Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story releases in just three days and as excitement for the latest Anthology film builds, fans have started to reminisce about their first introduction to the charming scoundrel Han Solo, back in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
In the movie, Han’s approached in a cantina by the Rodian bounty hunter Greedo, who starts making threats. Without a second thought, Solo shoots and kills his alien adversary. Of course, this sequence was ultimately changed in home releases of A New Hope, much to fans’ chagrin.
The 1997 version of George Lucas’ first Star Wars flick has Greedo fire at Han, miss at close range, and then die. 2004’s cut, however, has Han and Greedo shoot almost simultaneously, with the former emerging victorious. Then, the 2011 iteration, which Lucasfilm considers canon, removes 10 frames of footage to recreate the speed of what fans originally saw in 1977.
Many people think Lucas’ decision to tinker with this classic moment was baseless and the edits he made have led to the creation of a well-known statement in the space opera’s fanbase: “Han shot first!” This is an idea supported by many members of the Solo cast, including Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo), Donald Glover (Lando Calrissian), Emilia Clarke (Qi’ra), and Paul Bettany (Dryden Vos).
When Uproxx asked co-writers Lawrence and Jon Kasdan where they stood concerning the heated Han and Greedo debate, as well as if they approached it in their latest script, they had this to say:
Lawrence Kasdan: Yeah. It was very important to me, like top of the list.
Jon Kasdan: To both of us. We are firmly in the camp. In the script, the description literally says, ‘There can be no doubt Han shot first.’
It’ll be interesting to see how “Han shot first!” is addressed in Solo. One can only hope its potential inclusion is not too on-the-nose. The film is meant to tell a thrilling tale from its titular character’s youth, after all. It doesn’t exist to merely settle a debate.
Fans can see young Han wield his trusty blaster on the big screen when Solo: A Star Wars Story comes to theaters on May 25th.