Disney Plus, Star Wars and a Maclunkey theory

The interweb is awash in Maclunkey memes and in case you missed it, I’ll explain why. I feel that in order to maintain balance and let you know my particular viewpoint on this I should stress the HAN SHOT FIRST! Ok, deep breaths are needed because George has changed that scene again. It is still wrong, but it is better and if my theory is correct, it might be pretty cool.

If you are a scifi fan, you will be aware of the huge and completely justified controversy surrounding the Star Wars scene where Han bumps into the bounty hunter Greedo in the Mos Eisley cantina. If not, then I am shocked you have read this far. So Greedo is pointing a gun at Han and Han pulls out a gun under the table and shoots him. Because Han Solo is fucking awesome. His story arc is then how he goes from being the kind of guy who would do such a thing, to helping out the rebels and saving the day at the end.

I saw the original at the cinema in 1977 and Han was immediately my hero. A couple of decades later, Star Wars was remastered and, again, I saw it in the cinema with a load of fellow drunk 20 somethings and to our horror, Greedo (a highly-skilled bounty hunter firing from point-blank) misses and in self-defence, Han shoots back. Less cool. There was an understandable righteous outcry and it was then amended once to them both firing at the same time.

Well, now Disney+ has started streaming to limited segments of the planet and apparently fans have noticed that this scene has been changed yet again. Seriously George, why? Han and Greedo still shoot at the same time, but now Greedo says something that sounds like: “maclunkey”. Internet fans are pointing to things in other films that may explain this but I have a hope about ‘maclunkey’ and its meaning that might make this scene a bit cooler.

Here is a helpful video in case you hate to read regarding this whole exciting business and you will see why my theory would work beneath:

What I hope maclunkey means

I think everything could return to awesome if it turns out that Greedo knew Han had pulled his gun out under the table. You have to be smart to be a successful bounty hunter (see the Mandalorian) and he must have noticed that Han has a blaster on his hip and his hand is under the table. George Lucas has said that he wanted Han to be like a cowboy.

So Greedo, aware they are both pointing guns at each other, says “Maclunkey!” which means: “Shoot!” It is essentially a duel. There was clearly a rivalry from before because Greedo had been looking forward to this “for a long time”. This makes Greedo a tad more competent cool and while Han still didn’t shoot first, it is pretty impressive that he won the duel.

This is obviously just a personal theory but maybe Disney bigwigs will stumble upon this and make it canon and my life will be complete.