Greedo Gets the Last Word
The phrase “Han shot first” every Star Wars fan is familiar with. It stems from the special release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1997 where George Lucas edited the film to make it so that Greedo, not Han Solo, fired the first shot in the Cantina. Subsequent releases were edited in such a way that the two fire simultaneously.
Well, we have one more variant of the film to add to the pile. The Disney+ version features a subtle change, but it’s still a change nonetheless. In this version, not only does Greedo shoot, but he also says the word “maclunkey” before his death.
In the Disney+ version of Star Wars Greedo now shouts "MACLUNKEY" before getting shot. This is now my favorite version because why the hell not? MACLUNKEY! #starwars #maclunkey pic.twitter.com/k1XmP8wAZT
— Eric Fell (@ericfell) November 12, 2019
Apparently, this is a change that George Lucas made before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. And while nobody knows what the word means, Marissa Martinelli from Slate came up with the following:
After scouring the Complete Wermo’s Guide to Huttese, I suspect it’s actually supposed to be ma klounkee, a phrase used in The Phantom Menace: Sebulba tells Anakin “Neek me chawa, wermo, mo killee ma klounkee,” which is translated in the subtitles as “Next time we race, boy, it will be the end of you.” By that logic, “ma klounkee” would mean something like “I’ll end you.”
Regardless of its meaning, it seems appropriate that the biggest change in this version of A New Hope would surround Han and Greedo. By keeping it, Disney is truly honoring George Lucas who was too insistent on changing too much instead of simply moving on.
