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Solo: A Star Wars Story co-writer Jonathan Kasdan recalls being told that the character of Boba Fett was “off limits.”
Screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan has explained why he was unable to use the character of Boba Fett in the 2018 Star Wars anthology film Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Kasdan is one of two credited writers on Solo, the other being his father, Lawrence Kasdan, who also co-wrote such Star Wars films as The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. While speaking with The New York Times regarding the legacy of Boba Fett, Jonathan Kasdan said that while he might have liked to include the legendary bounty hunter in Solo, Lucasfilm is fairly selective with who it lets use the fan-favorite character.
Simply put, Boba Fett isn’t just popular with Star Wars fans — he’s popular with Star Wars creators as well. As a result, not everyone who wants a crack at the character gets the opportunity, especially if projects involving Boba Fett are being developed elsewhere. Kasdan recalls being told by Lucasfilm that, “Boba was always off limits because he was in development elsewhere.”
Directed by Ron Howard, Solo chronicles the early days of legendary smuggler Han Solo, with actor Alden Ehrenreich taking over the role that was originally played by Harrison Ford. Boba Fett, of course, has a history with Han, having been hired by Jabba the Hutt to capture him for unpaid debts. Boba ultimately succeeds, freezing Han in carbonite during the final act of The Empire Strikes Back and setting the events of Return of the Jedi in motion.
Between Solo featuring Han as its main character and generally focusing on the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe, it does seem as though Boba Fett would have been right at home in the film. However, around the same time Solo was being developed, Lucasfilm was looking into giving Boba Fett his own solo film, potentially with Chronicle director Josh Trank at the helm, though the project that never came to fruition.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy recently opened up about Trank’s scrapped Boba Fett film, explaining that it didn’t get very far into development at all. “There really was virtually no previous development [of a Boba Fett project],” she told Empire. “We never got very far with Josh, quite frankly, because we never developed anything specific with him.” Kennedy also debunked reports that Logan director James Mangold was once tapped to direct a Boba Fett anthology film. Per Deadline, Lucasfilm reportedly shelved the idea of a Boba Fett movie entirely as of late 2018, several months after Solo hit theaters.
Boba Fett did ultimately return to the world of live-action in Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian Season 2 in 2020, which revealed the bounty hunter to have canonically survived the events of 1983’s Return of the Jedi. In The Mandalorian‘s second season, Boba Fett was played by Temuera Morrison, who previously portrayed Jango Fett in 2002’s Attack of the Clones.
Attack of the Clones also starred Daniel Logan as a young Boba Fett. While The Mandalorian Season 2 marked Boba’s first live-action appearance since Attack of the Clones, Attack of the Clones itself marked the character’s first live-action appearance since the late Jeremy Bulloch last wore the iconic armor in Return of the Jedi.
The Mandalorian‘s Morrison reprises his role as Boba Fett in the fast-approaching spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, which is slated to premiere on Disney+ in just a few days on Wednesday, Dec. 29.
Source: The New York Times
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