--- --- # Ron Howard's Cryptic Han Solo Movie Clue Is Keeping the Internet Busy With Theories by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 21, 2017 3:19 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 21, 2017 3:19 PM UTC Ron Howard has _Star Wars_ fans playing an intensely geeky guessing game this week. The director, who took over the project after Phil Lord and Chris Miller stepped down, sent out a tweet from the set of the [Han Solo](http://time.com/4869807/harrison-ford-reboot-franchises-comic-con-san-diego/?iid=sr-link8) movie he is working on with a one-word caption that sent fans into a head-scratching frenzy. The tweet simply read “Spicey” and that is either a nod to a former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer guest appearance in the film, as part of his normalization tour after this week’s Emmy Awards—or perhaps it’s something much more literal. If you look closely at the image that Howard sent out, it looks like it could be the entrance to a mine, specifically, a spice mine. To remind anyone who is not fully immersed in [_Star Wars_ lore](http://time.com/4937299/jj-abrams-star-wars-episode-ix/?iid=sr-link1), one of Han Solo’s earliest claims to fame is that his ship the Millennium Falcon made “the Kessel Run in less than 12 Parsecs” with a full load of contraband. _Star Wars_ fans think that if Howard just tweeted a picture of a spice mine, the film is probably set on Kessel. That means fans may be able to watch the Kessel Run in all its glory, as Han embarks on a career in smuggling and perhaps meeting his life partner, Chewbacca, because the mining on Kessel is done by slaves, [including wookiees](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kessel). The still untitled [Han Solo](http://time.com/4858421/young-harrison-ford/?iid=sr-link10) Star Wars Story opens May 25, 2018 when questions will be answered. Ron Howard Tweets Han Solo Clue Inspiring Theories ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4951432/han-solo-clue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4951432/han-solo-clue/"},"headline":"Ron Howard's Cryptic Han Solo Movie Clue Is Keeping the Internet Busy With Theories","datePublished":"2017-09-21T15:19:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:47:26.468Z","description":"The director's tweet has the Internet playing Star Wars detective","url":"https://time.com/4951432/han-solo-clue/","keywords":["Newsfeed","movies","Star Wars topic","Han Solo"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4951432/han-solo-clue/","name":"Ron Howard's Cryptic Han Solo Movie Clue Is Keeping the Internet Busy With Theories"}}]}] ```