Suvudu Universe

The news that Disney Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo talked about the new Star Wars spin-off films as “origin story” films set the internet on fire. Then irresponsible and inaccurate blogging started the fake rumor avalanche. But all this talk of a young Boba Fett and a young Han Solo got me thinking, and I reached a rather surprising conclusion. I don’t want a young Boba Fett film.

Now I am a rather big Boba Fett fan, as I type this I can look around the room and see a mythosaur skull painted on my computer, a ceramic Boba Fett helmet candy jar on my desk, Hasbro’s plastic Boba Fett toy helmet, a Boba Fett on Cloud City photo from The Empire Strikes Back, and a charcoal drawing of Boba Fett. So you might say I am a fan of the character.

While I love Boba Fett, it is important to recognize that the Boba Fett we see in the films is much different then the Boba Fett we see in the Expanded Universe. I am only going to speak in general terms of the EU Boba Fett because frankly Fett’s story has been re-written so many times it’s rather convoluted. Fett can be divided rather nicely into to iterations, Pre-Pit and Post-Pit. Pre-Pit Fett is a stone cold villain, a bounty hunter who had no qualms working for the Empire or Jabba. Post-Pit Fett is a man who has been transformed from villain to antihero to hero. Post-Pit Fett becomes the reluctant leader of Mandalor a people and culture he feels part of yet apart from. He also struggles with his personal failings and broken relationships and the long reach of the psychological trauma caused by the loss of his father.

We have seen a younger Boba Fett portrayed in both Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars series. The Fett we see here is a kid, clearly the son of a hard edged bounty hunter and in training for that role himself, but still a kid. You can still see the good in him at points, but as The Clone Wars goes on we see Fett growing more ruthless including rising to the lead of his own gang of bounty hunters.

A morally complex Boba Fett is interesting enough, but hardly what I would like to spend an entire Star Wars film on. The Fett I want to see is an uncompromising bad guy. I want to see Fett taking names and taking bounties. Fett would work best as the villain in a spin-off film and not the star, Fett is not the protagonist of a film, but the relentless threat that a protagonist should struggle against. Star Wars is more fun when Fett is a bad guy.

So while I don’t want to see a young Boba Fett film, I’d love to see Boba Fett as the primary villain in a new Star Wars film.