While the fan rumor mill in the early 1980s was nowhere near the streamlined, fast-paced thing it is today, Star Wars fans still feverishly and passionately discussed what they thought might happen in Return of the Jedi. Given that The Empire Strikes Back so famously ended with Darth Vader revealing he was Luke Skywalker’s father, many got to wondering who Luke’s mother might have been. Now, obviously we now know that Luke’s mom was Padme Amidala/Skywalker, but back then, it seemed very much up in the air.
Still, there was one particularly persistent rumor that Luke’s mom might be a character we’d already seen, and best of all, people were claiming it originated with Mark Hamill himself. So, who might this mystery character be? Sit down, because Hamill’s idea was that Luke’s mom would be… Boba Fett!
Crazy, right? The Tatooine Sons podcast discussed this now long-forgotten story on Twitter last week, tagging in Mark Hamill to ask whether this apparently crazy theory might be true. And here’s how he replied:
I once suggested it to George as the only way we could top Vader being my father. I envisioned her as a double-agent working clandestinely for the Rebels. SPOILER ALERT: He didn't like my idea.
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) November 16, 2018
So, could this have worked? Well, I suppose based on what we see in The Empire Strikes Back there’s no reason why Fett couldn’t be a woman under the armor. After all, the character remains masked throughout his appearances and uses some kind of voice modulator.
Then again, having a masked figure turn out to be one of Luke’s parents is basically repeating the same trick again and shows a bit of a lack of imagination, so I can see why George Lucas quickly shot down the idea. Still, I do like the concept of a badass older woman bounty hunter who’s also a Rebellion double-agent infiltrating the Empire.