What’s bad luck? It’s misfortune that leads towards failure. Bad luck isn’t prejudicial either — it can happen to the best of us. As great as Boba Fett is, considered among the best bounty hunters in the Star Wars galaxy, and certainly the best within the framework of the Original Trilogy lore, he has had his share of misfortunes that led to failure. In this article I explore all the bad luck that plagued his otherwise envious legacy.

It would be dishonest for any fan of the Fett men to not admit Boba’s defeat in “Return of the Jedi” wasn’t comical, just as a general moviegoer. It was meant to be, of course, except for anyone who wanted to see more out of the character and felt he didn’t deserve a gruesome fate in the belly of a creature that slowly ate its victims alive in a cavernous acidic belly with tentacles nearby to hold down any food that attempted escaping the mouth. As a movie fan I know it is an effective technique to kill villainous characters in humorous and gruesome ways, but did Boba deserve it?

To understand that moment best we have to go before the release of “The Empire Strikes Back.” Boba Fett’s bad luck began with how he was introduced, on the “Star Wars Holiday Special,” which aired in November 1978 on the CBS network. There was nothing wrong with his appearance but the production as a whole was below the standards of a Star Wars movie. The Holiday Special as a whole was never given an official release but the animated segment Boba Fett first appeared in is now a separate independently available title in the Vintage category of Disney+ Star Wars (“The Story of the Faithful Wookiee”) but it was originally released within that infamous 98 minute TV movie that was preserved by fans who circulated bootlegs of the recording much to the dislike of George Lucas. Eventually it would get shared over the Internet becoming a more global sensation. George was not a fan of the Holiday Special but there was nothing he could do about it.

Most Star Wars fans agree that the Boba Fett animated segment of the Holiday Special is one of the saving graces of the production, more than the return of some of the original film’s cast, or the celebrity musical segments (who doesn’t love Bea Arthur singing in a Cantina though?). But for a character as high quality as Fett to have The Holiday Special as his “First Appearance” was embarrassing, but at least in a unique way. The only other character that had a “first appearance” as unlucky is Quan-Chi from the “Mortal Kombat” universe, who first appeared in a forgettable kids cartoon called “Defenders of the Realm” before becoming an iconic figure in that famous fighting game series. Boba Fett’s 1978 television appearance would prove to be a blessing, although had he not become a popular character it probably would not have mattered. Without the animated segment the Holiday Special is nothing much more than an advertisement for a Wookiee holiday called Life Day that’s sort of the Thanksgiving of Star Wars with a focus on family. Boba Fett overcame his initial hit of bad luck, but it was the first example of it, thus noteworthy to this story.

Boba Fett with Chewbacca and C-3PO

The following year in 1979 bad luck struck again when the Kenner toy company had planned to give out rocket-firing Boba Fett action figures in a mail-away promotion but then pulled the feature due to it being a possible choking hazard. A few prototypes survived and were auctioned off for a lot of money, as high as $1,342,000 in a 2024 auction, something nobody back then could have seen coming. The irony is not lost that what was meant to be a free Boba Fett toy turned into one of the most expensive toy collectibles ever. Boba Fett survives bad luck yet again, but at the expense of those fans that should have got those figures back in ’79 in anticipation for “The Empire Strikes Back.”

“The Empire Strikes Back” was the first official sequel to Star Wars, an epic film that perfectly blends sci-fi action and fantasy that starts with on an ice planet that becomes a battlefield that has the forces of good departing their base and the forces of evil pursuing them. The story then leads to a swamp planet for one character and a city in the clouds for the others. It ends with the heroes uncertain about their fates rather than a traditional style of ending. The protagonist Luke Skywalker discovers an unpleasant truth about his father, the twisted Darth Vader, while a city administrator Lando Calrissian betrays and fails to save his smuggler-turned-hero friend Han Solo, who gets taken away by the bounty hunter (Boba Fett) who accomplishes two jobs at once, proving his worth as an asset to both the Empire and Underworld.

While Han Solo gets hurt bad by Boba Fett, especially given Vader doesn’t mind torturing him prior to Fett delivering him to Jabba, it’s really Princess Leia, Lando, and Chewbacca who Boba hurt the most in the film, as they are who love Han Solo the most. We see Leia’s moment of heartbreak in losing Han right after she admits her feelings for him before Vader orders Han encased in carbonite. We see Leia’s look of sadness upon seeing Boba Fett (“the bounty hunter”) fly away in his starship (Slave I) with her boyfriend in the cargo hold; it’s one of the most memorable in the Skywalker Saga. Sadly one scene that was filmed for the movie where Boba Fett’s name is said out loud in a conversation between Luke and Leia was deleted, which was unlucky in the sense that he never got a proper name introduction in The Empire Strikes Back, although maybe it was for the best since then it would leave people curious as to how Lando knew his name, since Boba didn’t seem like the type to give out personal information.

