The Millennium Falcon has been a household name since 1977 when it was crewed by Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars: A New Hope. Regarded as "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy," the vessel served a critical role over the course of Star Wars' Skywalker Saga, being present for many of the series' most important moments over the last 45 years. The rescue of Princess Leia, the destruction of both Death Stars, the battle of Crait, and the final battle against the Sith at Exegol all saw Han Solo's custom YT-1300 freighter in the thick of the action.
The Ebon Hawk, featured in the Knights of the Old Republic saga, was also instrumental in galactic history during its time. Commonly known as the ship flown by the amnesiac Darth Revan in the time around the Jedi Civil War, the Ebon Hawk was used extensively during his hunt for Darth Malak and the Star Forge. In Knights of the Old Republic's sequel, The Sith Lords, the ship was crewed by the jedi exile Meetra Surik in her quest to reunite the broken Jedi Order after its near-total annihilation at the hands of the Sith Triumvirate. The Ebon Hawk shares many similarities with the Millennium Falcon, particularly its origin story, its characteristics as a heavily modified freighter, and as a ship that played a key role in some of the most important events in the galaxy.
The Ebon Hawk and Millenium Falcon's Smuggler Origins
Both the Millennium Falcon and the Ebon Hawk were operated by a variety of pilots over the course of their histories, many of which were on the shady side of the law. Canonically, the Millennium Falcon's earliest known owner was the gambling smuggler Lando Calrissian, who won the ship in a game of sabacc and rechristened it from the Stellar Envoy to the Millennium Falcon. Initially a light freighter and cargo tug, the Falcon was a particularly suitable ship for moving illicit cargo. Extensively modifying the ship, Calrissian converted the Falcon into an incredibly fast ship thanks to the power of its freight-pushing engines. The combination of speed and capacity allowed for smuggling respectable amounts of cargo while evading authorities and bounty hunters.
The beginnings of the Ebon Hawk were much the same, having been passed down through a series of criminals before it ever landed in the hands of Jedi or Sith. Many of the ship's owners were associated with The Exchange, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the galaxy. Its final criminal owner was Exchange crime boss Davik Kang on the planet-city Taris, who referred to it as his "pride and joy; the fastest ship in the Outer Rim!" With its extensive modifications, Davik used the Ebon Hawk to smuggle supplies throughout the Jedi Civil War. When Darth Malak ordered his fleet to bomb Taris in an attempt to kill the escaped jedi Bastila, the amnesiac Darth Revan along with Bastila and the rest of their crew defeated Davik and escaped the bombardment with his ship.
Along with the many parallels between the origins of these two ships, there is also the slight hint of irony that vessels once used for transporting drugs and illicit cargo would eventually become instrumental in the success of far less morally ambiguous causes. In both cases, the speed and cargo capacity of these ships proved to be extremely useful for members of the Rebel Alliance and renegade Jedi who needed to travel undetected throughout a mostly hostile galaxy.
The Fastest Ships in the Star Wars Galaxy
Both ships also share a reputation for being some of the fastest vessels of their time. The Millennium Falcon's Class 0.5 hyperdrive was twice as fast as most Imperial warships, enabling it to outrun any ship in the galaxy. For some context, hyperdrives are rated as multipliers on an inverse scale, so lower numbers mean higher speeds. A Class 0.5 hyperdrive is four times faster than the Class 2 that the YT-1300 freighter originally came with. Many remember Han Solo bragging about how the ship "made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs" which is a measure of distance, not time. This relates to the ship's speed because the Kessel Run involves plotting a course past The Maw: a cluster of black holes. The faster the ship, the closer it can fly to The Maw while escaping the black holes' gravity. Thus, a ship as fast as the Falcon can plot a shorter, more direct course through the 20-parsec route.
The Ebon Hawk was known to be the fastest ship in the Outer Rim, and one of the top 10 fastest ships in the galaxy. As a Dynamic-class freighter, the ship was originally manufactured with a Class 3 hyperdrive. Eventually, the Ebon Hawk had been modified to fit a Class 1, roughly the speed of a T-65 X-Wing. This makes it a staggering three times faster than ships with a similar profile, although still half as fast as the Falcon. This can likely be explained by the time difference - the Ebon Hawk existed 4,000 years before the Millenium Falcon and it can be assumed that hyperdrive technology saw many developments over that long period of time. Head to head, the Falcon wins in this race.
Altering the Course of Star Wars History
Had Luke Skywalker and Ben Kenobi approached any other pilot in that cantina, things would have gone very differently for the galaxy. Without a ship fast enough to outrun Imperial vessels, Leia's rescue attempt would have ended in failure and R2's Death Star plans wouldn't have made it into Rebel hands. The Death Star's critical weakness would remain unknown, and the galaxy would spend the foreseeable future under the Empire's oppressive rule. The successful alliance would never have formed the New Republic, and all hope to resist the Final Order, if Palpatine ever decided to implement it, would be lost.
Meanwhile, the Ebon Hawk was also singularly responsible for a chain of events that would impact galactic history for centuries. Without a means to escape Taris, Revan and Bastila wouldn't have survived to eventually locate the Star Forge and end Darth Malak's war of conquest. Without T3-M4 repairing the Ebon Hawk and rescuing the exile Meetra Surik, the Jedi Order would likely have met its final extinction at the hands of the Sith. Meetra Surik would eventually use the Ebon Hawk to find Revan and the emperor of the reconstituted Sith Empire featured in the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, where her defeat would still ultimately lead to the demise of the nearly-immortal Emperor Vitiate.
Despite humble beginnings as ships for smugglers and pirates, both the Ebon Hawk and Millennium Falcon became two of the most important ships in the history of the Star Wars universe. Their central roles in these events have solidified the ships as some of the most iconic in all of science fiction, alongside Star Trek's USS Enterprise, the Alien movie's Nostromo, and Battlestar Galactica's Galactica.
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