Original Star Wars script discovered, confirms Han shot first

'Based on the script, I can tell you 100%, Han shot first'

When Star Wars fans were told in 1997 that their favourite film was going to be re-mastered there was both excitement and worry.

Many thought that giving George Lucas the ability to add CGI to the original films was a great idea as it would lead to a 'definitive' version of Star Wars, while many more feared the director would toy with the original trilogy too much. Unfortunately, the latter came true.

Jabba was made CGI, a new "Jedi Rocks" song was introduced, amongst many other major changes. Most aggravating of all was that Lucas messed with the introduction to one of the greatest characters of all time, Han Solo.

In the infamous scene Han sits down with the green Alien Greedo to talk business. In the original, Han appears to shoot Greedo first, killing him instantly. However, this was apparently changed in the re-mastered version so that Greedo shot first. You can see the minor difference in the clip below.

It has long been debated between fans and Lucas whether Han was meant to shoot first or not, with Lucas claiming in many interviews that he added Greedo's laser blast into the widescreen edition to show that Han isn’t a stone cold killer.

Now, after years of discussion, the mystery behind who shot first has been cleared up. A long lost original copy of the first Star Wars film was found at Canada’s University of Brunswick, and in it was confirmation that Han was always intended to shoot first.

Librarian Kristian Brown, finder of the script, told CBC that “Based on the script, I can tell you 100%, Han shot first.” The university now plans to put the script on display in time for the release of The Force Awakens later this year.

Now we know.