No, Han does not shoot first on the digital version of A New Hope. The word from Australia, where it’s already Friday and the digital releases are live, is that the Greedo scene is exactly the same as the one on the Blu-ray. And, to be fair, anything else would have been a big shock, given that ‘Han shot first’ would have been spun into a Lucasfilm talking point by now if it had been the case.
Devin Faraci at Badass Digest, with whom today’s report originated, admitted that he was wrong, but does maintain that there is a high definition version of the pre-Special Edition scene in play somewhere… So don’t expect the rumors of restored ‘original’ prints to die down any time soon.
Is there any serious doubt that they can do whatever they want with it?
There is suspicion that a) Lucas, as the director, still has final say and/or b) there could be something in the sales contracts that says they can’t. But no one on our end really knows, and I doubt anyone who does is going to say anything until/if it actually happens.