Between some initial technical difficulties, The Mandalorian premiere, complaints about the aspect ratio for the first few seasons of The Simpsons, and other matters, the Disney+ launch day was about as eventful as can be expected. Yet it was what many Star Wars fans noticed — including Uproxx‘s Mike Ryan — during the infamous “Han Shot First” scene of A New Hope that stirred lots of debate. Yes, that’s right folks… George Lucas managed to sneak yet another edit into the first film of his sprawling cinematic empire.
As subsequently reported and confirmed by Vanity Fair, Lucas re-editing Han Solo’s fateful meeting with Greedo so that, instead of Han shooting first (as in the original theatrical cut) or Greedo shooting first and missing (as in the 1997 “Special Edition”), both bounty hunters shoot at the same time. Of course, Greedo misses and Han doesn’t. As weird and interesting as this was, though, it was the addition of a new line of dialogue from Greedo that spurred Twitter’s imagination. Just before firing, the Rodian exclaims “Maclunkey!” Or, at least that’s what it sounds like.
Yet it seems the odd phrase is actually something that was first uttered in The Phantom Menace, as StarWars.com writer Bryan Young noted on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/swankmotron/status/1194310850695200768
Former Uproxx writer Donna Dickens not only noticed the same thing, but also provided receipts courtesy of a fan-made online dictionary of Star Wars languages. (Huttese is the language spoken by the Hutts.) It’s not actually “Maclunkey” that Greedo is shouting at Han, but “ma klounkee,” which translates to “this” or “it will be the end of you.”
https://twitter.com/MExasperated/status/1194341476710248448
So, there you have it, folks. Lucas didn’t suddenly decide to insert a random bit of comically bad and seemingly unheard of dialogue into one of his final edits on Star Wars before selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2015. He simply pulled the phrase from a previous usage in The Phantom Menace and invariably set the Internet on fire for a day.
