George Lucas Eggs on Star Wars Fans, Claims Greedo Always Shot First

Posted by on February 10th, 2012   Filed under: Action, Fandom, Sci-fi
Source: Hollywood Reporter

At this point I think it’s pretty clear that either George Lucas loves messing with Star Wars fans or he has simply lost all touch with reality. I’d like to think it’s the former, but I suspect that the latter is closer to the truth. While doing some press for this week’s 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Lucas spoke briefly about some of the more contentious changes he has made to his beloved films in recent years. Rather than try to atone for these things, or at least provide a satisfactory justification, however, he chose to re-imagine history instead. Specifically, he addressed the age-old argument over who really shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, and surprisingly he now claims that Greedo was the one who shot first all along. I guess we are all remembering things from the ’80s incorrectly, and now nostalgia has clouded our judgment. Right?

According to Lucas, his changes in the Special Edition were only meant to clarify what was already there. Here’s what he had to say:

“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 [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] 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.”

Yes, we all want Han Solo to be a “cold-blooded killer”, that’s why we’re so upset. Obviously! You know, as much as I’m sick of hearing people talk about this subject, I’m genuinely fascinated by how Lucas perceives the fan backlash. He’s obviously aware of it, but it’s just so alien to him. He also had this to say about his continuing alterations to the Star Wars films:

“If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward. … All art is technology and it improves every year. Whether it’s on the stage or in music or in painting, there are technological answers that happen, and because movies are so technological, the advances become more obvious.”

Again, I think he’s missing the point. Everyone would probably prefer if there were sixteen different versions of Star Wars instead of one master cut that just keeps getting revised. On the bright side, he also confirmed that he’s working on Indiana Jones 5, so at least we’ve got that to look forward to!



  • kyri

    …..man lucas must had suffered a minor silent stroke or something, clearly he has lost it a bit. Go easy on the man guys.

    but what is the most frustrating thing in this is the fact that Gredo shooting first actually if you think about it makes no sense. From that range only whom that shots first can survive. shooting first when someone points a gun against your face doesn’t make you a ..cold blood killer. cold blood killer is someone who kills someone that does not pose a threat to him. When a giant alien lizard – or anybody – threatens you with a gun.. I think you are allowed to shot him first.

  • Also, wouldn’t Solo be worth a lot more alive to Greedo? Why would he shoot him? It makes no sense in the world created by Lucas. It’s revisionist history through and through.

    I’d admire Lucas more if he just admitted that he didn’t like having Solo be a killer. Just be clear that you’ve gone soft!

    Instead, he treats fans like they’re idiots. While that is true in some cases, it still makes him look foolish.

  • Maopheus

    What Lucas is saying makes no sense. If he didn’t go and change the scene no one would have known any different and we’d have gone along the whole time thinking the scene was what it was. Sounds like Lucas is going back and trying to justify the change by claiming there was a dispute over who shot first. Was there? And who cares if there was?

  • Steve

    Han shot first, but only because he heard a car backfire and it startled him.

  • In a way you have to admire the brassneck of the guy trying to gaslight the millions of people who really, definitely did see Han shoot first.

    btw, the original theatrical version of Blade Runner is still available for anyone to buy and watch. Not so the ’77 version of Star Wars – + there is clearly not “one version” of it. This is (partly) what pisses people off.

    George Lucas is a dissociatiative madman, pure and simple.

  • The original cuts of the trilogy do still exist, as they were included as the second discs with the special editions when they were released for the umpteenth time when Episode III hit DVD. They weren’t touched up or anything, and I’m sure that people complained about THAT. It’s almost like Lucas was saying “There you go, assholes. Be careful what you wish for”.

  • @PlanB, It was great to get the original releases on DVD (even though the release of Star Wars was actually the 1980/81 rerelease version and still not that original theatrical version… but that one only had minimal changes like the title and some dialogue overdubs), but there was no care given to the releases. They were practically just rips from the original laserdiscs, and weren’t even formatted for 16×9 TVs. It really WAS like Lucas saying “there you go, assholes,” as if we should be happy to get a morsel of what we’ve been asking for.

    Regarding Lucas’ quote earlier… he brings up Blade Runner as if it’s the same issue. It’s exactly the opposite problem. The producers of Blade Runner and Ridley Scott have made available EVERY iteration that Blade Runner has gone through. If Star Wars were given that treatment with each update, many fewer people would care about the alterations.

  • patrik

    He’s just a backtracking twofaced idiot.

  • Mrespony

    If you really want to get your Lucas hate on I would recommend watching his interview on Oprah’s cable network. Lucas is definitely in that rarified space previously occupied by Howard Hughes, Elvis and Michael Jackson.

  • “They weren’t touched up or anything, and I’m sure that people complained about THAT.”

    I have no issue with keeping them in Stereo Sound, not ‘fixing’ the flaws of matte-ing and other SFX artifacts, but for Christ sake, not making them Anamorphic 16:9 (instead of black bars on both the sides and the top) on DVD is just rubbing salt in the wounds.

    On the making money side, clearly the man knows what he is doing, on the preserving history side the guy is a total fucking tool.

