Boba Fett


Boba Fett is a character in the Star Wars franchise. First appearing in the Star Wars Holiday Special, where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel film trilogies. In the original trilogy, the character is a supporting antagonist and was mainly portrayed 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, employed by the Galactic Empire, and Return of the Jedi, serving the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. While seemingly killed in Return of the Jedi after falling into a sarlacc, he has since appeared in Star Wars media set after the film, confirming his survival within the new canon, portrayed by Temuera Morrison. Daniel Logan plays a preteen Boba in the prequel film Attack of the Clones, which reveals the character's origins as the genetic clone and adoptive son of Jango Fett, also a famous bounty hunter. Morrison appeared first in Star Wars media playing Jango. The animated series The Bad Batch further reveals Boba to have been born Alpha, and to have a biological sister, Omega. The series also reveals that he has another sister named Emerie Karr.
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 antihero rather than a villain, and explore his background, motivations, and morality. Daniel Logan reprised his role as the younger version of Fett in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while Temuera Morrison, who also portrayed Jango in Attack of the Clones, has portrayed an adult Boba in most of his Star Wars appearances since that film, most prominently in the live-action Disney+ series The Mandalorian and its spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, in which he assumes control over Tatooine with his partner Fennec Shand as the planet's new daimyo.
During the development of The Empire Strikes Back, Fett was originally conceived as a member of a group of white-armored Imperial "supercommandos" before the idea was scrapped in favor of a solitary 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 several Star Wars works, Fett himself is portrayed as a Mandalorian or at least connected to the Mandalorian culture through his armor, with his father Jango confirmed to have been a Mandalorian foundling and war veteran in The Mandalorian.
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. His popularity within the Star Wars fanbase has earned him a cult following.

Concept and development

Star Wars creator George Lucas created Boba Fett in his April 1978 screenplay draft of The Empire Strikes Back, basing the character on Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's Man with No Name from the Dollar Trilogy. The character needed to be designed quickly, as Lucas had agreed for him to be featured in the Star Wars Holiday Special later that year. The character's design stemmed from initial concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter. While Vader became less of a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized by and is credited to Joe Johnston.
Norman Reynolds and the film's art department built the costume. Fett's armor was originally designed for "super troopers", and was adapted for Fett as the script developed. Screen-tested in all-white, Fett's armor eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black. This color scheme had the bonus of conveying the "gray morality" of his character. The character's armor was designed to appear to have been scavenged from multiple sources, and it is adorned with trophies. A description of Fett's armor in the mid-1979 Bantha Tracks newsletter catalyzed "rampant speculation" about his origins. By 1979, Fett's backstory included having served in an army of Imperial shock troops which had battled the clone troopers of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars.
Despite two years of widespread publicity about Fett's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, script rewrites significantly reduced the character's presence in the film. Fett's musical theme, composed by John Williams, is "not music, exactly" but "more of a gurgly, viola-and-bassoon thing aurally cross-pollinated with some obscure static sounds." Sound editor Ben Burtt added the sound of jangling 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 menacing and the scene reminiscent of similar gunfighter appearances in Western films. At one point in Return of the Jedis development, Fett was conceived as being a main villain, but he was finally replaced with the Emperor when Lucas decided to not make a third trilogy of Star Wars. Lucas also considered having Fett fight Lando Calrissian during the sarlacc sequence.
An official reference book states that Fett charges "famously expensive" fees, and that he undertakes only those missions which meet "his harsh sense of justice". Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote a few stories featuring Boba Fett, cited Westerns as an influence on his development of the character. Moran said:
Lucas at one point considered depicting Vader and Fett as brothers in the prequel films, but discounted it as too "hokey". In continuing to develop the character in the prequel films, Lucas closed some avenues for expanding the character's story while opening 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 the sarlacc, but decided against it because it would have detracted from the story's focus. Lucas also said that, had he known Fett would be so popular, he would have made the character's death "more exciting". In 2014, after Lucas had 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 portrayed by Temuera Morrison, which led to a spin-off focused on the character, The Book of Boba Fett, starring Morrison. Joe Johnston and Morrison himself criticized the decision to portray the character without his helmet, Morrison noting it was done to avoid comparisons with the titular character of The Mandalorian.

