moment where Han Solo was made - and Star Wars is better for having shown it.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.