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Han Solo is a major character in the Star Wars trilogy, played by Harrison Ford. He starts as a rogue smuggler, but becomes increasingly involved in the rebel efforts to overthrow the Galactic Empire. Han is a hero on the physical plane, compared to Luke’s spiritual journey. There has been controversy surrounding Han’s character since George Lucas revised the films, particularly the scene where he shoots Greedo.
In Star Wars lore, Han Solo is a major character, created by Star Wars writer, George Lucas for the 1977 film Star Wars, later called Episode IV. Harrison Ford plays Han Solo, and his role garnered him incredible popularity, essentially giving him superstar status and launching his film career. Han’s role is an essential aspect of the three Star Wars films in which he appears, as he becomes, almost unwittingly, increasingly involved in the rebel efforts to overthrow the Galactic Empire.
Audiences first meet Han Solo when he is hired by Obi Wan Kenobi to take Kenobi and Luke Skywalker to Alderaan on a mission to deliver the stolen Death Star plans to Princess Leia. We quickly learn that Han is evading capture by several bounty hunters and has worked as a smuggler in the past. He’s particularly interested in avoiding anyone working for Jabba the Hut, a slug-like underworld figure who sought revenge on Han for dropping a shipment of contraband goods when he flew too close to an Imperial ship. Han is eager to get out of Tatooine, where Jabba resides so he can make some money to pay him back, and agrees to take Kenobi and Skywalker to his ship, the Millennium Falcon.
Han Solo is brilliant support for the young hero, Luke Skywalker. He represents the opposite of Luke in many ways. He is arrogant, jaded, doesn’t believe in spiritual concepts and is mainly motivated by acquiring money. When Skywalker and Solo must rescue Princess Leia, Solo and Leia spend much of the first film verbally arguing with each other. Leia despises Han’s greatly exaggerated goal of working only for profit. The first film hints at a possible romantic alliance between Luke and Leia, later dismissed by Lucas in films V and VI because the two are actually twin brothers. Instead, Leia and Han become romantically involved in The Empire Strikes Back with every indication that an eventual marriage will take place between them by the end of the trilogy.
Aside from the plot devices Lucas later devises, the turning point of the apathy toward Han in Leia’s mind is that Han cannot resist involvement in the rebel alliance, despite his avowed rogue ways and attitude ” all for profit.” In the end, though he starts out as a rather world-weary jaded character, he ends Star Wars as a hero, albeit a reluctant one, who is instrumental in helping Luke destroy the Death Star.
Since Star Wars and its sequels have been compared to the Hero’s Journey, it’s important to understand Solo’s mythological importance in Star Wars lore. Han is as much a hero as Luke, but his journey takes place on the physical plane. He is there to gradually develop into a moral character who eventually gets the girl, and is comparable to characters like Sir Gawain in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s The Legend of the Grail Parzival. Luke’s hero quest is largely spiritual, a transformation of self and the path of the shaman. Han Solo ultimately respects Luke for this path, but knows that he is too grounded to take the same path.
There has been considerable controversy surrounding the Han Solo character since Lucas revised and re-edited the first Star Wars trilogy. Lucas chose to redo the scene where Han shoots the bounty hunter, Greedo, earlier in the film. In the original version, although Greedo is depicted reaching for his gun, Han shoots Greedo first, before Greedo has a chance to point his gun at him. Lucas modified it to have Greedo aim at Han, shoot him, and miss. Many diehard movie fans believe that this changes the essence of Han’s character. He’s definitely a shoot first, ask questions later guy.
Since this cut, Lucas has changed the film so that both Greedo and Han shoot at the same time, but this is still unsatisfactory for many. Han knows his life is in danger ever since Jabba put a bounty on his head that many unsavory characters would like to collect. In the early stages of the film, there would have been little to no way Han Solo would have waited for an invitation to shoot someone who is clearly there to kill him. The phrase “Han Shot First” became something of a cultural phenomenon in the 2000s and is printed on T-shirts and bumper stickers. Additionally, Joss Whedon describes his smuggler character, Captain Malcolm Reynolds, from the Firefly series and Serenity movie, as similar to the “shoot first” version of Han Solo.
