Boba Fett

Boba Fett is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. First appearing in Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), where she was voiced by Don Francks, she is an armored bounty hunter appearing in the original and prequel film trilogies. In the original trilogy, the character is a secondary antagonist and was played primarily by Jeremy Bulloch and voiced by Jason Wingreen. Notable for his taciturn demeanor and for never removing his helmet, Fett appears in both The Empire Strikes Back (1980), as an employee of the Galactic Empire, and in Return of the Jedi (1983), serving crime lord Jabba the Hutt. While she apparently died in Return of the Jedi after falling into a Sarlacc, she has since appeared in Star Wars media after the movie, which confirms her survival. A pre-adolescent Boba is played by Daniel Logan in the prequel film Attack of the Clones (2002), which reveals the character's origins as the genetic clone and adopted son of Jango Fett, also a famous bounty hunter.

The character also appears in many forms of Star Wars media outside of the films, such as books, comics, television series, and video games, many of which depict him as an anti-hero rather than of a villain, and explore his background, motivations, and morality. Daniel Logan reprized his role as the younger version of Fett in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while Temuera Morrison, who also played Jango in Attack of the Clones, has played an adult Boba in most of his Star Wars appearances since then, most prominently in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and its spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett.

During the development of The Empire Strikes Back Fett was originally conceived as a member of a group of "super commandos" Imperials in white armor before the idea was scrapped in favor of a lone bounty hunter. This concept later evolved into the Mandalorians, a cultural group with strong warrior traditions, who sport armor and helmets similar to Fett's. In various Star Wars works, Fett himself is portrayed as a Mandalorian, or at least connected to Mandalorian culture through his armor.

The character of Boba Fett quickly became a fan favorite despite his limited presence in the original Star Wars trilogy, and is now a widely recognized figure in popular culture. Her popularity within the Star Wars fanbase has earned her a cult following.

Concept and development

Star Wars creator George Lucas created Boba Fett in his April 1978 draft script for The Empire Strikes Back, basing the character The Man Without name of Sergio Leone (Clint Eastwood). The character had to be designed quickly, as Lucas had agreed to have him appear in the Star Wars Christmas Special that same year. The character design grew out of initial concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally envisioned as a rogue bounty hunter. While Vader became less of a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept was retained, with Fett becoming an "equally villainous" character. but "less conspicuous". Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized and credited to Joe Johnston.

Norman Reynolds and the film's art department built the costumes. Fett's armor was originally designed for "super soldiers" and was adapted for Fett as the script developed. Tested in white screen, Fett's armor eventually got a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him among the 'rank and file' Imperial stormtroopers of the past. in white armor and Vader, who wears black. This color scheme had the added benefit of conveying the "gray morality" of his character. The character's armor was designed to look like it was drawn from multiple sources and is adorned with trophies. A description of Fett in Bantha Tracks catalyzed "rampant speculation" about his origins. By 1979, Fett's backstory included having served in an army of Imperial shock troops that had fought against the Galactic Republic's clone troopers during the Clone Wars.

Despite two years of widespread publicity surrounding Fett's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, script rewrites significantly reduced the character's presence in the film. Fett's theme song, composed by John Williams, is "not music, exactly," but "rather a gurgling, viola and bassoon thing, mixed aurally with some dark static". Sound editor Ben Burtt added the sound of clinking spurs, created and performed by the foley artist team of Robert Rutledge and Edward Steidele, to Fett's appearance in Cloud City, intending to make the character both menacing and that the scene is reminiscent of similar appearances by gunmen in Western movies. At one point in the development of Return of the Jedi, Fett was envisioned as a main villain, but was eventually replaced by the Emperor when Lucas decided against making a third Star Wars trilogy. >. Lucas also considered having Fett fight Lando Calrissian during the sarlacc sequence.

An official reference book states that Fett charges "famously expensive" and that he commits himself only when the mission meets "his harsh sense of justice." Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote some stories with Boba Fett, cited Westerns as an influence on the character's development. Moran said:

The difficult thing with Fett was to find a vision of the world for him that would allow him to proclaim a Code: given the absolute evil that permeated the Empire, Fett had to be 1) Malvado, or 2) an incredibly implacable, hard, "greater". The second approach worked and has resonated among some readers.

Lucas at one point considered depicting Vader and Fett as brothers in the prequel films, but dismissed it as too 'cheesy'. In continuing to develop the character in the prequel films, Lucas closed off some avenues for expanding the character's story and opened up others by establishing that Fett is a clone of a similar bounty hunter, Jango Fett. Lucas considered modifying later editions of Return of the Jedi by adding a shot of Fett escaping from the sarlacc, but decided against it as it would have detracted from the focus of the story. Lucas also said that if he had known Fett would be so popular, he would have made the character's death "more exciting." In 2014, after Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Star Wars historian Jonathan W. Rinzler revealed that Lucas had privately acknowledged that Fett escaped from the sarlacc. This was canonically established with Fett's appearances in The Mandalorian six years later, leading to a spin-off focused on the character, The Book of Boba Fett. Joe Johnston criticized the decision to portray the character without his helmet, although it is part of the plot

History

Boba Fett was born, or rather cloned, on the planet Kamino, where he lived until he was ten years old. He had to flee from there headlong in his ship, the Slave I , when Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to capture his father. They escaped, but the Jedi managed to attach a transmitter to the ship's hull and track them to Geonosis. Shortly before arriving, Jango and Boba discovered Obi-Wan's Jedi fighter, and after engaging it, they believed they had destroyed it and landed on the planet. In the Geonosis arena, Jango Fett, his father, was beheaded by Jedi Master Mace Windu, an act witnessed from a distance by Boba.