Boba Fett in the Cloud City Carbon Freezing Chamber

Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett, also expressed that what made Boba Fett very special was the “mystery” around him, as said in an interview from the “Bucket Head” webisode made for Episode II: AOTC. Jeremy was very much right in that, that the initial intrigue is the mystery of the character, and not knowing much about him. In the same interview from “Bucket Head” he also mentioned how his son thought it was funny how his character Boba could look cool despite being a guy with a bucket for a head. So the mixture of mystery and looking simultaneously cool and silly are what give birth to the Boba Fett effect, something unique to him that other Mandalorian characters could never truly have because they are made from his image rather than completely original character ideas.

Right before “Return of the Jedi” (originally titled “Revenge of the Jedi”) released many theorized what the role of Boba Fett would be. Some hypotheses/theories were published in magazines (like in “Fantastic Films”, April 1982) with ideas such as Boba Fett working undercover for Lando to save Han from Jabba. Some people wondered if Boba was a Skywalker himself and others wondered if he was maybe a female character under the armor. The most accurate theory was that Luke would have to come save Han Solo and fight off Boba Fett, but even that accurate prediction could not have seen Boba Fett humiliated and a victim of blind luck when a vibro-ax Han Solo held hit Boba’s jetpack when Solo panicked on hearing (from Chewbacca) of Fett’s presence around him on the damaged skiff. Fett was one second away from shooting down Luke Skywalker after his whipcord attack was countered by friendly fire. Fett’s damaged jetpack launched him towards a hard Sail Barge wall that bounced him towards the sand pit and through the Sarlacc’s mouth where he’s heard screaming in the agony of defeat.

Boba Fett sadly had no dialogue in the film. He mostly spoke through body language. He doesn’t move during the performance in Jabba’s court, so clearly not much of a dancer. Whether he joined in the laughter of mocking Han Solo frozen in carbonite, or the laughter that came from the Rancor eating a victim, is a complete unknown. Boba Fett seemingly stayed silent, only moving when necessary, and keeping his interactions with others as limited as possible.

Fett’s defeat sequence showcased the first live-action Star Wars example of a jetpack in use, the first use of the whipcord launcher (which became a signature weapon of many Mandalorians), and the first use of the Dur-24 wrist laser (which he uses right before his fall). For such a cool character it was tough to see him knocked out of the film before the halfway point, along with Jabba the Hutt, because of how good “The Empire Strikes Back” was in handling the setup to that storyline (although the true beginning of the Jabba/bounty hunters storyline was Greedo’s death scene from the first film). To go from a storyline of a gangster and his bounty hunters and minions to one of teddy bear looking creatures beating up Stormtroopers was an unexpected trajectory. That kind of summed up Star Wars in the 1980s, there was a lot of variety.

But Fett got unlucky twice in 1983, as he didn’t just fall down the Sarlacc pit once, but twice, falling into the Sarlacc again in the story “Jawas of Doom” for Marvel Star Wars #81. In the opening of the story Boba Fett is spit out of the creature and left for dead on the sandy surface in an unconscious state. Jawas find him but mistake him for a droid, and they load him into their Sandcrawler. R2-D2 was also in the Sandcrawler, with Han Solo and Princess Leia in pursuit of recovering it, finding themselves in conflict with Jawas and attracting the attention of local Tusken Raiders. Boba Fett unfortunately had amnesia from the Sarlacc experience and in his awakened confused state he was unprepared for the situation, refusing help from Solo (exiting the Sandcrawler) when he recovered enough of his memory to remember who he was. He prioritized attacking Han instead of accepting help, and took another trip into the Sarlacc pit, but this time within an entire Sandcrawler too. (Note: the Sarlacc had no beak in its mouth design then.) It was lucky that the idea of Boba Fett surviving the Sarlacc existed months after the movie but unlucky that the idea ends with him back in the pit, making it seem like an unavoidable fate at the time.

Marvel Star Wars #81

Despite the bad luck falling into the pit twice Fett stories continued to be made, like his appearance on the DROIDS animated series, exploring his earlier bounty hunting days for one episode, but we would not get another Sarlacc-Fett follow-up until 1992 in the famous Star Wars: DARK EMPIRE storyline where Boba Fett with Dengar explains to Han Solo and Leia that the Sarlacc found him to be “somewhat indigestible”. Outside that line there was no explanation to his survival. Boba also had a new starship, named Slave II, in the story, but its existence is short-lived after suffering serious damage (and later getting stolen while Boba went back to his original ship). His bad luck continued in Dark Empire and Dark Empire II in the sense that Han Solo and also Chewbacca (who stole one of his helmets in the storyline) continued to be a problem for him despite his reputation as a successful bounty hunter.

Speaking of Slave II, there was a Slave III and Slave IV as well. While Slave III never really got a story Slave IV first appeared in one of the most famous Fett Legends stories called “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” (from Tales of the Bounty Hunter) which gave him an origin story as a Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn (around 12 BBY) who gets sentenced for the crime of murder against a corrupt Journeyman Protector. Later in the story it goes forward to the present in 19 ABY where Boba Fett is in the Slave IV hunting down a Devaronian war criminal. The Guild contacts him on Han Solo’s whereabouts and he confronts Solo him in an ultimate standoff scenario.

