Star Wars: 3 best tidbits from the Millennium Falcon Owner’s Manual

Highly technical and designed for Star Wars fans who think they know everything, the Star Wars Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual has some neat info.

Over the years, Star Wars has built up quite the wealth of material that might never make an appearance in a film or TV series, even with all of those currently in development or out. However, all of that material is scattered over different books, some of which may be out of print or out of canon.

Enter the Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual. Dedicated specifically to the provenance of the Millennium Falcon (with some bonus material on other work by the Corellian Engineering Corporation), there’s a lot to like here, including all of the photos that include images from The Last Jedi as well as Solo, but the true draw here is the information, as it helps illustrate not just what Han Solo did to the Falcon over time, but how all of those modifications worked.

We recommend picking this up if you’re particularly into the ships of Star Wars, but here’s the most interesting information to be found in the book after a read-through.

Timeline clarification

We all had an inkling that the Falcon has never been new in the films in which it appears, but this book actually briefly details some of its provenance (and what it used to be used for before Lando Calrissian got his hands on it).

Perhaps most importantly is that the Falcon was first put into service 90 years before the Battle of Starkiller Base specifically — which seems like a way to throw the timeline off the scent. Star Wars fans know that the timeline hinges around the Battle of Yavin. However, the Battle of Starkiller Base is specifically set in 34 ABY, so we know that the Falcon‘s pushing 60 by the original trilogy.

It’s a small detail, but talk about such good construction that the Falcon still has plenty to give even in its old age. Even though we don’t expect it to ever come up, the book also explains how the Falcon landed on Jakku for Rey and Finn to use.

What the Falcon has going on

A huge amount of detail in the book is dedicated to what Han Solo did to modify the ship. Apparently, there are canonical reasons why the Falcon is so fast, what weapons it sports, and even what happened to Lando’s walk-in closet once the ship became Han’s.

For such a beloved ship, it’s nice to actually learn more about it, and as this book is “fully authorized and approved by Lucasfilm,” this is all canon. Do these details necessarily matter to the more casual Star Wars fan? Probably not, but for someone who loves the Falcon and Han as characters, this is a lot of fun.

Coaxium

Remember the plot-important material known as coaxium from Solo? This book elaborates on what it actually does, even if the explanation has more than a whiff of a handwave about it. Moreover, it dives into why the Falcon‘s hyperdrive is as good as it is (although some secrets are kept, as if Han had some say in what did and did not get published from beyond the grave, since the book includes material from The Last Jedi).

Did this need to get explained? Maybe not, but it’s at least an attempt to explain how some of the technology works.

Honestly, this just scratches the surface of the wealth of material. The extras on other CEC ships might be a little excessive, since the book itself isn’t that long, but it’s still a worthy addition to a certain subset of Star Wars fans’ collections.

Star Wars: Millennium Falcon Owners’ Workshop Manual goes on sale Nov. 27.