The Star Wars franchise is one of the most popular properties in the history of TV and film. Spanning generations and decades, Star Wars fans can discuss and dissect just about every frame in the space opera. And the hottest debate of the franchise's long tenure has got to be Han Solo and Greedo's endless "who shot first?" conversation. And while hardcore fans and the actors like a more murderous Han, the actor who played Greedo in A New Hope recently revealed another scene with Greedo and Han that has even more blaster action.
Greedo actor Paul Blake recently spoke to Sci Fi Central at a comic-con appearance in Australia. After engaging in the who shot first debate (he maintains it was Han), Blake revealed a deleted scene that he filmed in the original Star Wars movie. He said,
It was a brilliant little sequence in which I love doing with Harrison, where we were shooting at each other like cowboys and indians. We had this big gun battle where we were shooting at each other all morning.
This scene is one of the deleted scenes featuring the original Jabba the Hutt. Rather than the giant animatronic slug that we was introduced in Return of the Jedi, Jabba was originally played as a human. But after George Lucas decided he wanted to go bigger with the intergalactic mob boss, the scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. In fact, some of the footage would be repurposed when Lucasfilm rereleased the original trilogy.
The deleted shoot out scene described by Paul Blake actually sounds like an epic shoot out. During negotiations with Jabba and his crew (including Paul Blake), Han engaged in a shoot out with the gang. And in the midst of the gunfire, Stormtroopers also arrive to stop the Millennium Falcon from departing Mos Eisley. So it would have ended up being this giant shootout with three different parties. Pretty cool, right?
Of course, it's unclear how exactly Greedo fits into this deleted scene. Greedo should have already bitten the dust by the time Han return to the Falcon, so continuity seems a bit off. But in the remastered version of the scene with Jabba, you can actually see a few Rodians (the alien species Greedo is) in the background. In fact, it looks like Greedo is in the frame at the time Jabba is complaining about his death. Check it out.
Now I'm just confused.
Perhaps Paul Blake got his details a bit confused, and he was playing a non-Greedo Rodian in the deleted shootout scene. Either way, the scene itself sounds fantastic, so let's hope George Lucas lets it escape Skywalker Ranch one of these days.
The next adventure into the galaxy far, far away is Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which will hit theaters on December 15th, 2017. Be sure to check out our full premiere list to plan your next trip to the movies.
