Though Boba Fett had only limited screen time in the original Star Wars trilogy, plenty has been written of the bounty hunter in various, mostly non-canonical fiction, and much of it involves his further adventures with the fellow mercenaries also seen briefly in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s therefore not too surprising to learn that the character’s scrapped spinoff film would’ve taken a very similar approach.
Entertainment Weekly reports that James Mangold’s movie would’ve focused on Fett and the other colorfully designed characters who were hired to track down the Rebels in the 1980 flick. And since the film offered even fewer details on Boba’s competitors than they did on Boba, that may well have given the director a lot of freedom in interpreting these individuals.
Of course, thought the EW article suggests that this project could some day be resurrected, it looks like The Mandalorian will be Lucasfilm’s focus for the time being. And given the obvious similarities between the appearances of Boba and the show’s own suited-up title character, it’s only natural that Fett has already worked his way into several fan theories. One idea that’s made the rounds this months, for instance, is that the Mandalorian in question is actually a gunslinger from the books named Cobb Vanth, who inherits the armor of the late bounty hunter after the events of Return of the Jedi.
That’s just speculation for now, with details remaining very thin on Jon Favreau’s live action series, but when the project’s early synopsis mentions Boba Fett and his old man Jango by name, it’s clear that Disney want us to make the connection between characters. So while Mangold’s film might never get off the ground, here’s hoping that The Mandalorian will at least make for an entertaining substitute.
