If you're wondering why Logan director James Mangold's Star Wars spinoff film starring Boba Fett never saw the light of day, it's because it never actually existed to begin with.
Ahead of the premiere of the Disney+ original series Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett, Lucasfilm president and Star Wars franchise producer Kathleen Kennedy discussed the planned Boba Fett spinoff movie directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle, Fantastic Four) that never made it to production. She also took the time to definitively debunk the long-standing rumor that Mangold was also in line to direct a Boba Fett film at one point.
"There really was virtually no previous development [of a Boba Fett project]," Kennedy told Empire magazine. "We never got very far with Josh, quite frankly, because we never developed anything specific with him. And Jim Mangold never worked on a Boba Fett story."
Back in May of 2018, The Hollywood Reporter -- one of the most reliable trades in the game -- reported that Mangold was developing a Boba Fett movie at Lucasfilm. This would have been the third entry in Disney and Lucasfilm's series of Star Wars anthology films, following 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and 2018's Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Even back then, however, the report was met with scrutiny. In July 0f 2018, Mangold himself shot down rumors of a Boba Fett movie while responding to a Twitter user who was seemingly irate about the non-existent project. Telling the user to "chill," Mangold wrote, "I'm making a period car racing movie [with] Christian Bale [and] Matt Damon. No Mandalorians involved. Stop reading so much gossip." (Mangold was referring to his film Ford v Ferrari, which released in 2019.) Between that and Kennedy's new comments, we can safely say that a Mangold-directed Boba Fett movie was never in the cards.
A fan-favorite character from the original Star Wars film trilogy, an adult Boba Fett would ultimately return to live-action during the sophomore season of Disney+'s The Mandalorian in 2020, played by Temuera Morrison -- who previously starred as Boba Fett's "father," Jango Fett, in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. The Mandalorian Season 2 revealed that Boba Fett had actually survived the events of 1983's Return of the Jedi. Morrison will reprise his role in The Book of Boba Fett, a spinoff series set to premiere next month.
Meanwhile, while he may never have been actually making a Boba Fett movie, Mangold is currently working with Lucasfilm on the untitled fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Directed and co-written by Mangold and co-produced by Kennedy, Indiana Jones 5 is currently scheduled for release on June 30, 2023. Harrison Ford is set to reprise his role as the title character and will star opposite the likes of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas and Olivier Richters.
Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett premieres Dec. 29 on Disney+.
Source: Empire magazine, via Star Wars News Net