Slave IV would reappear in the “Young Jedi Knights” series in multiple stories which originally featured Boba Fett in them before lore changed with the Prequels and that version of Boba was revised and made his estranged daughter Ailyn Vel. Ailyn Vel had Mandalorian armor that she took from the Jango Fett clone known as Spar who she mistook as Boba Fett (and who was a character originally conceived as Boba Fett in Marvel’s Star Wars issue 68, 1982). She then found Slave IV, which Boba left behind after the death of Mandalorian Fenn Shysa (the man who encouraged Boba to take up the position of Mandalore in the Revised Original Lore-turned-“Legends”). Also as far as the final design of the Slave IV, it’s the same type of vessel design as Jaster Mereel’s ship that Jango Fett also flew (in the “Bounty Hunters” game). The point is the ship history of the Fetts is a bit complicated, even though his main ship Slave I is iconic for its appearances in two Star Wars films. But to make things even unluckier the official name of Slave I was decided (not by fans) to be controversial around 2021 and officially revised — mostly on merchandise — to “Boba Fett’s Starship” which is a generic description rather than a real name. The fans, correctly so, have for the most part chosen to ignore the renaming. If we go by corporate sensitivity the Slave II would be renamed Boba Fett’s Second Starship. Where’s the fun in that?

Aside from giving us the Slave IV, the author Daniel Keys Moran also did a great job in giving Fett a pre-prequels origin and expanding the rivalry he had with Han Solo with “The Last One Standing” tale, but unfortunately his story of Boba Fett’s survival and escape from death “A Barve Like That” (Tales from Jabba’s Palace, December 1995) was unlucky, in the sense it was compromised in the creative sense, resulting in not using his real name for the story credit (thus J.D. Montgomery, the phantom writer, was credited). Daniel envisioned “the nightmare of a strong man dying a slow death across years, losing his sense of who he was piece by piece” and “a final shot at life long after he’d accepted the inevitability of death.” In his interview with BFFC (see part 1 and part 2), he added “I wanted to send Boba Fett to Hell” but instead his idea was vetoed as Fett could only stay in the pit a few days, and the Sarlacc was not allowed to be a sentient creature as Moran intended, so instead J.D. wrote in an alien entity into the story as a substitute that Fett fought with on a psychological level while he used a jetpack explosion and his concussion grenades to climb out of the pit (where he was found by Dengar, as explained in Dengar’s tale from “Tales of the Bounty Hunters”).

Clearly those who wrote Star Wars novels and comics liked the idea of Boba Fett being available to use post-Sarlacc rather than unavailable. It was no surprise fans welcomed the idea of more Fett, but it was curious that George Lucas seemed to be confused about his degree of popularity back then, like in 1997 when he said Boba “seems like a powerful character, except he gets killed”, acknowledging “people who write the books, and everything, and the comics say ‘we can’t kill him, we gotta bring him back, we can’t let him die!’ In regards to Boba Fett’s death, Lucas said in 2004’s DVD commentary of “Return of the Jedi” that “it makes it even more of a misstep that we wouldn’t make more out of the event of his defeat, because most people don’t believe he died anyway. I’d contemplated putting in that extra shot in where he climbs out of the hole, but y’know I figure that’s… it doesn’t quite fit, in the end.”

Clearly despite his EU survival story being approved by Lucasfilm as legitimate lore he didn’t regard the expanded universe as much as fans. Regardless he still realized the flaw of that scene from “Return of the Jedi;” that many didn’t believe he died, we weren’t buying the death regardless of how funny or disappointing we thought it was. By the unwritten rules of storytelling it either should have been more epic and convincing based off how he was portrayed in the previous film and also on how cool and battle-ready he looked. Either that or it should have looked as if his survival was implied, rather than accidentally implied based off being the only one to fall in the pit with armor that could keep him alive long enough to find a way out. But one has to consider that, as a superhero serial-inspired film and conclusion to the Trilogy, “Return of the Jedi” has to hammer the point home that villainy has consequences, so Jabba dies, many of his minions die, the Emperor seems to die with the second Death Star (prior to him somehow returning), many Stormtroopers die on Endor, and Darth Vader dies as well, although he ends his life on a heroic note.

