By now you've heard the news that Disney is in talks with Logan director James Mangold to write and direct a standalone Star Wars movie about Boba Fett. Hot on the heels of Solo: A Star Wars Story's release, Disney seems to be doubling down on the character-centric spin-off movies with Boba Fett and continued rumors of an Obi-Wan flick. No other details are known at this point, so important stuff like when it takes place and if Salacious B. Crumb is going to appear, are shrouded in mystery.
Since Disney reset the canon, the ultimate fate of the bounty hunter post Return of the Jedi has remained unknown. In the old expanded universe, Fett survived the Great Pit of Carkoon and went on to fight against everything in the galaxy well into his 70s. If Fett has any role to play in the war between the Resistance and The First Order, we probably won't find out for quite a while. So, with scant concrete details and little to no confirmation if the Boba Fett movie is actually happening, it's time for us here at the internet to do the what we do best and recklessly speculate!
19 WANT: AURRA SING
Aurra Sing was a creepy, antenna -porting bounty hunter with deep ties to the galactic underworld. She worked closely with the biggest names in Clone Wars-era sketchiness, including Cad Bane, Ziro the Hutt, and Jango Fett. Sing took up with Boba Fett after his “father’s” death in Attack of the Clones on a mission to get cold hard revenge on Jedi and dad decapitator Mace Windu. The mission failed but Boba learned plenty about being a heartless killing machine from Aurra Sing. These lessons are probably integral to why Boba Fett was known across the galaxy as the greatest bounty hunter since his father.
Since it was revealed in Solo that Aurra Sing was killed by Han’s mentor Tobias Beckett, seeing her in a Boba Fett movie would depend on when it was set. Her and Boba’s history was thoroughly explored in The Clone Wars computer animated series, and unless she’s another Star Wars character that managed to survive their apparent death, we probably won’t be seeing Aurra in the Fett movie. However, Fett referencing their time together and training would be awesome. We picture Fett making an impressive sniper shot and then making a diss on how Aurra couldn’t have made it.
18 DON'T: RATED R
Star Wars doesn’t need an R-rated entry. We’re all for being exposed to the darker, grittier side of the galaxy far, far away but there’s nothing that an R rating could give us that fans actually need or want. As much as some corners of the internet would love to see a more risqué number from Oola, the Twi’lek slave dancer in Jabba’s palace, it would be such a stretch to make that feel like part of the Star Wars universe. Other franchises have massive success with R rated entries, but characters like Deadpool are almost impossible to portray faithfully without their audiences being “restricted.” Neither is Star Wars desperate enough as the Wolverine spin-off movies that they needed to take such a risk and make “Fett: A Solo Story” the Star Wars equivalent of Logan.
Part of the magic of Star Wars is the intergenerational appeal -- whole families come together to see these movies. Imagine going to see this hypothetical R-rated Fett movie with your also hypothetical Star Wars loving Grandma. Everything’s fine until some sketchy scoundrel drops an f-bomb or there’s some weird alien flesh imagery. Bor Gullet was the last alien in the buff we’d like to see for a long, long time.
17 WANT:BOSSK
Following the death of his father, Boba Fett worked with several bounty hunters who mentored and looked after the young clone. One of the hunters that Fett continued to work with throughout his life was the Trandoshan Bossk. One of the nefarious individuals who had a hand in shaping the young Fett after his father’s death, Bossk served hard time with Fett after a botched attempt at revenge on Mace Windu and after release formed a new crew of hunters, including Asajj Ventress. The pair continued to work together through the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire, eventually competing on the contract to capture the Millennium Falcon with several other hunters as seen in Empire Strikes Back.
The big lizard has been featured in both The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series which is great and all, but we would love to see a live action appearance from Bossk in the Boba Fett anthology movie. Either returning as a friend of Boba's or someone he end's up pitted against. Just imagining a big scaly Bossk portrayed as practically as possible fighting alongside a team of bounty hunters headed by Fett himself gets us excited enough to pull the ears off a gundark!
