We’ve learned some new, tragically tantalizing details about the now-defunctBoba Fettmovie. For literally years, we’ve heard that Lucasfilm had been developing a standalone movie based on the famed bounty hunter, who, despite having very limited screen time in the franchise, has become one of the most popular characters in all ofStar Wars. Unfortunately, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has pulled the plug on the movie, but we now know some of what we were going to see and, for hardcore fans, it could have been quite great.
Several outlets confirmed initial reports thatthe Boba Fett movie has indeed been scrapped. In one of those reports, it was said that the movie would have included some of the infamous lineup ofStar Wars bounty huntersfromThe Empire Strikes Back. Fett had the most screen time in the scene in question, but Darth Vader brought in several scummy gunmen to look for the Millenium Falcon. These characters would have been given significantly more screen time in the spin-off, which now lies on theStar Warsprojects that never came to be scrap heap.
While it’s not clear exactly who would have been featured, or how they would have been used, it sounds like the spin-off would have been more of an ensemble feature, as opposed toSolo, which was very much a character origin story. IG-88,Bossk, Dengar, Zuckuss and 4-Lom were all inThe Empire Strikes Backalongside Fett. Some of these characters have been explored in the expanded universe, with Bossk and Dengar added as playable characters in Star Wars Battlefront and IG-88 one of the more challenging boss battles in the Nintendo 64 classic,Shadows of the Empire, for example.
Similar to Boba Fett, some of these characters have gone on to become rather popular, despite having no dialogue and hardly a frame of screen time. The idea of featuring them in a gritty bounty hunter crime flick would have not only allowed for them to get more time on the big screen, but it also would have been a way to keep the mystique of Boba Fett intact. Doing aSolostyle movie would have completely torn down any sort of interesting mystery he has.
Originally, Josh Trank (Fantastic Four) had been tapped by Lucasfilm to direct a Boba Fett movie in 2015. He was fired just ahead of Star Wars Celebration in 2015. More recently, James Mangold (Logan) had been hired to write and direct the spin-off. Unfortunately, he’s also moving on. Lucasfilm will, for the time being, shift focus away from these standalones and pour more resources into their live-actionStar WarsTV series,The Mandalorian, which is filming currently and is slated to debut on Disney’s streaming service, which launches next year. Also of note; the report fromEntertainment Weeklyoffers a tiny note, stating that the idea could be dusted off years down the road. But don’t get your hopes up. For now, it’s dead as can be.
