Han Shot First: George Lucas Explains Controversial Edit

The Han-shot-first controversy has been a major part of Star Wars and sci-fi culture since the notorious change to the original film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The original scene depicts the smuggler Han Solo taking a fatal shot at the bounty hunter Greedo, killing him before he had a chance to react. In the 1997 re-release of the film, the scene was changed so the bounty hunter takes a shot, which Solo dodges with grotesque CG speed, before finally getting shot by Solo.

During an interview with the Washington Post on Monday, George Lucas explained his reasoning behind the choice to change such a memorable scene:

“Han Solo was going to marry Leia, and you look back and say, ‘Should he be a cold-blooded killer?’” Lucas asks. “Because I was thinking mythologically — should he be a cowboy, should he be John Wayne? And I said, ‘Yeah, he should be John Wayne.’ And when you’re John Wayne, you don’t shoot people [first] — you let them have the first shot. It’s a mythological reality that we hope our society pays attention to.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that Lucas has been defensive about a choice heavily criticized by fans. Despite negative reactions from fans about the character Jar Jar Binks, in Episode I, Lucas decided to have him play an even larger role in Episodes II and III. In addition, in an interview with Vanity Fair, when asked which Star Wars character he would be he responded with Jar Jar Binks.

Now, before I go any further, I would like to say that I greatly respect the Star Wars staff and George Lucas for what they created.

The choice to have Solo shoot last because he is a John Wayne-like figure is a detriment to Solo’s original character. Han Solo’s character arc is very clearly defined in the original version of the films. He only reluctantly helps Luke and Obi-Wan and he isn’t interested in helping anyone unless he profits from it. For most of the length of A New Hope, he is rude to the heroes. This makes it a twist at the end that Solo comes to help the rebels. Solo’s being kind of a dick the whole movie reinforces the surprise at the end. The idea that such a bad dude develops as a human being is one of the things that made the original films so great. Han Solo being John Wayne doesn’t do anything to help his character, especially when there are already so many heroic characters in the film.