16 DON'T: DENGAR
Dengar is terrible. You may remember him as one of the bounty hunters called aboard the super star destroyer Executor and tasked with finding the Millennium Falcon in Empire Strikes Back. If you don’t that’s ok because he’s the single most forgettable figure out of the whole lineup. Alongside the legendary Boba Fett, Vader stacked up memorable characters like insectoid/droid duo of 4-LOM and Zuckuss, the OG murderbot IG-88, and the killer reptilian Bossk. All these characters look great off the bat, even without the added benefit of EU backstories that they all eventually received. All except Dengar. Dengar looks stupid. Dengar is stupid.
Did Lucas demand that there be exactly five hunters in the scene or decide to make a last-minute addition or something? You’ve got a humanoid space T-rex, creepy bug guys, a droid that gives off serious Slenderman vibes, the mysterious Fett in his cool-as-hoth armor, and then an ugly guy with a baggy jumpsuit and some bandages. Dengar has been shoehorned into every era of the new and old EU, appearing in The Clone Wars, Marvel’s Star Wars comics, and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novels. That’s enough Dengar, please don’t put him in the Fett movie.
15 WANT: SLAVE II
Boba Fett’s suit is one of the distinct reasons he became such a favorite among fans, despite not having more than a handful of lines in the entire original trilogy. The armor and all its little details gave Fett a menacing and mysterious aura even right next to Darth Vader. The only other thing as recognizable as Fett’s mandalorian armor is his ship, Slave I. Inherited from his father after his death, Slave I is a heavily modified Firespray class patrol and attack craft that served as Boba Fett’s suitably stylish mode of transportation and defense in space. In the now non-canon Legends expanded universe, once Fett escaped The Great Pit of Carkoon, he had to use another ship to exact his revenge on Han Solo. Since his first ship was seemingly arbitrarily numbered, it makes sense that this second ship was called Slave II.
In the old canon, Slave II was a Mandalorian manufactured Pursuer-class enforcement ship that, like Slave numero uno, was heavily modified to suit Fett’s bounty hunting needs. If the Boba Fett movie is going to be set between Episodes VI and VII, watching Fett reunite with his precious family heirloom would be some epic fan service.
14 DON'T: THE SARLACC
A giant subterranean creature with tentacles and a radial maw of serrated teeth whose sound effects where made from the sound of Return of the Jedi crew members stomachs after eating pizza, the Sarlacc is gross and scary but it doesn’t make any sense. Let’s look at the facts: sarlaccs are creatures who exist on millennial scales. They only reached maturity at the ripe old age of 30,000 and take a thousand years to digest their prey. To quote the sage C-3PO, "In its belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a… thousand years." Why does it take a thousand years, isn’t that grossly inefficient? Especially on a desert planet like Tatooine where it can be assumed that Banthas aren’t running like giant space lemmings into the Great Pit of Carkoon.
Trying to rationalize this is making our heads hurt. So if the Boba Fett movie needs to show him escaping the sarlacc, cool, let’s just not go out of the way to justify some lines from a 30 year old kid’s movie that adults are taking way too seriously. Sometimes you don’t need to go back and retcon rationality into the Star Wars galaxy.
13 WANT: DADDY ISSUES
Like basically every character in the Star Wars movies, Boba Fett has daddy issues. Boba and his father Jango presumably had a nice relationship (by Star Wars parental relationship standards) running around the galaxy capturing and brutally disintegrating living, feeling beings for money. By the time Jango lost his head to a purple saber wielding maniac during the Battle of Geonosis, Boba had become pretty attached. So much so, that he swore to get revenge on Mace Windu, going so far as to pose as a clone cadet and blow up a Jedi cruiser to get at the master during a multi-episode story arc on The Clone Wars show. Obviously the plot failed since Windu survives to Episode III.
