It's no secret that Star Wars fans can be a shallow bunch. All it took to reduce hundreds of streamers to tears was an out of context shot of the Millennium Falcon in the original trailer for The Force Awakens, even though they had no idea why the ship was in the movie. The Falcon could have been on a journey to pick up Jar Jar Binks and the Ewoks for all they knew.
Boba Fett might be the chief example of unearned love from the Star Wars fanbase. People love Boba Fett just because he looks cool and doesn't say much. Boba Fett didn't actually do much in the original trilogy, but the fans still took to him regardless and elevated him to a status of badassery that few other fictional characters have reached.
There was a long gap between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, which meant that the fans and the Expanded Universe were given a lot of leeway when it came redefining Boba Fett to their tastes.
We are here today to look at the secrets behind fiction's most famous bounty hunter. From the dangerous toy that's worth a lot of money, to the derailment of his movie career by the Fantastic Four.
Here are Fifteen Dark Facts You Didn’t Know About Boba Fett!
15 Boba Fett Is After Maury Povich's Job
Obi-Wan Kenobi did a terrible job of hiding the baby Luke Skywalker from Darth Vader. Luke's surname was kept (unlike Leia's) and he was dumped in a place that Darth Vader was familiar with.
It seems that Obi-Wan Kenobi didn't have to worry too much, as it took Vader a long time to work out that Luke was his son. We know this due to the sixth issue of the Star Wars comic series, where it is revealed that Vader hired Boba Fett to hunt down the Rebel pilot who blew up the Darth Star. Fett didn't succeed in his mission, but he was able to determine the identity of the pilot. This means that Boba Fett was the one who told Darth Vader that Luke Skywalker was his son.
14 He Can't Be Any Worse Than Snoke
George Lucas' ideas for Star Wars were once planned to be far grander than the two trilogies that he produced. Lucas had once wanted to produce several trilogies, with Palpatine planned to be the villain of the final one. The success of Star Wars meant that Lucas probably could have followed through on these plans, but he eventually decided to cut the amount of movies down.
Boba Fett was originally planned to be the villain of the movie we now call Return of the Jedi. It was planned for the rescue of Han Solo to be the main focus of the third movie, with the Vader/Palpatine stuff being pushed into the next trilogy. This is why Boba Fett received so much promotion and why he was so quickly dispatched when the plans changed.
13 Stealing Vader's Style
The character designs for the original Star Wars trilogy were a lot different than what actually appeared in the films. This was due to the numerous changes that George Lucas was making to the story, as well as the actual reality of being able to physically create fantastic beings using the special effects technology of the '70s.
Darth Vader was originally conceptualized as a bounty hunter, with an attitude that befitted a cold and calculating mercenary. Vader's design changed over time so that he became more of an evil knight. This original design was later reworked into Boba Fett.
Boba Fett's design would also include elements of the "Super Trooper" soldiers, who were meant to be elite Stormtroopers that were planned to appear in The Empire Strikes Back.
12 Is Boba Fett Still Alive?
The fate of Boba Fett was left ambiguous in Return of the Jedi. We see him fall into the Sarlacc Pit, where he will presumably spend years being slowly digested. It's entirely possible that Boba Fett managed to escape the Sarlacc Pit, thanks to the weaponry in his armor. We know that Boba Fett possesses a missile launcher and a jetpack, which may have allowed him to fight his way out to freedom.
Boba Fett managed to escape the Sarlacc Pit in the Expanded Universe novels, but those are no longer considered to be canon. We have yet to see Boba Fett in the new Star Wars films, so his fate is ambiguous once more.
The only canon evidence to Boba Fett's survival comes from a Reddit AMA with Jonathon Rinzler. He had been in meetings with George Lucas where Lucas had confirmed Boba Fett's survival and escape from the Sarlacc Pit.
11 The Brothers Fett
The moment when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke Skywalker's father is considered to be one of the most iconic scenes in movie history. It is for this reason that other forms of Star Wars media have attempted to use a big story twist in the same way, such as with the reveal of the true identity of Darth Revan in Knights of the Old Republic.
It seems that George Lucas was planning on a similar reveal for the prequel trilogy. Lucas was once planning for Anakin Skywalker and Boba Fett to be brothers, which would have further pruned the family tree of the saga. This idea was scrapped when it was determined to be "too hokey" by Lucas and those closest to him.
10 The End Of 1313
The purchase of Lucasfilm and all of its intellectual properties by the Walt Disney Company meant that certain planned projects had to be scrapped, as they conflicted with the new ideas that were going ahead for Star Wars. The biggest victim of the Disney purchase was Star Wars 1313, which was intended to an action game that focused on bounty hunters and their prey. Star Wars 1313 was going to show the dark side of the universe in a whole new way.
A lot of information about Star Wars 1313 has leaked out since its cancelation, which has included the fact that Boba Fett was planned to be the main character at one point in development. This likely would have made the game a huge hit for LucasArts, which makes the cancelation of the game even more puzzling.
9 The Worst Debut
The Star Wars Holiday Special is widely considered to be the worst part of the entire Star Wars franchise. A theoretical movie starring Jar Jar Binks and the Ewoks, with a soundtrack entirely composed of Darth Vader screaming "Nooooooo" wouldn't even be 1% as bad as The Holiday Special.
The Star Wars Holiday Special is responsible for introducing an important character to the series - Boba Fett. There is an animated sequence in The Star Wars Holiday Special that features the cast of A New Hope, who are all voiced by their original actors. The Millennium Falcon becomes trapped, which is how Luke first encounters Boba Fett.
