Exploring the fiery debate: ‘Who shot first, Han or Greedo?’
Movie fans have always loved a debate. Who would win in a fight between King Kong and Godzilla? What’s better, Star Wars or Star Trek? Is Mad Max: Fury Road the greatest action movie of all time? (Yes). But, whilst these debates cover rather massive releases and talking points, there are other arguments that dig into minute filmmaking decisions that, for fans, have a big impact on the shape of a franchise.
The definition of such debates is the age-old question of ‘Who shot first, Han or Greedo?’ from George Lucas’ revolutionary sci-fi movie Star Wars. To set the scene for those who have not seen the moment, the altercation occurs around halfway through the 1977 movie when Solo (Harrison Ford) is confronted by the bounty hunter Greedo (Paul Blake) whilst the former is enjoying a drink at the Mos Eisley cantina.
In the original cut of the scene, Han Solo shoots Greedo after feeling the situation becoming increasingly threatening, whilst later versions of the moment show Greedo shooting first and missing before he is taken out. Lucas, who has always loved meddling with his sci-fi creation, altered the scene to show Solo acting in self-defence to the violent bounty hunter, but many fans believe that this change damages the integrity of Han’s complex character.
Indeed, the change was one of many made to the 1997 special edition re-releases of the original trilogy, with Lucas believing that the new alterations were definitive. Such caused total uproar in the Star Wars community, with fans frustrated that their favourite character had been destroyed by one small decision that made a significant impact in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lucas tried to calm frustrations, stating: “The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down”.
Despite Lucas insisting that it was never meant to seem that Solo shot first, the original script for the movie details that Harrison Ford’s character does indeed fire his blaster before the bounty hunter. Still, the director has never backed down from his stance, stating in The Star Wars Archives: 1999–2005 from 2020: “I never designed Han to be a ruthless killer. All the good guys shoot in self-defence. When I edited the scene in 1977 you couldn’t tell who does what”.
Even if the mastermind behind Star Wars dismisses the debate, this hasn’t stopped fans from letting the issue go, forever holding onto the ‘fact’ that Han shot first. Or did he?