While the idea of Boba Fett surviving was great, seeing it in “Return of the Jedi” wouldn’t make much sense unless it was setting up a future storyline, but that was George’s last film for many years until he opted to do the prequel films as opposed to starting with the sequel trilogy as some may have preferred) so leaving Fett’s film fate up to imagination for so long was fine in that sense but even George warmed up to the idea of Fett’s survival by the final years of his ownership of Star Wars, around 2012 at Star Was Celebration VI where George Lucas opined in a hot-mic recording where he’s heard validating how the rest of the world felt, that Boba Fett didn’t die, describing him as a “survivor”, just as the comic book and short story writers felt about it, and the many Boba Fett fans. I think one can compare his years of avoiding an official position though as similar to how producer/writer/director David Chase of “The Sopranos” avoided confirming if Tony Soprano lived or died in the finale of the series, because by not being so absolute about it the whole situation becomes more fun for the audience, giving them something to debate. Just like Jeremy Bulloch said about the mystery of Boba Fett being what made him very special it can be said that the mystery of a character’s fate has an intrigue to it as well.

Sadly Disney decided to put Boba Fett fans through a worse scenario in regards to wondering of Fett’s survival since all the original EU lore stories fell under the umbrella of a manufactured category called “Legends”, with only George Lucas’ stories, and The Clone Wars animated series, to work with as a foundation for an alternate canon, a separate lore from the previous one that the audience is left to decide is good enough. Unfortunately in the decade plus of alternate lore there haven’t been as many universal hits like there were in the past, and while Boba Fett has been portrayed well enough in the past decade of alternate canon he’s rarely used with any regularity and his Sarlacc survival wasn’t as certain at first under Disney’s ownership.

In the Disney era it was writer Chuck Wendig who would be the first to set up the survival story of Boba Fett, but indirectly, following up Boba Fett’s “all-too-familiar Mandalorian armor” in ‘The Aftermath Trilogy’ of novels (2015-2017), but given Boba wasn’t named it was unclear if it was his armor, before clarification by the author on social media. The armor officially survives the injured Sarlacc having been taken by Jawas and sold to Cobb Vanth of Freetown who uses the armor to protect his town. Boba Fett was unlucky again, as his fate was left unknown, and his armor given away to a new but seemingly unimportant character named Cobb Vanth. But Boba Fett’s return would get teased a few years later, in December 2019’s episode of “The Mandalorian” (“The Gunslinger”) before he officially returned in “The Mandalorian” Season 2 (2020) seeking a return of his armor from Vanth.

As a result Cobb Vanth lost the armor he should never have had to begin with – not that he’s a bad character, but if it wasn’t okay that Jodo Kast posed as Boba Fett, then it shouldn’t be okay when anyone else does it. One could joke that Disney Star Wars was fixing a problem that Disney Star Wars created by making sure Cobb Vanth gave up the armor. But it’s story complications like that which made it tougher for Jon Favreau to create a simpler Boba Fett story, instead of one that has the obstacle of explaining Fett’s survival in a way that respects George Lucas’ vision of a flawed survivor (flawed in the sense he worked for bad people), a vision that respects the fans of the original Sarlacc survival story, also one that can incorporate Cobb Vanth in a way that strips him away of his/Boba’s armor but doesn’t make him look bad either, since Vanth was developed to be a heroic character, and if Favreau is writing Fett as a heroic character, it wouldn’t look right if Fett simply killed him. Instead he went a more creative direction where Fett tracks down a Mandalorian who had it because he didn’t like seeing Cobb Vanth wearing stolen Mandalorian armor (just like how Boba Fett fans didn’t care for Vanth wearing it either) but Vanth proves his worth and Boba saves his life as a thank you.

Cobb Vanth in Season 2 Episode 1

But it would be unfair to criticize only Disney’s unlucky complication of Fett lore without considering the complications the Prequel Trilogy. Given George liked the character of Boba Fett he sought to make another one with Jango Fett, the father of Boba. Originally, as said in commentary for “Attack of the Clones,” George Lucas’ original plan for young Boba Fett was he was a regular clone trooper that at some point left the army to do his own thing, but then later George thought to make Boba the unaltered clone son of Jango in order to make Jango seem like a complex villain that had a heart, caring for his clone son throughout his journey as a bounty hunter living on Kamino working on behalf of the Separatists led by Dooku under the influence of the Sith, while simultaneously being the clone template for the army the Jedi would inherit (and later be betrayed by). George Lucas made Jango Fett a formidable villain for “Attack of the Clones” showing off more of what Boba Fett’s suit and starship (Slave I) can do having Jango fight Jedi on the ground and in outer space. He even saves Dooku (who he knew as Tyranus) from Jedi Master Coleman Trebor, blasting him off a balcony in the gladiator arena on Geonosis, although he loses his life during the battle, because his unlucky end is necessary for Boba’s new beginning, as he gets the motivation to follow the way of his father. George Lucas gives Boba Fett almost a Batman type of origin story in “Attack of The Clones” in the sense their motivation to do what they do comes from tragedy and the loss of a parent. This was not the original motivation of Boba Fett, as he was originally a more mysterious character, so this added revelation made him a little less mysterious in terms of why he was motivated to be a great bounty hunter, which was unlucky, but on the flip side it created an additional mystery of why Jango Fett wanted a clone son at all.

