In The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett has a grand total of 6 minutes and 32 seconds of screen time
Yet for some reason, the Mandalorian bounty hunter has gone on to become one of the Star Wars universe’s cult figures: a bloke with a green bucket on his head and a 1950s vacuum cleaner for a backpack.
Now just because you’re not in a film very much doesn’t mean you can’t have a big impact; famously Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for his performance as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, in which he appeared for just over 16 minutes. But that was a landmark performance with some iconic, maybe even historic moments in cinema.
A quick glance through a ‘best quotes’ thread on Boba Fett fan forum bobafettfanclub.com (boy, you’d better believe that’s real) reveals that one of Boba’s best quotes is “Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold.”
But for whatever reason, Boba Fett is a popular character among Star Wars fans, which presumably gave Disney and LucasFilm the confidence to give him a spin-off movie.
That confidence has seemingly eroded, as a number of entertainment outlets are reporting that the Boba Fett movie has officially been axed.
Kathleen Kennedy just confirmed to me Boba Fett movie is 100% dead, 100% focusing on THE MANDALORIAN #StarWars
— Erick 𝕄𝕄𝕋 Weber 🎥 (@ErickWeber) October 26, 2018
The movie reportedly had Logan director James Mangold attached to direct, but according to Variety, the movie has officially been canned.
While a Boba Fett spin-off was never officially announced, it had long been rumoured to be part of Disney’s plan to turn Star Wars into a Marvel-style expanded cinematic universe, alongside a supposed Obi-Wan Kenobi movie.
Disney and LucasFilm have so far not commented on the cancelling of the Boba Fett project, but it’s likely that execs lost faith in the project after Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s poor box office return.
In addition, Jon Favreau’s live action Star Wars TV project, The Mandalorian, is rumoured to cover similar ground.
“After the stories of Jango and Boba Fest, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe,” the Iron Man and The Jungle Book director wrote on Instagram.
“The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.”
So bad news, Boba fans. You’ll have to make do with the forums for now.
