George Lucas attends a photocall as he has been awarded an Honorary Palme d'Or during the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, FranceAurore Marechal/Abaca Press/INSTARimages
By
Ben Sherlock
Published 18 minutes ago
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
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With its next Star Wars movie, due in theaters next summer, Disney is finally doing what George Lucas should’ve done nearly half a century ago. In 1980, The Empire Strikes Back introduced a little character named Boba Fett to the Star Wars universe. This softly spoken bounty hunter had the coolest design imaginable, and he was hyped to be a major new player in the saga.
But the character was fumbled magnificently in the original trilogy. He only had four lines in Empire and got promptly killed off (in a hilariously unceremonious way, no less) at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. The most exciting character introduced in Empire — yes, even more exciting than Yoda or Lando or even Lobot — turned out to be a glorified extra with nothing to do.
Of course, this was back before the days of social media, before fans had a channel of communication directly to the filmmakers to make their opinions known, so Lucas had no idea how popular Boba had become. 45 years later, we’re about to get a Star Wars movie focused entirely around a bounty hunter, finally living up to the promise of Boba’s on-screen debut.
Star Wars Movies Are Finally Giving A Bounty Hunter The Spotlight
Din Djarin pulls back on the controls inside the Razor Crest, with Grogu bracing beside him.
Disney’s next Star Wars movie, releasing a whopping seven years after The Rise of Skywalker, is finally putting a bounty hunter in the spotlight. Set to be released in theaters on May 22, 2026, The Mandalorian and Grogu will continue the TV show’s story on the big screen, as the titular duo is recruited by the New Republic to aid in fighting the Imperial Remnants.
It’s not quite the same as getting a full-on Boba Fett movie, but Din Djarin is pretty transparently an extension of that character and all the lore that was created around him. Since James Mangold’s Boba movie is dead in the water, this is probably the closest thing we’ll get to a standalone Fett film.
In the 45 years since Boba first appeared on the big screen, a bounty hunter has never led their own Star Wars movie. Boba’s dad, Jango Fett, got his own subplot in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, but he was hardly the main character of the movie. The Mandalorian and Grogu is a chance for Star Wars to finally do a full-blown spaghetti western in space.
The Empire Strikes Back And Return Of The Jedi Failed Boba Fett
Boba Fett on Jabba's skiff in Return of the Jedi
When Darth Vader hired Boba to track down the Millennium Falcon, the character had a ton of potential. He was modeled after Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name from the Dollars trilogy, and had a similar gray model code. He was neither good nor bad; he was a gun-for-hire, following the orders of whoever could pay him the most.
Before Vader’s redemption, Boba was the only antihero in the Star Wars universe. Most of the saga’s characters fall into the binary categories of heroes and villains, but Boba walks a fine line between the two. There was so much that The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi could’ve done with Boba, but they completely failed him.
In Empire, he mostly just stands in the background looking cool, and in Jedi, a temporarily blinded Han Solo accidentally kills Boba in a slapstick gag befitting of Laurel and Hardy. Say what you will about Disney’s Star Wars, but they’ve given us the best Boba action of all time. His Stormtrooper massacre in The Mandalorian made up for four decades of wasted potential.
The Book of Boba Fett was a let-down, because it made Boba much too benevolent and forgiving (and because it turned into The Mandalorian season 2.5 halfway through), but Disney has still done a lot more with the character than Lucas ever did. The Mandalorian itself is basically just Jon Favreau fulfilling every fan’s 45-year-old fantasy of what Boba could be.
Mandalorians Have Come A Long Way Since Boba Fett's Introduction
Din Djarin looks off into the distance on Mandalore, shown in a close-up from his shoulders up.
Mandalorians and the concept of Mandalorian culture have come a long way since Boba was first introduced. He was conceived as a Mandalorian for The Empire Strikes Back, and although the movie never even identified him as such, the character’s widespread popularity led to a radical expansion of Mandalorian lore in Star Wars’ extended media — novels, comic books, TV shows, video games.
As time went on, Star Wars clarified that Mandalorians were not a specific race from a specific planet; it was more of a religion, like the Jedi. It’s a shared cultural ideology between a bunch of stoic, helmeted, spartan-style warriors like Boba. The Mandalorian creeds have been fleshed out significantly in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and, of course, The Mandalorian.
Since Boba’s introduction, we’ve met a bunch of other Mandalorians: Din, Jango, Bo-Katan, Sabine Wren, Paz Vizsla, Pre Vizsla — the list goes on. We’ve seen where they get their armor, we’ve seen the ruins of their world, and we’ve seen when they’re allowed to remove their helmets. Star Wars will continue expanding that lore in its next movie.
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The Mandalorian and Grogu
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