When a fanbase gets as big as Star Wars has, it is only natural for there to be debates among loyal followers. The George Lucas franchise is no different, having several inside jokes and topics that no one can agree on. One of the most well-known has to be from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and involves the character of Han Solo.
Many conversations have been had on the topic of who shot first in the film, Solo or Greedo. During a recent interview, Lucas, the creator of the franchise, finally discussed this. While fans may be excited to know what the answer is, they may not be satisfied with what they learn.
Han Solo or Greedo—George Lucas Could Not Care Less
Oftentimes, fans want a specific character to have a dark side. Witnessing that inner conundrum and watching their darkness win once in a while brought a sense of reality to the characters, and the same was the case for Han Solo. Many wonder if he was the first to shoot in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, or Greedo.
While the editing made it quite confusing, many of the audience members preferred the idea that Solo was the one to shoot first, brutally killing a defenseless Greedo. However, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, George Lucas revealed the truth of the matter, and audiences were not satisfied with what he had to say.
Well, it’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie. 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.
Lucas revealed that he did not think too much about it when he was making the movie. He did not think that one shooting first held too much significance, and he believed that the audience was the one to add layers of complexity to it. So much so that when he did give them an answer and change the scene a bit to make it clearer, they were not happy with him.
George Lucas Tried To Clear The Confusion
George Lucas then talked about how the confusion happened in the first place, chalking it up to the entire scene being filmed in close-ups. Due to this, fans were unable to easily tell who pulled the trigger first. However, the filmmaker went back in and put in some wide angles to make the culprit evident.
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.
Unfortunately for fans who wanted Han Solo to be the one who brutally and mercilessly killed Greedo unprompted, Lucas revealed that it was not true. The filmmaker mentioned that it was Greedo who shot at Solo first, which resulted in him pulling the trigger in self-defense.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope is available for streaming on Disney+.