Since Boba Fett is going to be the subject of a major theatrical release, it makes sense that the loss of his father will be used to build an emotional bridge between Fett and the audience. Creating that connection could be very interesting. Hearing Fett talk about his father and their time together could be cool, or having him go through some old equipment from his dad, like his dueling pistols, would make sense. This is especially true if the film is going to be set post-sarlacc.
12 DON'T: MUSICAL NUMBER
Sing a piece of music from the Star Wars franchise. Go ahead -- aloud, if you please. Chances are you just started humming the Imperial March under your breath or shocked your office with a vigorous reenactment of the Modal Nodes from A New Hope. Point is, the music in Star Wars is incredibly memorable. Even the open to interpretation prequels had some outright classics on the soundtrack. "Duel of the Fates" anyone? Even the in-universe tunes are great, such as the aforementioned cantina band and the totally righteous jam band playing in Maz Kanata’s castle in The Force Awakens.
With all that out of the way, what we really don’t want in our earholes during the Fett movie is another treatment of the band playing in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi, especially the in-your-face monstrosity visited upon us in the special edition of the movie. Since a Boba Fett movie is going to probably include a reference or two to Jabba, we hope any visit to his palace is on open mic night or something. Solo gave us a glimpse at what the fancy and cultured members of Crimson Dawn listened to and that was cool but please, let Sy Snootles rest in peace.
11 WANT: EMBO
Embo is a Kyuzo bounty hunter who was featured among the rogue’s gallery of bounty hunters and scoundrels in the animated Clone Wars series. His species being named after a character from Seven Samurai, Embo is like a space ronin armed with a stoic disposition and a bowcaster. Towards the end of The Clone Wars, Embo worked with the young Boba Fett’s burgeoning bounty hunting syndicate. He also uses his wide-brimmed metal hat as a shield and throwing weapon like an awesome intergalactic Kung Lao from Mortal Kombat... but with way less gratuitous violence.
Star Wars is loaded with references to the militant side of feudal Japan and while Embo isn’t exactly a subtle reference, there’s no such thing as too many space samurai. Embo is a great lesser-known character from the animated Star Wars universe that deserves to be brought onto the big screen. He even has an adorably vicious pet anooba (pointy space wolves) called Marrok and his ship is a flying saucer called the Guillotine. Who wouldn’t want to see a laconic samurai bounty hunter with a canine partner and a flying saucer ship in a big budget Boba Fett film?
10 DON'T: A CHEAP DEATH
This should go without saying, but killing off Boba Fett in his own movie would really suck, especially if the film is set after Return of the Jedi. To have brought Fett back from the sarlacc’s gross, tentacled clutches only to have him die would be a tough pill to swallow. But if we’re going to have to say bye-bye to Fett, we hope he gets a better sendoff than he originally did in Jedi. Having all that hype build up for a supposedly fearsome character only to have him taken out by a flailing, near-sighted nerfherder with a pole was a major bummer.
Fett should be given a proper send off, if he’s to be given one on screen at all. In our minds, the Fett movie ends with Boba and whatever charming comic relief character he’s unwittingly partnered up with, ride off into the hyperspace sunset aboard Slave I after blasting guys worse than them and learning lessons about friendship and what it really means to be a bounty hunter. But if ol’ Fett has got to go, don’t give him a cheap death.
9 WANT: MACE WINDU
Attack of the Clones is not exactly the most popular Star Wars movie, but seeing Samuel L. Jackson’s Mace Windu in action was one of the few highlights. Watching Mr. L. Jackson wield his purple lightsaber in the Battle of Geonosis was awesome for everybody, except Boba Fett. Windu chopped off Jango Fett’s head and Boba was right there watching the whole time. Fett the younger swears revenge on the Jedi master but never gets the chance since Anakin and Palpatine chopped Windu’s arm off, blasted him with force lightning, and threw him out the window of the soon to be Emperor’s penthouse in Revenge of the Sith.
Hear us out here though, what if Windu didn’t die? He certainly wouldn’t be the first Star Wars character to be dismembered, thrown from a ridiculous height, and survive. Like Darth Maul, Windu could have survived and gone on to watch the rise of the Empire in exile. Throw in some light amnesia maybe and having Sam L. return in the Boba Fett movie could be an awesome reveal. An aged Windu with a cyborg arm facing off against the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy would be epic.
