The Star Wars franchise is currently embroiled in more controversy than ever before, with creative turmoil behind the scenes that’s reportedly seen Lucasfilm limiting the input of their filmmakers, Solo bombing at the box office, the ongoing backlash to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi and the abrupt and contentious departure of Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss from their proposed trilogy.
It seems that the sci-fi saga can’t catch a break these days, and the studio isn’t exactly doing themselves any favors by reopening one of Star Wars‘ oldest debates. With Disney Plus now available, the Original Trilogy was always going to be one of the new streaming service’s most popular titles, and fans were in for a shock as they discovered that yet another alteration has been made to the infamous ‘Han Shot First’ scene from A New Hope.
Out of all the edits that George Lucas has made to Episodes IV, V and VI over the years, nothing has stoked the fires of fan discontent more than the distracting changes made to Han Solo’s encounter with Greedo at the Mos Eisley Cantina. And to the surprise of almost nobody, Star Wars aficionados have taken to social media to voice their opinions on the latest change to the face-off between Han and Greedo that nobody can seem to keep their hands off.
https://twitter.com/mjdinicola/status/1194366695584026625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1194366695584026625&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fstarwars%2F2019%2F11%2F12%2Fstar-wars-han-solo-shot-first-greedo-debate-special-edition-disney-plus%2F
#HanShotFirst is a lie. On my DVD Box Set the green puffer fish guy clearly shoots first. 🤓
— Pan-Pizza (@RebelTaxi) November 12, 2019
Fans: Han Shot First!
George Lucas: Greedo Shot First!
Disney+: #maclunkey— RogueStar (@RogueStar1138) November 12, 2019
https://twitter.com/kenobifan1977/status/1194352820167872512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1194352820167872512&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fstarwars%2F2019%2F11%2F12%2Fstar-wars-han-solo-shot-first-greedo-debate-special-edition-disney-plus%2F
https://twitter.com/therackstar/status/1194344439357026306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1194344439357026306&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fstarwars%2F2019%2F11%2F12%2Fstar-wars-han-solo-shot-first-greedo-debate-special-edition-disney-plus%2F
Can you believe they keep making changes like this to the originals?
Stop ruining my childhood.#HanShotFirst #disneyplus pic.twitter.com/tvffUJIdai
— Ben Banyas (@benbanyas) November 12, 2019
George got it right the first time. And so did Han. #HanShotFirst pic.twitter.com/POjmLaYyW4
— Steve Sellers (@Shadewing) November 12, 2019
No matter how they change it, We’ll always know it #HanShotFirst pic.twitter.com/F4BCZDbHxy
— Ziggy 🇵🇸 (@mrjafri) November 12, 2019
In the grand scheme of things, the constant changes made to such a minor scene don’t affect the overarching narrative of Star Wars in the slightest. However, this scene in particular has been bothering fans for decades due to the constant changes that keep being made to a brief encounter between two characters that was originally filmed over 40 years ago. Of course, the simple solution would simply be to release the original, unedited theatrical versions onto Disney Plus, which is something that will surely happen at some point in the future.