    It is very weird (at the risk of starting an argument) that Roman Polanski’s vulgar and reprehensible actions in the past do affect my enjoyment of his work, but George Lucas’s actions have poisoned the whole Star Wars thing for me completely. I never get the urge to watch these films, and only showed them to the kids out of perhaps cultural duty than full on enthusiasm (as, perhaps had my children been 5 or 6 in 1998 instead of 2008.)

    I have fan-made Laser Disc ports to DVD of the films because it is kind of disturbing that the original films are a ‘incidental extra’ on the official release. At least the fan-made ports are done with loving care, not as a tactic to tell the original fans (you know, the ones that made the man a billionaire) to STFU.

  • By comparison, I watch and thoroughly enjoy Blade Runner once or twice a year, every year since the DVDs were released. I happily bought the mega-briefcase, and have no issue with several official versions of the film existing simultaneously. The resonance and joy of Blade Runner gets better with each passing year, whereas Star Wars diminishes each time it rears its head into the multiplexes.

  • Henrik needs to up his game if he ever wants to meet Lucas’ level of trolling.

  • Byron B

    For anyone who doubts that George Lucas is a troll.. here he is wearing a ‘Han shot first’ shirt while talking to mr ford!

    http://www.walkingtaco.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/han-shot-first.jpg

  • Strangely enough, “George Lucas Eggs on Star Wars Fans, Claims Greedo Looks like Your Mom” didn’t get people NEARLY as upset.

  • kyri

    @ByronB, So maybe then, he is infected with some sort of alien parasite?

    You know.. the ones that control their host..

  • Gerry

    Trolling? I think it’s just publicity for the 3D release. The man isn’t constantly re releasing for fans, it’s for cash.

    The people who bought the blu rays, particularly the shitty transfers of the first two prequels, must be bummed out now that 3D blu’s are on the horizon.

  • I fuckin hate Lucas. I love the universe that was created on the backs of *real* talent and hate the fact that 99% of the money I spend on things from that universe, things he probably had little to no hand in, goes to him.

    The man is so out of touch now that he’s surrounded himself with yes-men and sycophants that whatever creative spark was there in the original movie has long since vanished.

    The fact that he continually changes shit, then refuses to release the untouched originals is testament to a man who believes that he made the movies for himself. Not for us.

    I truly wish that people would stay away in droves from the shitty prequel 3-d releases and let him know that if he’s not making them for us he can go jerk-off in his own private theater and stop ruining the enjoyment for the fans.

    That won’t happen of course. But I still wish it.

  • Nelson

    I’m waiting for the final 3 Star Wars sequels. I don’t care what Lucas says, I know they’re coming, sooner or later. He’s released every conceivable variation and variety of the current/previous 6 films, basically trying to milk the franchise as much as humanly possible, as anyone would, but eventually people are going to get tired of watching the same films over and over again, ESPECIALLY the prequels.

    Now I think we’ve seen the dvd versions of the films, the blu-ray versions, the “extended” versions, the “ultimate” versions, the “collector’s editions”.

    I am highly skeptical about what 3 sequels, based in a future Star Wars time period, could deliver, as far as quality and story, but I also know that given excellent writers, actors, and a good director, 3 new Stars sequels could do very well.

    If they can turn a profit off of Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, they can do anything.

  • patrik

    #18

    Any Star Wars sequels are gonna make a shitload of money no matter what writers, actors or director would be involded.

  • patrik

    *involved* is obviously what I meant. I’m waiting for that edit button Sean. =)

  • Possum Hunter

    Lucas has just softened with age and he now looks at characters like Han differently than he would have when he was first writing them, he sees Han only as the ‘nice guy’ he became at the end of Ep 4 not the outlaw he was at the beginning of the film.

    It’s like Spielberg changing the rifles for walkie-talkies in E.T. Back in his youth he saw nothing wrong with cops chasing kids with guns – now he’s older and with kids of his own that’s changed (as many things do as we get older, for example Spielberg said he’d never again treat Nazis like comic book villains like he did in the original Indy series).

    I bet if we went back in time and asked Lucas who shot first in 1977 it’d be a different story because although Han was no ‘cold blooded killer’ he was a pirate, a smuggler, a scoundrel etc who thought only of himself. Either way he didn’t kill Greedo in cold blood because Greedo was about to fire on Han, Han was just quicker on the draw and who can blame him?? Sure in a fist fight you might let the other guy throw the first punch, in a gun fight it’s not such a good idea to let the other shoot first (unless he’s a Stormtrooper as they can’t hit the side of a barn).

    It’s character arcs… The Han at the beginning of the film will always shoot first without thinking of other options – the Han at the end of the film may not if he thinks there’s another option. He’s a changed man, he now thinks of others (hence why he came back to help Luke at the end of the film and why everyone was surprised that he did). The whole point is to show the character arc, to show growth and change.

  • Ooma

    No. Why would Greedo shoot first? If he murdered Han then Han wouldn’t be able to give Jabba his money. Greedo would have been dead meat. Han was hanging out in the Cantina at Mos Eisley! He wasn’t exactly a nice guy. It was the exact same kind of scene as when Indy shot the swordsman. Ballsy!

  • Drew

    “I guess we are all remembering things from the ’80s incorrectly, and now nostalgia has clouded our judgment. Right?”

    Don’t you mean 70’s? Star Wars Ep.iv came out in 1977….just saying.