8 DON'T: HONDO OHNAKA
Hondo Ohnaka is a pirate of the Weequay species who ran a gang in the Outer Rim during that appeared in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. Hondo is an inconsistent character, to say the least. At any given point he’ll be threatening to murder Jedi younglings for their lightsaber crystals or plotting to kidnap Anakin and Obi-Wan, but then all of a sudden he’s helping the Jedi by smuggling weapons to a young Saw Gerrera and his group fighting against the Separatists. He’s a pirate so that could account for flip-floppy nature. But generally we see him as a weak character, relatively speaking.
If “Fett: A Boba Story” is going to be showing us parts of the seedy underbelly of the Star Wars universe we’ve never seen before, we’d like to see things we actually haven’t seen before. And we've seen quite a bit of the Weequay in question. Hondo is ok, we guess, for what he was on Rebels and Clone Wars, but let's leave him in the animated part of the galaxy where he belongs.
7 WANT: PREQUEL TO THE SEQUELS
Ever since Disney rebooted 90% of the Star Wars franchise by wiping away all the previously established expanded universe canon, most of the stories we’ve seen in the comics and books have focused on the period between the end of the Clone Wars and the destruction of the first Death Star. Rebels, the Star Wars Story films, and the new mainline Marvel Star Wars comics have done their best to flesh out the era of the Empire’s rise. Little to nothing has touched on the 30 something years between the death of Vader and the Emperor and the destruction of the First Order’s Starkiller Base. Given the dearth of coverage on the time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, and the question of how Fett survived his run-in with the Sarlacc, the Fett movie is a great opportunity to explore both.
Setting the movie between VI and VII would give the film a far greater opportunity to tell a powerful story. If they follow the Solo formula and set Fett: A Star Wars Story prior to the original trilogy, it would rob the movie of most of its dramatic tension. Obviously, Fett is going to survive since we see him in Episodes V and VI.
6 DON'T: MANDALORE
Mandalore is an ancient and storied planet in the Outer Rim, home to the notoriously warlike Mandalorians, of which the Fett’s descendants. The planet itself was the setting for more than a few episodes of both the animated series. Stories there featured political intrigue during a civil war between militants and a regime attempting to reform Mandalore into a pacifist culture, as well as a romantic subplot between Obi-Wan and the Mandalorian Duchess Satine. Maul eventually tries to take over the planet in his effort to build a criminal empire and is successful for a hot minute before Darth Sidious comes to smack down his former apprentice.
Mandalore was an interesting setting in the shows. The warrior culture was a big part of the Knights of the Old Republic games and comics too. While we would love to see new media delve into the history of the Mandalorians and their super nifty Darksaber, the Fett movie is not a place for it. We’ve got other things to get through, like exploring Boba Fett’s character and watching him shoot things, without getting bogged down in lengthy bits of exposition about a planet and culture that Fett has never had much connection to, except for his armor.
5 WANT: A FEARSOME REPUTATION
Almost every mention of Boba Fett in the old and new Star Wars canon reference him as the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. Vader has to explicitly tell Fett “no disintegrations” in Empire. But really we don’t see him do much besides stand menacingly next to other characters, looking cool in his Mandalorian armor. When he does get to see some action in Return of the Jedi Even in the new canon Star Wars comics from Marvel, after Fett is tasked to bring in the pilot that destroyed the Death Star alive by Vader, the hunter blinds Luke and attempts to take him in but trips over a knocked over R2D2 and lets the blind kid escape.
A Boba Fett movie will have to give us a ton of material to support Fett’s reputation as the toughest bounty hunter in the galaxy. A few intense shootouts, a scene of him collecting some of those Wookiee pelts adorning his armor, and some cool gadgets would only begin to make up for Fett’s seemingly undeserving reputation. Whatever Boba: A Fett Story ends up being about, it has a lot of work to do.
