Is Han Solo Force Sensitive? An Investigation

In Star Wars fandom, there’s a whole galaxy of outrageous fan theories, driven by love, passion, and often a desire to see ourselves reflected on the screen. Much of the time, these theories derive from fans who adore the source material so much that they watch it over and over again, building their own legend and lore within the confines of their own minds. Decades between Star Wars trilogies have encouraged these speculative stories, especially with the wild world of the late Star Wars expanded universe, which added fuel to many a fan fire.

With Star Wars: The Last Jedi now in theaters, it’s time to explore one of the fan theories most dear to my heart, one that changes the face of the franchise and is honestly probably not true at all. But boy, is it fun to think about!

Is everyone’s favorite rogue smuggler and space cowboy Han Solo actually Force sensitive? Let’s investigate (and not take this too seriously).

Han Solo is a better pilot than Anakin or Luke

Han Solo is one of the best at what he does. From his introduction in A New Hope, it’s established that he’s an accomplished pilot who’s flown “from one side of the galaxy to the other.” In a universe filled with people piloting spaceships, this may seem like it’s not a huge deal. But when we look at other Force users and their connection to flying, it starts to look like maybe there’s a little more to this scruffy nerf herder than meets the eye.

Both Anakin and Luke’s powerful Force sensitivity are often highlighted by their skills as pilots. From Anakin’s childhood penchant for podracing to Luke’s immediate admittance to the Rebel Alliance after telling a story about shooting womp rats on his speeder, there’s something about being good at slicing through space that hints at a talent for the Force. If we’re to take this most tangential tease of how the Force manifests and run with it, surely that would mean Han Solo is, at the very least, an unconscious Force user.

Orphaned as a child, Han Solo was something of an intergalactic lost boy, taking up a life of crime to survive. At a young age, Han got his hands on a starship and quickly became a fantastic pilot. Doesn’t that sound surprisingly similar to young Anakin and Luke? Fatherless (born of the Force) and left on a distant planet with only his wits and talents as an engineer and pilot to save him…

Han can talk to aliens without a translator

In the vast world of Star Wars, there are thousands of species, languages, and alien races. As with any good speculative fiction, the technology represents the cultural landscape, meaning that most of the human characters in Star Wars can use of high tech translators to communicate with aliens who don’t speak Galactic Basic. I say most because guess who can communicate completely translator free? You guessed it: Han mother-porging Solo!

Han’s best friend is the lusciously-locked Wookiee, Chewbacca, and the two of them clearly have no problem communicating. That’s easily explained away as Han has just been thoughtful enough to learn the Thykarann dialect of Shyriiwook, the native language of Kashyyyk. But how do we explain Han’s ability to talk to all of the other alien creatures he regularly interacts with? When Han speaks to Jabba the Hutt, he never needs a translator to understand him. Jabba never seems to need one to understand Han whereas Leia, Luke, and Lando all have to use translators to interact with the great space slug! Maybe it’s just tough for people whose names begin with the letter L…or maybe Han’s close proximity to the Force manifests itself in a sort of telepathy, one that enables him to understand the thoughts, speech, and wants of any and all of the galaxy’s (non-droid) creatures!

It’s not just Jabba either. When Han meets with Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina, he clearly understands the green alien’s dulcet tones without the use of any kind of translator. If we’re being sensible, I suppose we could just say that Han is a very smart student of linguistics. But maybe, just maybe, it’s another sign that Solo is actually a secret Force user.

The Millennium Falcon is a piece of junk, yet for Han it flies like a dream

How many times does the Millenium Falcon get called a piece of junk? Hint: IT’S A LOT! From the first moment that Luke insults the famous freighter, it’s clearly established that the Falcon really shouldn’t be functioning as well as it does. It’s easy to look at the Falcon and think that these are just playful jibes about the exterior and interior scruffy-ness of the modified Corellian YT-1300 light freighter. However, this might be another piece of the puzzle when it comes to Han and his potential Force powers.

Though Disney de-canonized the EU stories and created a slimmed down version of the accepted Star Wars canon – overseen by the wonderful Pablo Hidalgo, who doesn’t love my constant and outrageous fan theories, sorry Pablo – there’s much in EU history that alludes to Han being the only person who can truly control the Falcon. The ship has a distinctly muddy reputation and is referred to as serviceable at best, whereas Han obviously pilots the ship as if it’s a finely tuned machine.

Historically, there have been instances of Force users making ships work and controlling them using the Force *cough Anakin cough Luke cough*. It looks like Han is another person with some seriously special skills. In mainstream Star Wars canon, the Falcon bounced around a bit before it was acquired by Lando Calrissian, who stripped it down and amped it up. But it wasn’t until Han won the ship from Lando in a game of sabacc that it became the truly iconic vehicle it is today. Also, not to get too outlandish here [editor’s note: too late], but could that be why the Falcon sat useless in Ungar Plutt’s junkyard until Rey and Finn came along, as at least one of them is very strong with the Force?

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