Film casting and production

Boba Fett is primarily played by Jeremy Bulloch in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Bulloch's half-brother alerted him to the role. He was cast as Fett because the costume happened to fit "as if a Savile Row tailor had come out and made it"; he did not have to do a reading or screen test, and Bulloch never worked from a script for either film.
Filming the role for Empire lasted three weeks. The actor was pleased with the costume and used it to convey the character's menace. Bulloch based his performance on Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the Man with No Name in A Fistful of Dollars; similar to the Western character, Bulloch cradled the blaster prop, made the character seem ready to shoot, slightly tilted his head, and stood a particular way. Bulloch did not try to construct a backstory for the character, and said later that "the less you do with Boba Fett, the stronger he becomes". Playing Fett in Empire was both the smallest and most physically uncomfortable role Bulloch has played; Bulloch said donning the heavy jetpack was the worst aspect of the role.
Bulloch spent four weeks on Return of the Jedi. He was unaware of Fett's demise before filming began and was "very upset" by the development; he would like to have done more with Fett. Still, Bulloch believed killing Fett made the character stronger, and that his "weak" death makes fans want the character to return. Bulloch thought a scene created for the 1997 Special Edition in which Fett flirts with one of Jabba the Hutt's dancers was not in keeping with the character's nature.
A younger version of the character was played by Daniel Logan in Attack of the Clones, which establishes that Boba is a clone of his father, Jango. Logan had not seen any of the Star Wars films before being cast as Fett, but he watched the original trilogy at Lucas' request. The actor had to rely on his imagination for the bluescreen filming. Both Bulloch and Logan had also expressed interest in reprising their role of Fett in the planned Underworld TV series, but the series remains undeveloped.

Other portrayals

According to the official Star Wars website, Fett was voiced by Don Francks in the Holiday Special. Bulloch wore Fett's costume in Empire and Jedi, but John Morton filled in during one scene for Empire, and Jason Wingreen voiced the character in Empire. His brief appearance in the Special Edition of the original film, Episode IV''A New Hope, was performed by Industrial Light & Magic creature animator Mark Austin. The character's appearance in the Special Edition footage of Jedi was performed by Don Bies and Nelson Hall. For the 2004 rereleases, Temuera Morrison replaced the character's original voice for continuity with Attack of the Clones, in which Morrison portrays Jango Fett.
The character's voice in National Public Radio's Star Wars radio dramas was provided by Alan Rosenberg in The Empire Strikes Back and Ed Begley Jr. in Return of the Jedi. Brian Daley scripted a scene between Fett and C-3PO in Jabba's palace; however, Anthony Daniels rejected the idea insisting the two characters should not be on friendly terms. Fett was replaced by Arica from Timothy Zahn's Tales from Jabba's Palace. His voice was also provided by Tim Glovatsky in the audio adaptation of Dark Forces: Rebel Agent, Joe Hacker in an audio adaptation of the Dark Empire comics, Temuera Morrison for Empire at War, Battlefront II and Battlefront: Elite Squadron, Dee Bradley Baker in The Force Unleashed, The Force Unleashed II and Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, Chris Cox in Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, Tom Kane in Galactic Battlegrounds, Demolition and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, and Daniel Logan for The Clone Wars animated TV series and Lego Star Wars: The Video Game.
The first live-action depiction of Fett outside the theatrical films was in the second season of the original Disney+ series The Mandalorian, wherein Morrison reprised the role.
The character also made a cameo appearance in a live-action mockumentary filmed on the set of Return of the Jedi titled Return of the Ewok''. Post-production was never completed, and it has never been officially released.