4 DON'T: A FETT WITH A CONSCIENCE
Both of the Fetts are known throughout the Star Wars galaxy and the real world as the best at what they do. And what they do is kill and or capture all manner of sentient beings for money. This makes Jango and his genetically identical offspring bad people and, for the most part, bad people are hard for audiences to empathize with. Jango has been referred to as an honorable man while also being an assassin for hire, but Boba seems to have taken the Fett reputation down the ladder a few rungs. Attempts were made during The Clone Wars show to give a younger Fett small moments of niceness in his hunt for revenge on Mace Windu, but by the time we see Boba in the OT, he seems to have dropped all attempts at developing a set of morals.
Boba was a bad guy, let’s not try to find some redeemable character traits all of a sudden just so we can have a relatable character in the movie. Let Boba Fett be true to his nature, a nice revenge plot against Solo or Windu is cool, but he doesn’t need to save the galaxy or anything.
3 WANT: 1313
As part of the ongoing power struggle between the galactic forces of democracy and totalitarianism depicted in the Star Wars movies, the new expanded universe has focused on sketching out the role of the crime-riddled underworld. Maul’s crime syndicated from The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Solo portray a very interesting part of the Star Wars underworld that Fett is heavily involved in. The now-canceled game Star Wars: 1313 would have taken place in the titular level of Coruscant’s underworld and put players in the armored boots of Boba Fett. Styled after the super successful Uncharted franchise, players would have third-person-actioned their way around the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the capital.
Now that Disney has crushed Star Wars gamers dreams by making sure 1313 is never going to see the light of day in favor of loot boxes and convoluted mobile titles, a Boba Fett movie is the perfect opportunity to show fans what they missed. Watching Fett dive into the seedy side of Coruscant’s underworld would be awesome. If he’s going to be putting together a team or replenishing his stock of Mandalorian gadgets for a mission of revenge level 1313 is the place to do it.
2 DON'T: SEQUEL TO THE PREQUELS
Ever since the return of Star Wars movies with the Disney buyout and the Mouse eliminated all the previously established canon, we’ve seen plenty of material dealing with the period between the end of the Clone Wars and the Battle of Yavin. This 19-year period is well explored by almost everything Disney has published outside The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Comics, TV shows, and the two previous Star Wars stories have all been set in this period during the consolidation of the Empire’s power. In contrast, the 29-year gap between Return of the Jedi and its sequel hasn’t produced much.
What better way to flesh out this mysterious time period than with the Boba Fett movie? He escapes the sarlacc, we watch news of the Empire’s downfall through him, he goes on some galaxy-spanning quest for revenge or money... or his helmet or something... and we all leave the theater happy. Point is, we don’t need any more movies set before Episode IV. Perhaps we could tolerate a Solo sequel since that big villain reveal and the unresolved relationship between Han and Qi’ra and all that but let’s give Boba some space in the timeline.
1 WANT: BLACK KRRSANTAN
Of all the members of the bounty hunting guild that Boba Fett has worked with over the years one of the toughest and most interesting to see on screen would definitely be Black Krrsantan. A Wookiee who disgraced the people of Kashyyyk and fled, Krrsantan is like a tougher Chewbacca without any of the moral hangups about doing the right thing. Krrsantan, or Santy to his friends, started out as a gladiator before becoming one of Jabba the Hutt’s top enforcers. He’s worked with Fett on behalf of Darth Vader to track down Luke Skywalker in the Marvel comics set after A New Hope.
Whatever the story of the new Boba Fett movie is going to be, he’ll need a colorful cast of questionable characters to either work with or against. Black Krrsantan isn't exactly colorful but the Star Wars movies could use more Wookiee representation, even if it is a morally bankrupt murdering brute like Krrsantan. A knock-down, drag-out with a Wookiee who isn't restrained by silly things like morality and who is willing to kill and dismember, even slightly more than Chewbacca already is, would be an awesome moment to watch on the big screen.