Vanessa Marshall Declares Han Solo the Best Star Wars Pilot

When it comes to piloting spaceships on intergalactic missions, Han Solo is arguably one of the most well-known examples in pop culture. The animated series Star Wars Rebels introduced audiences to pilot Hera Syndulla, voiced by Vanessa Marshall, who time and time again showed off her piloting skills, which potentially would give the more well-known smuggler a run for his money. When speaking with ComicBook.com, Marshall had to praise Solo for his skills, claiming that even her character couldn’t out-pilot Solo.

“Well, they’re dealing with very different ships that have very different features and I spoke to [Lucasfilm Story Group member] Pablo Hidalgo about this and he said that [Hera] would do a respectable 14 parsecs for the Kessel Run,” Marshall revealed. “I bow down to Han Solo, but perhaps that’s just my fandom getting in the way of my ability to be objective.”

Despite Marshall herself now being involved in the world of Solo, she’s a fairly recent addition, and has a hard time comparing her character’s short tenure to Solo’s legacy.

“I saw Force Awakens on Friday, I was at New York Comic Con, I saw it with New York Philharmonic playing along with it and nothing could prepare me [for the experience],” Marshall confessed. “The Han Solo moment in that movie just wrecked me in a good and bad way. In the way that we all must accept what is as far as canon goes.”

In Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels, one episode featured Hera going to investigate a prototype ship, which would be the B-Wing seen in the original trilogy. That episode displayed just how skilled she was as a pilot, with her skills making her the only pilot capable to bring the ship back to the Rebellion for mass production.

“That one episode with the B-Wing was really one of my favorites, where we dipped into why she flies and what it means to her,” Marshall divulged. “I thought that was really special to learn.”

You can see Hera’s final missions in Star Wars Rebels‘ final season, premiering today on Disney XD.