Young Boba Fett with Jango Helmet, with Reek in Background

The revelation of Boba being a clone of Jango Fett caused revisions to his pre-existing lore, which was unlucky in the sense of convoluting his history, but Jango Fett himself was luckier, with Jango’s lore thriving within comic book stories like Open Seasons, video games like Bounty Hunter, and also novels that would also showcase other clones or the young version of Boba Fett who later had his story expanded upon as well, having his story continued in The Clone Wars cartoon series where he made a modest 5 appearances (1 of the 5 being a Cameo appearance) which seems unlucky considering how many seasons TCW had. Boba Fett was meant to have more appearances on The Clone Wars in story arcs involving Cad Bane and their duel, Krayt’s Claw and Tyranus/Dooku, and Anakin Skywalker, where he fights Boba who finally wears his Mandalorian armor on the series, but they were never finished and only a few unfinished scenes have been shared for the public to see.

As unlucky as it was to not get those TCW Boba Fett episodes at least unfinished clips give us an idea of what they would have been like although it’s unlucky that even in all the series that spun off The Clone Wars there has been no Boba Fett appearances since. Oddly enough he was not used or seemingly considered for The Bad Batch series, which takes the young Boba Fett concept of “Attack of the Clones” and reimagines it, creating a female counterpart who saw her brothers as family and someone who saw her home of Kamino get destroyed, inspiring her to fight the Empire and years later join the Rebel Alliance as a fighter pilot; while her Bad Batch brothers know of Boba Fett’s existence they never meet him nor mention him to Omega (or if they did, it was off-screen, which could be said of the possibility of Fennec Shand mentioning Omega to Fett years later). Omega is sort of the lucky version of Boba Fett in the sense she had a more positive life after losing her home, being able to settle down peacefully awhile and grow up with other clones of Jango Fett after fighting the Empire back when they still had Clone Commandos in their ranks. Boba was not lucky enough to have a proper family substitute after Jango’s death in the years he was still growing and thus he had nothing to lose in working for the Empire. Had he grown up like Omega with a proper support system he likely could have found himself being a Rebel fighter pilot too but as he was unluckier in life he became a cold-blooded bounty hunter instead.

Star Wars 1313 Concept Art

Also unlucky was the cancellation of Star Wars 1313, where the player would take on the role of an armored young Boba Fett sporting a redesign that could have been seen as a spiritual successor to the ‘Bounty Hunter’ Jango Fett game. George Lucas’ Star Wars Underworld live-action TV Show likewise also got cancelled; a series that could have expanded upon the early life of bounty hunter Boba Fett, and then we could have seen George Lucas really expand on the new vision he had for Fett then. Young Boba Fett may have been the unluckiest version of the character when you think about it; he never really got enough time to shine, which maybe was a deliberate move in order to preserve the mystery of the character, but one that robs fans of seeing his early adventures and how he came to rise to fame in his profession (since simply being the son of Jango isn’t enough in the competitive cutthroat world of bounty hunters). He also missed out appearing in Revenge of the Sith, as George Lucas had considered the idea of Boba joining in on Order 66 to confront Mace Windu before he ultimately rejected that story idea and changed it so that Palpatine kills Mace Windu. For whatever reason, young Boba Fett has almost no luck at all, despite the nickname “Lucky” that he used in his first appearance on The Clone Wars when he indeed did make an attempt to assassinate Mace Windu, coming ever so close, but being stopped by the usual suspect; you guessed it, bad luck again, and then it was followed up with Aurra Sing proving to be the worst substitute mother figure in Star Wars, leaving Boba to get arrested by the Jedi.

But when the acclaimed Season 2 of “The Mandalorian” aired about a decade later from young Boba’s adventures it seemed like the Boba Fett blues were finally over, that the classic Fett was back in business. He was alive, not dead. He got his armor back. His armor was confirmed to be Beskar too, ending a debate if it was made of the alternative Durasteel; one of those unlucky debates that the character really didn’t need back then, since we weren’t sure if he was dead/alive at that point. On top of stopping dumb debates that don’t benefit the character “The Mandalorian” series got his ship back too, with Boba Fett’s (Slave I) Firespray starship making its return in “The Mandalorian” Chapters 14-16 and then “The Book of Boba Fett” Chapter 4 (and other episodes where it got a cameo). He got to engage in some cool fight scenes too, wiping out Stormtroopers with ease, so things were looking up, and on top of that, a show with his name attached to it was announced in a post-credits scene showing Fett take Jabba’s throne away from Bib Fortuna. This was probably the pinnacle of Fett under new ownership, the height of Disney Boba Fett. Who knew it would be followed by more bad luck though? Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett in “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” died around the same time “The Mandalorian” Season 2 ended and “The Book of Boba Fett” was announced. His death was a big blow to the many who appreciated him, and then the next round of bad luck came in “The Book of Boba Fett” then arriving about a year later with mixed reactions, with negative reactions being louder than the positive ones. Fans of Boba Fett were unlucky to find him missing in nearly 2 of the 7 episodes, with the other episodes being controversial for not having Boba wear his helmet enough, making him too talkative, and having him retired from bounty hunting, which was the core of his character previously.

