‘Star Wars’ Mystery Solved With The Discovery Of The Original Script
Star Wars fans have been debating the issue for years now. Who shot first, Han Solo or Greedo?
The Star Wars scene in question is engraved into the minds of fans worldwide. Just after Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) arrange for passage with smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Greedo enters the scene to either collect whatever is owed to intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hutt or take Solo’s carcass in exchange. What follows is the only Star Wars gun fight to create a long-running debate among Star Wars fans that has never been indisputably solved, until now.
What’s the big deal? The answer of who shot first changes the entire scene and the character of Han Solo irrevocably. If Greedo shot first, it can be assumed that Han Solo only shot in self-defense and is still worthy of hero status within the Star Wars archives. On the other hand, what does it say if Han shot first to kill the bounty hunter as a means of escaping his creditor and getting out of what he owes? If that is the case, can Star Wars fans still see something redeemable in the character of Han Solo?
Some say yes, some say no. Some say it doesn’t matter.
Whichever side of that Star Wars debate you happen to fall on may no longer matter if assertions that a newly discovered script can be verified as authentic. The script is dated March 15, 1976, which places it in the hands of Lucasfilms executives over a year before the Star Wars release date of May 25, 1977, and clearly spells out the scene in which Han Solo is the first to fire in that historic scene.
Star Wars experts point to other details in the script, claiming that together, these items verify the authenticity of the script. Specifically, the script is entitled Star Wars: Saga I instead of the final title of Star Wars: A New Hope, and within its pages it names the main character as Luke Starkiller, which, as everyone knows, was later changed to Luke Skywalker.
The script seems to solve an issue that emerged with the 1997 re-issuing of Star Wars: A New Hope, which was edited to make it appear as though Greedo shot first during that cantina confrontation, with Han Solo firing back in self-defense. Originally, Solo fires without warning, killing Greedo and ending the shoot-out before it can escalate.
[Featured image courtesy of Lucasfilms/Star Wars]
