Ever since George Lucas tweaked the original Star Wars movies, fans incensed by the changes have rallied together under one cry: “Han shot first!” For those who maintain that Han blasted Greedo away before the bounty hunter could react, you need to read this early version of the original Star Wars script, courtesy of Chewbacca.
Over the past few weeks, actor Peter Mayhew has been posting pages from his original shooting script for Star Wars on Twitter—or, to use its mouthful of an original title, The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the “Journal of the Whills” Saga I: Star Wars. Today, he finally got to the famous encounter between Han and Greedo (credited in the script as “Allen”, presumably a typo of “Alien”) in the Mos Eisley Cantina:
Here’s the full page of the deadly standoff:
Sure, we’ve known it since 1977, but it’s nice to see it written down right there in the original script: despite all the chops and changes to one of the most iconic scenes in movie history, Han was always meant to have shot first.
Contact the author at james.whitbrook@io9.com.