Also, the action packed Boba Fett characterization of “The Mandalorian” Season 2 was somehow not really seen on “The Book of Boba Fett” up until the finale, although there were hints of it in some of the other chapters, like Chapter 2 where we see how much damage Boba Fett can do without armor (in the flashback scenes where he is a member of a Tusken tribe), and Chapter 1 featured Boba in a couple of battles, and Chapter 4 showed him shoot down a biker gang from the sky, but Chapter 3 failed to showcase him properly, with Krrsantan attacking him while he slept. A scene of Boba Fett fighting a Wookiee sounds great until you realize Boba has no armor in the scene. While it’s an entertaining scene showcasing Krrsantan’s strength and Boba’s ability to take a punch for it to be the only real action scene Fett got in the episode really shows a disconnect with what fans want and expect. Likewise a cameo in Chapter 6 where his only contribution in the episode is nodding his head (“Return of the Jedi” style, but without a helmet on) shows a lack of effort. What was once a mysterious gesture originally was turned into a callback to “Return of the Jedi,” as if Boba’s cameo is only there to remind the audience he was in that movie. It’s an unlucky tribute. “The Mandalorian” series has paid tribute to Fett’s legacy in cool ways before in each season but having Boba Fett nod as his only interaction in an episode was an absolutely bizarre, and likewise it was unlucky how it followed Chapter 5 which had no Boba Fett in the episode at all outside of being mentioned in the final scene. Temuera Morrison despite his great performances in Star Wars was unlucky in being robbed of about 2 episodes in a 7 episode season, and not getting a call to come back for anything since (outside of voicework like Jedi: Survivor’s Boba Fett, the clone troopers in Season 3 of “The Mandalorian,” and voicing Captain Rex in “Ahsoka”).

Along with Boba’ certain Book of Boba Fett products never came to be that should have been, like an official DVD/BluRay, an Art book for the season, and a comic book adaptation. There was also never an official cancellation of the show, although one can suppose it’s due to how it’s interconnected to the ongoing storyline of “The Mandalorian.” One also has to wonder how much room is left for stories featuring Fett in the timeline order. Does he survive into and beyond the sequel trilogy era? Does he get more appearances in the past, from his childhood with Jango, his early years as an elite hunter, and so on? Those are questions that one who thinks of Fett wonders about. It’s good to have some mystery left in the character but not while simultaneously there is a similar-ish character getting overexposed doing Fett-ish things. It’s not good luck for “The Mandalorian” either since the more buried Boba gets the less meaningful the borrowed imagery is. The new generation isn’t going to see Mando as the mysterious villain Boba Fett originally was, or a villain with a heart like Jango, since that’s not who Mando is as a character despite the similar look. The Boba Fett look with Mando is applied as more of a symbol of heroism, which changes the original design dynamic completely, considering the design of the Mandalorian helmet was conceived as an Imperial Super/Shock Trooper helmet before it became Boba Fett’s bounty hunter helmet. Sure, Jango Fett had a heart, but it wasn’t a heart of gold, his armor wasn’t meant to symbolize fatherhood even if being a father is important to his storyline (as it’s what convinced him to take the deal with Tyranus to have Kaminoans clone him). It’s a bit of unlucky accidental revisionist history though in regards to how “The Mandalorian” has changed how people absorb the imagery; at least from my perception, as someone who grew up remembering the Mandalorian/Boba Fett helmet being something villainous in its appearance (like the Stormtrooper and Darth Vader helmet) rather the friendly/fatherly image it’s become.

What’s also is unlucky that gets forgotten is that Boba Fett was meant to have a movie of his own years ago directed by James Mangold during the time after “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” (Josh Trank and writer Simon Kinberg were also eventually confirmed to have one too.) Two factors probably got in the way of this becoming reality: one could have been creative differences over the darker tone of the project, and the other was perhaps how “Solo” under-performed in the box office. With no future movie in sight the focus went to streaming allowing for hype around “The Mandalorian,” the first live-action TV Show whose initial success paved the way for two more seasons and a Boba Fett spinoff, the limited series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” two seasons of “Andor” and “Ahsoka,” and “Skeleton Crew.” One might wonder how history would have played out if we got that Boba Fett film, and how that would have impacted The Mandalorian’s storyline. One can’t deny the Fett Legacy played a part in both the rise and fall of Star Wars streaming. The Mandalorian pilot episode featured allusions to Fett, from carbonite-encased bounties towards the start, to a rifle weapon that resembles the one Fett had in the Holiday Special cartoon (the Amban phase-pulse blaster), to the Mythosaur symbol (like that on Boba’s shoulder armor) being used as a decoration in the Mandalorian covert on Nevarro. The covert housed a workshop where beskar could be forged using a cryo-furnace, a gravity hammer, and some magnetic tongs. Part of the charm of the show is how it mixed Fett Legacy elements with new original elements like a Mandalorian Armorer character, and how it reinvented the Mandalorian Religion to be more of a “Creed” that came with a popular (for awhile) catch phrase, “This is the Way.”

