If you know your “Star Wars,” and its freewheeling character Han Solo, you know the “Han shot first” slogan, coined after George Lucas re-edited and created the “Star Wars” Special Editions, much to the chagrin of millions of fans. It’s led to a bunch of memes and hilarious, sometimes angry, conversations, about whether Han shot Greedo first in the cantina or not. Obviously, Han shot first, but Lucas sanitized the scene in the Special Editions and made it appear as if the smuggler fired back in self-defense. Well, a new blaster-centric controversy has begun around the latest “Solo: A Star Wars Story” posters and it’ll make you wonder if Han shot at all.
The newly released ‘Solo’ posters have erased an important object off of its pages. The new posters look the same, but the main difference is that there are no more blasters in each of the character’s hands. The erasure of the blasters is no doubt related to the recent tragic, high school shooting in Parkland, Florida and, ever since then, the intensified gun debate in the United States which culminated with a nationwide march this past weekend.
Han just looks lost without it. The photoshopping looks terrible. Disney has not yet confirmed or denied the reason for the disappearance of the blasters, but the reasoning seems quite clear. They are understandably playing it safe here. The first pulpy character posters for “Solo” debuted in February, to near acclaim for their retro aesthetic, which was beautifully rendered by Artist Hachim Bahous (until the posters were marred in controversy about plagiarism anyhow). The posters were one of the few things fans could overwhelmingly agree on about the upcoming “Solo” movie which has been plagued by reshoots, the firing of its original directors and the mid-shoot addition of an acting coach for its lead star Alden Ehrenreich.
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” will be released on May 25th.
