Should Han have died at the end of Return of the Jedi?

[Dream]

Harrison Ford's performance as Han Solo in the Star Wars movies played a big role in making him a household name, but Ford says that he doesn't have much affection for the character. Speaking to ABC News, he said that he found Han boring, and had actually advocated his death to George Lucas

Ford was asked why audiences hadn't seen Han Solo in any other movies, to which he replied that he thought that it would be too difficult to work the character back into the canon, and even if someone did come up with a way, he didn't find the character particularly interesting. He thought Han should have died in Return of the Jedi, in order to give the movie a little bite, but said that the idea didn't go down well with George Lucas, who apparently didn't see much of a future in "dead Han toys."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...Died-in-Return-of-the-Jedi-Says-Harrison-Ford

Not sure if this is common knowledge or not, but both Ford and Lawrence Kasdan wanted Han to die in ROTJ. Of course that didn't happen since Lucas wanted a happy ending.

Do you think it would have been better if Han died?

I'm glad they went with a happy ending for Han. I think many fans would have been pissed that one of the most interesting characters in the film was offed. What is it with actors wanting to kill off their characters? It was one of the things that really angered me about Alien 3.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

No.

 

[Duncan MacLeod]

No

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The movie as is was better with Han living. If the film had more scope, more edge from the beginning, then maybe it would have worked. To me, it seemed like every line in the script, particularly the last two acts, had the sole purpose of wrapping up the story and that's it, so his death would have added too much to a cumbersome, uneven script.

Jedi, i believe had much deeper problems...

 

[Tosk]

"Should Han have died at the end of Return of the Jedi?"

From what I understand, the idea was to kill him at the beginning. He would not survive being released from carbonite, and it would raise the stakes for the rest of the film. "All bets are off" and all that. An also-nixed idea was for Lando to die at the end.

 

[Dream]

Interesting WHAT IF article about how ROTJ could've turned out.

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010...2-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer/

“We had an outline and George changed everything in it,” Kurtz said. “Instead of bittersweet and poignant he wanted a euphoric ending with everybody happy. The original idea was that they would recover [the kidnapped] Han Solo in the early part of the story and that he would then die in the middle part of the film in a raid on an Imperial base. George then decided he didn’t want any of the principals killed. By that time there were really big toy sales and that was a reason.”

The discussed ending of the film that Kurtz favored presented the rebel forces in tatters, Leia grappling with her new duties as queen and Luke walking off alone “like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns,” as Kurtz put it.

Kurtz said that ending would have been a more emotionally nuanced finale to an epic adventure than the forest celebration of the Ewoks that essentially ended the trilogy with a teddy bear luau.

 

[Tosk]

^Dang, wrong again. My bad. Make that middle of the film.

 

[Joe Washington]

No. I like that Han lives in the story and gets to be with Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca, and make peace with Lando after what he did. But I do wonder if he could have done more in the final movie because half of the time, he was a damsel in distress and the other, he was a semi-background character. Am I the only one who has noticed that?

 

[Mr Light]

I'm not sure about killing Han off, but they definitely should have killed Lando and the Falcon in the Death Star core. That way Lando is redeemed for betraying Han. Also his character never had much to do in the novels anyway

 

[CmdrAJD]

Looking at it from the perspective of the child I was when ROTJ came out, definitely no. As it stands, Jedi is my favorite of the OT (Blasphemy, I know). The battle over the Sarlaac pit and the throne room sequence put it over the top for me. I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie nearly as much if any of the heroes had died. Vader is redeemed and dies. That was as much of a bittersweet ending as I needed.

 

[Disruptor]

I'm not sure about killing Han off, but they definitely should have killed Lando and the Falcon in the Death Star core. That way Lando is redeemed for betraying Han. Also his character never had much to do in the novels anyway

Lando betrayed Han because he didn't know Han was being given to Fett or that the Empire would take over Cloud City. He was put in a bad position, if he refused he'd have been arrested (or worse). The Falcon still lands at Cloud City, and things would've turned out differently since Lando would NOT have been there to help Leia, Chewie, and the others escape (if they could've escaped at all). Their salvation depended on his "betrayal".

Besides, Han's plans to go to Cloud City ruined a sweet gig for Lando.

Also, Han should've paid Jabba in those 3 years after ANH. What happened there?

 

[JarodRussell]

I hate movies where they kill off heroes just for the heck of it.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yep.

 

[DevilEyes]

So is that why Ford's acting was so horrible in ROTJ? He didn't even seem to be taking his character seriously anymore.

No. I like that Han lives in the story and gets to be with Leia, Luke, and Chewbacca, and make peace with Lando after what he did. But I do wonder if he could have done more in the final movie because half of the time, he was a damsel in distress and the other, he was a semi-background character. Am I the only one who has noticed that?

Han is indeed kind of a lame character in ROTJ, but a lot of it is due to Ford overacting and making the silliest faces possible. (Am I the only one who's noticed that?)

ROTJ happened to be the first SW movie I saw as a kid - since I had been too little when the previous ones came out - and I came out of the cinema thinking that Han was a dumb doofus while Luke was badass and awesome. Funny how seeing ROTJ first gives you a completely different impression than if it's Star Wars/New Hope.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Regardless of the issue of toy sales, I think RotJ meshes well with Lucas' theme of replaying the old Flash Gordon style serials. The third film kept the OT in a level innocence and naivety that gave it the same feel as the old serials.

I watch the old serials every day after school on TV as a kid, just a few years before A New Hope was released, so I caught the connection immediately without having to read the notes later. That was the whole appeal of the OT for me.

There's nothing wrong with serious, edgy stories and there are a lot of great movies with tragic endings. I just don't see the OT as being one of those stories.

 

[MHT1138]

Looking at it from the perspective of the child I was when ROTJ came out, definitely no. As it stands, Jedi is my favorite of the OT (Blasphemy, I know). The battle over the Sarlaac pit and the throne room sequence put it over the top for me. I don't think I would have enjoyed the movie nearly as much if any of the heroes had died. Vader is redeemed and dies. That was as much of a bittersweet ending as I needed.

ROTJ is my favorite too. And even worse, I actually like the Ewoks.

No, I don't think that Han should've died. The second film was the dark one. ROTJ should've had a happy ending.

 

[davejames]

If Jedi had maintained the same darker, grittier edge of Empire, then I can see Han's death maybe working, and being a really powerful moment.

But within the fun, lighthearted movie as it is now, definitely not. It wouldn't feel appropriate at all, and would in fact seem like a pretty cheap and meaningless death amid all the jokes and puppets and teddy bears.

 

[JarodRussell]

If Jedi had maintained the same darker, grittier edge of Empire, then I can see Han's death maybe working, and being a really powerful moment.

Poor Han. First he doesn't shoot first, then he gets tortured, frozen and then killed off. Why all the hate?


[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5wCzrk5q2o[/yt]

Happy now?

 

[Captaindemotion]

So we'd have had to wait 3 years after Empire to see Luke and Leia rescue Han, then he gets killed in the middle of the movie anyway. Yes, that would've gone down well in 1983.

 

[Disruptor]

If they wanted to do 3 more sequel movies afterward with the search for Luke's sister (when she wasn't going to be Leia), and Ford wanted out (which he did)...maybe, but that makes ROTJ a whole different movie.