George Lucas: When writing the movies, I tried to make sure that aliens and droids got killed, but not people.
Paul Duncan: A lot of stormtroopers died.
George Lucas: That’s right, but you didn’t know they were people. We did kill three humans and that was unfortunate. I was always bothered by it.
Paul Duncan: When was that?
George Lucas: On the Death Star, when Han and Luke go into the prison with Chewie to rescue Leia, they shoot three Imperial guys. The guards drew their guns and fired first, but it’s still a shame.
Paul Duncan: Really?
George Lucas: Yeah, we very consciously didn’t kill very many humans in those movies.
Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not.
George Lucas: How do you know what they are?
Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were?
George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia.
This is so strange to me. Are aliens and clones not people to George? Besides, what about everyone Luke blew up with the Death Star? I guess as long as we don’t see their faces, their death doesn’t count. And what about the good dozen Rebels gunned down by Stormtroopers in the first scene, or Captain Antilles who had his neck crushed, or crispy Owen and Beru…
Like, I don’t want to say this flippantly, but this seems like an artist in willful denial of the content of his art.
The guards do not fire at all, and one of them doesn’t even pull his gun out of the holster. He doesn’t remember anything about them because he doesn’t care. To be fair, he shouldn’t, because they came out 40 years ago, but he MAKES us care by changing it every few years.