Deal No Deal, the sixth episode of The Clone Wars seventh and final season, saw our heroes travel to the spice world of Kessel, a planet last seen in Solo: A Star Wars Story and one with a long history in the story of Star Wars.
First mentioned in the 1977 original by C-3PO, Kessel has been a constant throughout the decades and occasional Fantha Tracks contributor Numidian Prime takes a look at the history of Kessel from that first mention right through to Deal No Deal, which we will review here on the site this week.
The earliest depiction of Kessel in publishing showed it as an idyllic and lush planet, in the newspaper comics from the early ’80s (this was later retconned into a distinct “Little Kessel”). The Jedi Academy Trilogy was the first source to flesh out the location in Legends, and it took a very different direction. In addition showing the desolate planet and the mines, the trilogy also created the Maw, a cluster of black holes near Kessel that make travel to and from Kessel more complicated. One major difference with the modern film and TV depiction of the planet is the lack of a Maelstrom, meaning the Kessel Run worked differently. Another major difference is Legends-Kessel was closer to a potato-shaped asteroid than the partially-lush planet we have now. The Si’Klaata Cluster, which the Run ended at in Legends, was first mentioned later in a Galaxy Guide from West End Games.
In the mid-to-late 2000s, George Lucas began work on both The Clone Wars and the live action show that never ended up being made, Underworld. He altered Kessel quite a bit during the development of both of those projects. I can’t say what was developed for which but a lot of what Kessel is now comes from that time period. I also can’t say if Kessel would have actually shown up as a location in the live action show or just been mentioned, but it was definitely planned for The Clone Wars.
Be sure to click here to read the full article.