Boba Fett pretends to be an ally, but he is secretly working for the Empire and intends to hand Luke over to Darth Vader.
8 Fett Vs. Zombies
One of the side effects of the Expanded Universe is that even the most minor Star Wars character has an incredibly fleshed out backstory. All of those crummy looking aliens in the Mos Eisley Cantina have had more written about their lives than Winston Churchill. They also tend to be incredibly important characters, with each lame plastic alien secretly being a member of the Rebel Alliance, a spy for the Empire, or a Jedi in hiding.
Cornelius Evazan is the ugly guy who tries to pick a fight with Luke in the Mos Eisley Cantina. The Expanded Universe turned him into some kind of mad scientist who can create zombies. This was part of Project Starscream, which was a plan to create an army of undead soldiers for the Empire. Boba Fett once hunted Cornelius Evazen of the planet Necropolis, where he was forced to fight off zombies in order to catch his prey.
7 Five Lines Of Pleasure
One thing that George Lucas seemed to have forgotten when he made the prequel trilogy is that sometimes less is more. The prequel movies were filled with visual spectacle, which was mostly pointless in helping to engage the audience in the story.
Boba Fett is a chief example of exuding menace without the need to constantly talk or explain his motivations to the audience. This is because Boba Fett managed to become a massively popular character, even though he only had five lines of dialogue in the whole original trilogy. In The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett's entire spoken dialogue is "As you wish", "He's no good to me dead", "What if he doesn't survive? He's worth a lot to me", and "Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold." He only has a single line in Return of the Jedi which is "What the?"
6 These Toys Are Worth The Most Money
The original Star Wars toys produced by Kenner are worth a great deal of money if they are still in their box. This is partly due to issues around the production of these toys, as no one expected A New Hope to explode in popularity like it did, so Kenner was unprepared for the demand.
One of the most expensive Star Wars toys in existence is the Boba Fett figure that possesses the ability to fire a rocket from its back. These figures never made it past the quality assurance stage, due to fears of the rocket leading to injuries. Prototypes of these figures have leaked out into the world, where they have been sold for over fifty thousand dollars.
5 Boba Fett The Vulcan
We never got to see Boba Fett without his helmet on in the original trilogy. This caused all kinds of speculation as to his true appearance. It's possible that Boba Fett could have looked like pretty much anyone, as there was a lot of space in that helmet.
The prequel trilogy revealed that Boba Fett looks like a regular human, as he was the son of Jango Fett, who was also a famous bounty hunter.
The Expanded Universe had several different interpretations of what Boba Fett looked like without his helmet on before we saw him in the prequels. According to one of the Star Wars trading cards: Boba Fett had bronze colored skin, white eyes, and pointed ears like a Vulcan.
4 The Less Exciting End Of Boba Fett
Boba Fett's role in the story of Star Wars was greatly reduced as time went on. This didn't stop him from becoming one of the most popular characters in the series, despite his lack of dialogue and the fact that he mainly stood in the background and looked menacing. Boba Fett's coolness wasn't even offset by the lameness of his demise, as he was knocked into a pit by a blind guy who was swinging wildly.
George Lucas has since admitted that he would have given Boba Fett a much more awesome fate, had he known how popular the character would become with the fans. Boba Fett was just another minion who worked for the real bad guys as far as George Lucas was concerned, so there was no point in giving him an exciting ending to his story.
3 Five Phoned-In Lines
Boba Fett had a separate actor for both his body and his voice. In the same way that Darth Vader was played by David Prowse but voiced by James Earl Jones, Boba Fett was played by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by James Wingreen.
When the original trilogy was being prepared for a DVD release in 2004, there were a few changed made in order to add in elements from the prequel trilogy. One of these changes involved using Jango Fett's actor to rerecord James Wingreen's five lines of dialogue.
Jango Fett was played by Temuera Morrison, who hails from New Zealand. It seems that Lucasfilm didn't want to pay for plane tickets for an actor who was only going to record five lines, so they had Morrison record them over the phone into a microphone.
2 The Quest To Slay Mace Windu
Boba Fett witnessed the slaying of his father at a young age. Jango Fett tried to take down Mace Windu in Attack of the Clones on the orders of Count Dooku. Their fight was interrupted by one of the beasts rampaging in the arena, which allowed Mace Windu to slice Jango's head off with a blow from his lightsaber.
Boba Fett wasn't able to get revenge in Revenge of the Sith, as Mace Windu was dealt with by Emperor Palpatine. It was originally planned for Boba Fett to be responsible for taking down Mace Windu, but George Lucas determined that Boba Fett would be too young at that point, so he was left out of the movie.
Boba Fett and Mace Windu have since encountered each other in the Star Wars cartoons.
1 The Drama That Delayed The Boba Fett Movie
Disney spent over four billion dollars on purchasing Lucasfilm and their intellectual properties. They will milk the Star Wars property with a new movie each year until people become sick of them, which is still a better fate for the franchise than if the prequel trilogy had been the final Star Wars movies ever released.
The new movies in the Star Wars timeline will also be joined by spinoff films, such as Rogue One and the upcoming film about Han Solo. Boba Fett is going to be the focus of one the upcoming solo anthology films. His movie has been delayed, due to issues with director Josh Trank.
Josh Trank was all set to direct the Boba Fett movie until rumors of his behavior on the set of Fantastic Four started to leak. Trank's erratic behavior led to conflicts with both the cast and crew, with reshoots being needed to finish the film. Knowledge of these issues made their way to Lucasfilm, which led to Trank being removed as the director of the Boba Fett film and pushing it further back on the schedule of upcoming Star Wars movies.