Boba Fett Could Have Been The Main Villain in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

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The original Star Wars trilogy concluded with Return of the Jedi, a film that had one of the most famous cult character of all-time meet his doom. However, according to one former Lucasfilm insider, the galaxy’s deadliest bounty hunter originally had much grander plans in place for him. Read on for more…

 

Most fans were upset when the legendary cult favorite Boba Fett met his end in the Sarlacc pit near the beginning of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm’s fan relations officer and unofficial adviser, Craig Miller, who was part of the original Star Wars film crew has revealed that Boba Fett, the mysterious masked bounty hunter, was originally going to be featured as the main villain in Return of the Jedi.

 

In an interview with Inverse, Miller talked about George Lucas’s original plans for the films, which was a lot different than what actually ended up on the big screen.

“Originally Boba Fett was set up in Empire [Strikes Back] as a character, and the third movie’s plot was going to be more about Boba Fett rescuing Han Solo and all of that,” Miller said. “Boba was going to be the main villain… That was set up, why he was taking Han Solo away, why there was a thing with him in the Christmas special.

“When George decided not to make a third trilogy, he completely jettisoned that story line, which is why in the first ten minutes, Boba Fett gets bumped into and falls into the mouth of a giant monster… So he took what was planned for the third trilogy, which was the confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader, and the battle with the Emperor, and that got squished down from three movies to one movie. And that became the plot of [Return of the] Jedi.”

 

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Boba Fett has made out okay, since he’s still one of the more popular characters from books, comics, media and the films. At the moment, it’s hard to say whether or not the legendary bounty hunter will make a return to film. Although the evidence is weak, there has been several rumors circling the net recently regarding a future spin-off film involving the character, but nothing at this point has been confirmed.

 

For those fans that are still hoping that Boba Fett made it out of the sarlacc pit alive and well, there may be a sliver of hope. Actor Jeremy Bulloch, who famously played the character in 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and 1983’s Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, recently spoke with The Daily Beast from his home in London and insisted that Fett had survived that nasty plunge.

“Yes, absolutely. Yes, he did!” Bulloch Said.

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So, Boba Fett may in fact be totally alive. If the news from Bulloch isn’t enough, the actor also reiterated what the Star Wars creator himself has mentioned in the past.  Director George Lucas, in recent years reportedly has said that the feared bounty hunter somehow made it out to safety at the end of Return of the Jedi.

“George Lucas has said he gets out of the Sarlacc Pitt,” Bulloch said. “He’s got to mend his jet pack,” He added. “He’s probably opened a couple of bars down there, serving not the American beer, but the English beer… so he’s okay.”

 

For now, fans will just have to wait and see what plans Disney and Lucasfilm have for Fett in their future installments. We can only hold out hope that the legendary character will make an appearance in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or the Han Solo Spin-off.

 


Are you surprised that Boba Fett was almost the main villain in Return of the Jedi?

What would you think about a Boba Fett spin-off film?

 

Discuss your comment below or in The Cantina forums.

 

Oh yea, and May the Force be with you all! Always.

 

 

Sources: Inverse

 

 

+ posts

26 thoughts on “Boba Fett Could Have Been The Main Villain in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

  • May 6, 2016 at 7:22 pm
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    Not surprised; it was a smart move if there were 3 more episodes. They would need a temporary bad guy. In many ways I wish this more episodic nature actually happened. A slower buildup would be ace. But then again we wouldn’t have TFA to begin make things right.

  • May 6, 2016 at 7:29 pm
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    The guy is a total fringe character to me anyhow. Other that Gen X-ers that put this character high on a pedestal like if he was that important (probably mostly because of his looks such as the jetpack he had). That’s why I personally don’t get, much less care, why fanboys get excited for Bobab Fett (and because he was essentially minimal in the OT, that’s why his origins don’t really matter to me as as he’s not that big of a deal to me like some make him out to be).

  • May 6, 2016 at 7:52 pm
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    Fett should make an extended appearance in the Han Solo movie. As much as I loved him in Empire, he doesn’t warrant his own movie.

    I’m not yet convinced a Fett standalone movie is in the pipeline.

    • May 6, 2016 at 11:38 pm
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      “Lucasfilm’s fan relations officer and unofficial adviser”
      You a betting man, Kenny? 🙂

      • May 7, 2016 at 3:17 pm
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        A year’s supply of good karma up for grabs. If they make a Fett standalone movie, it’s all yours.

