Disney+ Has A New Version of ‘Star Wars’ Infamous Han Shot First Scene
We always assumed that when George Lucas relinquished control of the Star Wars Saga that it would put an end to the endless tinkering with the movie’s special effects and scenes. Who would want to keep making changes to these movies? Why not leave well enough alone?
I do not have answers to those questions, but I do know that the new version of Star Wars available to stream on Disney+ is a new cut of the film with at least one significant change. It turns out the infamous showdown between Han Solo and Greedo has been changed for the umpteenth time, George Lucas or no.
This gets absurdly and pointlessly convoluted, so let’s try to stick to the short, short version as they say in Spaceballs: The original 1977 version of Star Wars included a showdown between Han Solo and a bounty hunter named Greedo over money Han owned to Jabba the Hut. The first version showed Han shooting Greedo preemptively; it showed he was tough, resourceful, and deadly when he had to be. George Lucas apparently didn’t like it though, and when he rereleased Star Wars in 1997 as the “Special Edition,” he altered this exchange so that now Greedo shoots first and misses, prompting a responding blast from Han.
Additional versions of the film have brought additional changes to Han and Greedo’s fight. The 2004 DVDs tweaked it so the two fired simultaneously, with Han hitting and Greedo missing. Now we have the Disney+ version — and it has yet another change, with Greed now giving an unsubtitled line after Han’s famous “Yes, I’ll bet you have!” one-liner, plus new, explosive special effects during the exchange of blaster fire. Watch it here:
What is Greedo yelling at the end? “McLunkey!”? Who is McLunkey?
Here’s the original scene from 1977 for comparison:
The new version is even uglier and stranger the previous revisions. Why, if they were going to tweak the movie again for Disney+ they didn’t use this chance to restore the original cut of the scene — thereby engendering an enormous amount of positive feelings among longtime Star Wars fans — is absolutely beyond me. But this is what it is now — at least until the next version.
UPDATE: According to Vanity Fair, this latest cut of the film, including the updated Han Shot First scene, was overseen by George Lucas before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney and left the company in 2012.
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