Boba followed in the footsteps of his father Jango and became effective at his job, gaining a galactic reputation as the best bounty hunter. His first official job was for Jabba the Hutt, and it consisted of assassinating Gilramos Libkath, a leader of a gang of robbers on Tatooine.

Later, Boba is hired by Darth Vader, who orders him to hunt down Han Solo. After following the Millennium Falcon to Bespin, he manages to hunt down Han Solo, and freezes him in carbonite, to deliver to Jabba the Hutt, who will reward him. After Han Solo is freed from carbonite by Leia Organa, Solo and Luke Skywalker are sentenced to death, being thrown into the legendary Sarlacc, on Jabba's orders. However, Luke and Han manage to break free just in time for their execution, forcing Boba to jump onto the battlefield and fight Skywalker. However, Han Solo, temporarily blinded by the carbonite, mistakenly shovels Boba Fett's jetpack, causing it to lose control, causing Boba to fall into the jetpack. Sarlacc, escaping from it some time later, although injured.

Although no one in galactic history was able to escape the Sarlacc, Fett was able to, but not entirely unscathed. Thanks to his Mandalorian armor and iron will, he was able to climb out of the beast's throat and kill the Sarlacc. Finally Boba Fett returns and goes in search of Han Solo to get revenge and finish his job, which causes a chase throughout the galaxy. Back in action, he continued to work as a bounty hunter. After making a promise to the dying Fenn Shysa, Fett became a Mandalorian and eventually led the Mandalorians in the Yuuzhan Vong War. Originally working as a mercenary for the invaders, Fett later aided the New Republic in their battle against the aliens. When the Yuuzhan Vong stormed Mandalor and bombarded the grounds, a large amount of Mandalorian Iron was unearthed, which ironically helped the Mandalorians. Later, during the Second Galactic Civil War, Fett, still leading the Mandalorians, was in even worse health. He found his granddaughter, Mirta Gev, and the two went on various missions together, including alongside Han Solo. Fett also trained Solo's daughter, Jaina, to kill her twin brother, Darth Caedus, and aided the Jedi Coalition in various battles. Ultimately, Fett's training helped Jaina kill Caedus, though an Imperial nanovirus attack kept Fett from returning to Mandalor.

Some errors of its historical origin

The previous historical origin of this character dates back to November 17, 1978, in a television special broadcast on CBS, later making the leap to the big screen, to later participate in the entire saga (II, IV, V and VI) from Star Wars. According to this fact collected from the Star Wars Expanded Universe in the comics, his origin as a character was always linked, before the events of episode four, to a time in which he supposedly served as a Mandalorian law enforcement officer, calling himself Jaster Meerel, protector of travelers. Killing a corrupt and disloyal partner, Jaster was dismissed for said crime and banished from Concord Down, disappearing for a long time. Between his banishment and the events of A New Hope, he supposedly entered the Imperial Academy, serving as a Stormtrooper for an unknown period, as well as the reasons why he left the Empire and became a Boba Fett, intergalactic bounty hunter. Boba Fett is a clone of Jango Fett. They chose Jango Fett to create the clones of the Republican army for being a good bounty hunter and in exchange they gave him a son (clone of himself), named Boba Fett.

It is worth mentioning that some of these errors have been corrected with the series of special comics, and the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (animated series)

At the end of the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, young Boba Fett seeks revenge for the death of his father at the hands of Mace Windu. His teacher, the bounty hunter Aurra Sing, convinces him to kill Windu, which he almost succeeds in, posing as a young clone in Windu's ship and blowing it up.

Months later, orphaned Boba Fett leads a syndicate of bounty hunters to protect cargo from a Quarzite subway train, which in truth turns out to be guarding a Kage girl destined to marry the planet's dictator.

Own protagonist

In 2013, Disney, current owner of Lucasfilm, had confirmed a spin-off for 2020 with Boba Fett as the lead. But it was canceled after the box office failure of the second spin off of the Star Wars saga Han Solo: A Star Wars Story.

In 2020 he appears in the second season of the series The Mandalorian. In the last episode of the second season, they confirmed after the credits that there was going to be a series about Boba Fett in December 2021 called The Book of Boba Fett, where they explained how he managed to survive the Sarlacc in the Episode VI - Return of the Jedi.