Will Han Shoot First Again in The New STAR WARS Digital HD Edition?

Update: Apparently someone in Australia has already downloaded the new editions (it's already Friday over there), and they say that this rumor is not true: Greedo still shoots first in the digital editions. Bummer. Original article follows.

If you're reading this site, than I'm almost certain you're familiar with the "Han Shot First" argument, but just in case, here's a quick refresher. When George Lucas put the special edition of Star Wars in theaters in 1998, he made a change that radically altered the characterization of Harrison Ford's smuggler character Han Solo: he added a shot of Greedo shooting at him in the Mos Eisley Cantina before Han pulls the trigger and takes Greedo out. It makes him into more of a traditional "good guy," since he's reacting and retaliating. But here's the thing: in the original 1977 version of Star Wars, Han straight up kills Greedo when he threatens him, making him more of a rogue character instead of a normal good guy. And that's what people loved about him! That's just one example of Lucas tinkering with his movie when he should have just left it alone. (You can watch a comparison of the scenes here.)

But Lucas has been adamant about not making the original theatrical cuts of the movie easily available to own, so fans are stuck with the Special Edition version (and subsequent updates that keep the same basic alteration). According to Badass Digest, though, that might change with tomorrow's digital release of the whole Star Wars saga.

If my sources are correct - and we'll know in about 24 hours - Han will now shoot first in this edition of Star Wars. It's probably one of the most egregious changes made to the Original Trilogy (and a lot of those changes were egregious) and now, almost two decades after it was included in the Special Edition, it will be gone.

The site says they've spoken to "a number of people who have confirmed this," but they still caution us that the intel might not be 100% accurate, so we'll just have to wait until tomorrow to find out the truth. It sounds like that'd be the only change that's made, so it's not like the digital release will be the original release version (meaning it'll still have those stupid CG shots of creatures walking around for no reason and various other nonsense that Lucas added later), but having Han shoot first (as originally seen) would go a long way in appeasing fans who have been pissed off at that change for years.