The Mandalorian Creed/Way was problematic though in how it mixed pre-existing ideas with new ones and muddied up the legacy and lore of Fett even more. The Mandalorian Religion was something that was mostly developed and mentioned in the stories of Karen Traviss: her Republic Commando and Imperial Commando novels, the Legacy of the Force novels, and “Boba Fett: A Practical Man,” but the idea of a Mandalorian leader goes as far back to 1997’s “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi – The Sith War” (comic book) which featured Mandalore the Indomitable, a warlord Mandalorian Crusader who conspired with the Sith. A few years later in 2003 the video game Knights of the Old Republic went on to feature another type of ancient Mandalorian known as Neo-Crusaders. One such Neo-Crusader named Canderous Ordo who became known as Mandalore the Preserver. What is known about Mandalorian religion (that the Taung species created) was that it was once rooted in zealotry and ritual combat, believing waging war was to be divine, as they saw a god of destruction as one who championed for change. Their beliefs matured and became more pragmatic over time but they still believed in the soul, and in order to avoid being soulless one needed to follow central tenets that prioritized family and armor. It was Mandalore the Indomitable that caused Mandalorians to distance themselves from the gods and it was Mandalore the Ultimate (a Taung) who opened the doors for other species to become Mandalorians as long as they followed their central tenets known as the Resol’nare. However, despite being in a soul there was very little moral guidance in Mandalorian culture until the creation of the Supercommando Codex, a moral guide that promoted honor and provided ethical guidelines that every Mandalorian mercenary/soldier should abide by. It was created by the Mandalore Jaster Mereel and would be adopted by True Mandalorians like Jango Fett, as well as the Mandalorian Protectors under Mandalore the Resurrector (aka the clone Spar who was mistaken for Boba Fett). The Mandalorian Creed from “The Mandalorian” is a mix of the Resol’nare, the Supercommando Codex, with some of the ritualistic, religious elements that the Taung believed in, as well a tacked on helmet rule that’s more inspired by how Boba Fett never showed his face in the Original Trilogy (and Expanded Universe stories prior to the Prequel Trilogy). It’s quite unlucky that the Mandalorian history is so complicated; an older Boba (20 years after RotJ) came to be more involved with Mandalore, becoming their leader in the original lore (in “Boba Fett: A Practical Man”), whereas in the alternate modern lore he has looser ties to the culture and community. The original Mandalorian trajectory within Legends was complicated when George Lucas felt strongly enough to say that Boba Fett and Jango Fett weren’t Mandalorians, and that became quite a debate in fandom for many years. I think the whole concept of Mandalorians gets overly complicated when there are multiple definitions of the idea. It’s an unlucky aspect as it makes it difficult for fans to define them well as a group to someone new and unfamiliar with their history that does not understand that while a character like Boba Fett doesn’t identify as a Mandalorian it doesn’t mean he’s irrelevant to the topic, especially when stories of him as a Mandalore exist.

Technically the Taung people from Mandalore were the real Mandalorians, but once they let anybody outside the Taung be Mandalorian it created multiple definitions of the word. Jango Fett and Jaster Mereel didn’t see Death Watch as legit; they had their own vision of Mandos, and Death Watch felt entitled to be Conquerors. The New Mandalorians like Prime Minister Almec made it clear that New Mandalorians rejected both Death Watch and True Mandalorians warriors as legitimate members of society. The New Mandalorians were more pacifistic people that deviated away from violent traditions in attempt to create a peaceful society. The Children of the Watch, Descendants of Death Watch, felt Mandalore lost its way (just as Jaster Mereel believed) and had their followers dedicated to tradition and religion (“The Way”).

Sadly the whole history of Mandalorians is full of bad luck, misfortune, and civil wars, thus how the Sith have been able to manipulate them on occasion. So Mandalorians have been very unlucky in their history, but also unlucky in the sense that the behind-the-scenes history of Mandalorians is confusing, since it’s rooted in the histories of the Fetts more than it’s based off the Taung species and ancient Mandalorian conquerors from the Old Republic. It’s more the perception of Mandalorians as being ideal bounty hunters that make most people love those characters. It’s unlucky that the complex concept of Mandalorians feels overshadowed by the simpler Bounty Hunter concept, but it’s far easier to write a bounty hunter adventure than a Mandalorian tale.