  • May 6, 2016 at 7:58 pm
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    I’ve read that the original plan was to have each trilogy be a war
    episodes 1-3: The clone war
    episodes 4-6: The galactic civil war
    episodes 7-9: The Force war
    With the emperor not even appertaining in person until episode 8 or 9. As much as the original plan, the rescue of han solo from jabba is my least favorite part of Return of the Jedi so I can’t really imagine expanding that into an entire movie. Boba Fett looks awesome and is a great supporting character, but I feel like having him as the main villain of a movie wouldn’t be as compelling.

    • May 6, 2016 at 9:08 pm
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      That plan is sounds great – maybe with a title of TFA its still going ahead.

  • May 6, 2016 at 9:06 pm
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    Wow..a whole trilogy based on the return of the Jedi and taking down the Sith huh? It’s nice to see the different possibilities of where Star Wars could’ve gone and this is very cool to imagine. I wonder if Leia would’ve joined her brother and be the first female Jedi we saw on screen to help take down their father and the emperor.
    CLOSE UP ON VADER AND LEIA LIGHTSABERS LOCKED
    VADER: “You have your mother’s eyes.” (A moment of weakness for Vader during this duel) Leia is taken aback by this comment, she can now sense the conflict within this monster that she was so reluctant to see before..something her brother tried convincing her of many times.
    Vader regains his anger
    VADER: (angry) “As well as her inability to realize when to step down!”
    THE DUEL CONTINUES

    • May 6, 2016 at 11:37 pm
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      Leia wasn’t the sister though, so, no. She only became the sister to solve the problem that “There is another” created when the story was condensed to a single film to wrap everything up.

      • May 7, 2016 at 2:08 am
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        Yea I remember reading that somewhere..I forgot exactly what it was but I think she was already like some badass random person that they were going to introduce later on

  • May 6, 2016 at 9:06 pm
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    Funnyhow I’ve just finished return of the jedi.

  • May 6, 2016 at 9:15 pm
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    A friend of mine works in Disney Store and just told me today he was amazed that several BobaFett related products just landed there. I just remember a promo image of Rogue One leaked from a private conference in which the Slave 1 was featured. What if we find out Boba is in fact an important part of Rogue One? This could be the Celebration reveal.

  • May 6, 2016 at 11:00 pm
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    This version of RoTJ sounds interesting, to say the least.

  • May 6, 2016 at 11:50 pm
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    KENOBI…search your feelings – you KNOW it to be the next anthology flick!

  • May 7, 2016 at 6:35 am
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    I don’t want to say this guy is full of it, but this guy is full of it. Rinzler’s Making of Return of the Jedi, which details each and every draft of the episode never mentions anything close to this. There are two Death Stars, the Emperor’s underground throne room on the Imperial capitol planet and Yoda and Obi Wan returning from the netherworld. But no mention of Boba as the main villain.

    • May 7, 2016 at 2:22 pm
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      Agreed. I’ve been a Star Wars fan since ’77 and this is the first I’ve of heard of this. It totally contradicts everything we’ve been told about the evolution of the Original Trilogy story arc. I too call bullshit.

      • May 7, 2016 at 2:34 pm
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        Me three. I have Star Wars The Annotated Screenplays and there was no mention of this. Unless someone can prove otherwise I too call bullshit.

        • May 8, 2016 at 2:03 am
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          The scripts/screenplays for Jedi were written after Lucas’ Three Trilogy plans were scrapped. After the success of ANH, and development began on “Star Wars II”, Lucas decided to trim it down to three films, with a possible Prequel Trilogy later on. As he wrote and completed Empire, things were condensed and changed. When time came to begin work on Jedi, the original plan Lucas had, which was in his original story treatments, as opposed to the scripts or screenplays, was a longer running story. But, as naturally happens, some elements from the treatments just didn’t make it to the script.

  • May 7, 2016 at 2:25 pm
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    I wouldn’t mind a film down the road that clears up everything that went on with him between II and IV, Hopefully involving the Mandoloreans which I doubt will get covered in the saga at this point even though I expected they would be the clones of the Clone Wars in the PT.

  • May 7, 2016 at 6:56 pm
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    That photo of Jeremy Bulloch in costume sans a helmet is pretty cool, like, he could have taken off the helmet on-screen and I’d have been cool with it, it suits him.

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