George Lucas Defends Greedo Shooting First

George Lucas has done a lot to enrage Star Wars fans over the years, from Jar Jar Binks to that Midi-chlorian nonsense. One of the filmmaker’s most controversial moves to this date was a particular edit in the Star Wars: Special Edition. Rather than Han shooting Greedo first in the Mos Eisley cantina, now its Greedo who shoots Han first. In an interview with the Washington Post, Lucas went into greater detail on why he made this alteration and why he sticks by it.

“Han Solo was going to marry Leia, and you look back and say, ‘Should he be a cold-blooded killer?’” Lucas asked. “Because I was thinking mythologically — should he be a cowboy, should he be John Wayne? And I said, ‘Yeah, he should be John Wayne.’ And when you’re John Wayne, you don’t shoot people [first] — you let them have the first shot. It’s a mythological reality that we hope our society pays attention to.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Harrison Ford opted to take a side on the debate. “Knock yourself out,” he said. “Have fun with it.”

Despite what Lucas says, the countless memes on the Internet have universally decreed that Han shot first. What do you think?