The original Star Wars trilogy is constantly evolving — and that's not necessarily a good thing. Now, with the arrival of Disney+ , we've been given yet another version of Star Wars: A New Hope, the very first film in the franchise. And this version includes a head-scratching change to A New Hope's most controversial scene: The moment when "Han shoots first" … or does he? The big question was, is it true that Disney+ changed the Han Solo scene with Greedo? Now, technically, this new change wasn't Disney's doing. Like all the other perplexing Star Wars changes that have been made since the "Special Editions" were first released in 1997, this latest edit is the work of creator George Lucas. He's still finding new, groundbreaking ways to rile up Star Wars fans, all these years after selling the franchise.
This was confirmed in a statement that Disney gave to ComicBook com:
"The change was made by George Lucas, prior to the Disney acquisition."
Meanwhile, in a Twitter exchange between Uproxx Senior Entertainment Editor Mike Ryan and longtime Lucasfilm employee Pablo Hidalgo, Ryan tweeted:
"I just watched the new Greedo scene from the first Star Wars. WHAT ON EARTH?!?!"
Hidalgo responded:
"Ah, I see D+ must have the 4K version. [...] This would've been done a few years back, by Lucas. A final 4K restoration in anticipation of a 3D re-release that never happened after 3D re-releases fizzled."
In the latest version of the scene, bounty hunter Greedo utters a perplexing word right before his infamous shootout with Han Solo… and it's really quite the doozy.
Maclunkey? Thanks for clearing that up! There are no subtitles when Greedo shouts this strange word even though we're treated to subtitles for the rest of Greedo's dialogue throughout the scene. So what does it mean, exactly? Well, Slate helpfully points out that
"'Ma klounkee' is a phrase used in The Phantom Menace [...] which is translated in the subtitles as […] 'It will be the end of you.'"
If we have our dates correct, Lucas made this change prior to selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, but after the film's last Blu-ray release in 2011. That's a pretty small window.
In the original cut of the scene the one that played in theaters in 1977 there's absolutely no question that Han shoots first. That's why he's slyly pulling his blaster from its holster while chatting up Greedo. It's a cold-blooded move but actually rather important for his character arc, since he becomes a better man over the course of the film.
Well, for the film's 1997 Special Edition re-release, Lucas altered the scene so that Greedo fires a shot at Han and misses, prompting Han to fire back in self defense.
This change absolves Han of any questionable behavior, but one could argue that it also makes his character arc less compelling. Still, George Lucas doesn't see it that way at all. Keep watching to see the real reason the Han Solo scene with Greedo is different on Disney+!
#Disney+ #HanShotFirst #OnlyHanShot
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