Boba Fett and Din Djarin

But sometimes it’s not complexity that brings about an unfortunate outcome, but simplicity instead, like that in the form of a happy ending that goes nowhere. The happy ending of “The Book of Boba Fett” is unlucky, for example. The show didn’t really set up a future storyline; well, it did for Din Djarin and Grogu, but not so much for Boba Fett. Sure, it showed that Cobb Vanth was saved and inserted into a bacta pod, but we never see him get out of that bacta pod, and it’s been years since that plot was left unresolved. We never even saw Timothy Olyphant’s character speak to Temuera’s Boba Fett, so it’s hard to even imagine the off screen conversation they’d have. Also, there was bad luck in how Carl Weathers’ character never got an aired scene with Boba Fett, even though the opportunity for one was there in Chapter 14. As a result the audience is left curious if Greef Karga the bounty hunter handler was aware of Fett’s past reputation.

One has to wonder if the missed opportunities are deliberate. Maybe they feel Boba Fett has to maintain some mystery while they simultaneously show us a similar looking character, in Mando/Din, that’s providing action moments that Fett ought to be doing on screen. “The Mandalorian and Grogu” — or TMAG for short — provides a whole film that really ought to be a Boba Fett film. It visually alludes to films Fett was in; borrowing from “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi,” and “Attack of the Clones.” It continues the Hutt Twins storyline from The Book of Boba Fett, and also features Embo, a silent-and-deadly hat-wearing Kyuzo bounty hunter that was once a member of young Boba Fett’s bounty hunter organization called Krayt’s Claw (cleverly named after Krayt Dragons). Boba Fett and Embo did not have much in the way of interactions but one can’t help but notice the strong-and-silent and mysterious approach of Embo parallels that of the Classic Boba Fett, so essentially Embo is the old school style Boba Fett of TMAG, just as Cad Bane was the same thing for The Book of Boba Fett. However outside of maybe a name reference Boba isn’t part of the movie. While Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau clearly love the legacy of Boba Fett they have a strange way of not giving as much love for the actual character. After all these years a Boba Fett film would have felt deserved, but he’s been pushed aside again, while simultaneously being exploited. We may get cool 4-issue limited series of Jango/Boba Fett to enjoy in the comic book side of things, but if Boba isn’t on the horizon, it feels like his legacy is exploited to boost other characters.

"The Book of Boba Fett" Promo Graphic

New fans of Star Wars will struggle to see why Boba is so special if he’s continued to be treated this way though, and then a character based off him has less of a chance of success. In my opinion it’s unproductive but others may feel this is a fun approach to honoring the Fett legacy as well, so maybe both can be true, but it’s not exactly the luckiest trajectory. I think one thing is certain, Boba Fett’s history would have played out differently were the property not sold off by George Lucas, and likewise other characters like Luke, Leia, and Han Solo, would have had different histories. That’s the risk of selling a great story off to a more corporate entity that will try to compete with the source material in some ways. Rey was Disney’s Luke, Kylo Ren was Disney’s Darth Vader, Mando is Disney’s Boba, and Grogu is their Baby Yoda (as fans called him during Season 1 and half of Season 2 before Ahsoka Tano figured out his name). It’s an unlucky trend though. You can never fully capture the magic of the original character idea (even when it’s an amazing character like Jango Fett). Sure, they become their own unique character over time, but the original character has the distinction of being first. Part of why the industry does this in modern times is because they believe it’s harder to sell a brand new character and easier to make a semi-original one that exploits the iconography and cultural relevance of a pre-existing classic character. If it’s done out of love it’s fairly harmless a practice, but if its seemingly shameless or nefarious, where the original character is receiving abuse and no effort is made on the business side of things to remedy such a situation, then it’s not so good. And that’s really what made Boba Fett unlucky to begin with, that his creative overlords seem to make sure he can’t advance too far in modern times, just far enough to take advantage of with his dedicated following. As a result people end up missing Boba Fett, and wondering where his weird luck will take him next.

See Part 1

After “Attack of the Clones,” Boba Fett continued to have a complicated history after he first appeared as a young, vengeful character working with his father’s associates. Fett wasn’t originally planned for “The Clone Wars” animated series but, after his first story arc, he was officially involved. His plot for revenge caused much chaos before it finally backfired on him. Bossk ended up with Young Boba in a Republic prison, while Aurra moves on to work with Cad Bane after recovering from her injuries. Meanwhile, the Slave I Firespray ship was left to get repaired, refurbished and used by the pirate and Jango associate, Hondo Ohnaka.

The Clone Wars Season 5 Episode 9 ("A Necessary Bond")

Hondo eventually makes use of the Slave I on the planet Florrum, using it in a battle with General Grievous to save Jedi Initiates and assist Ahsoka, before being forced to retreat in “The Clone Wars” Season 5 Episode 9, entitled “A Necessary Bond.” The Jedi spared Hondo of his past wrongdoings and he held on to the ship until Boba Fett eventually took it back after he spent awhile in jail. That was where Boba most notably helped orchestrate a riot with Bossk’s help as a favor to the hunter Cad Bane, who had been looking out for him on the inside. Bane owed Jango Fett for something in the past — perhaps Jango had mentored Cad Bane or simply helped him on a bounty or got him out of trouble. Bane saw potential in Boba as well, much more than he saw in Bossk, confirmed in the novel “The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark.” He also offered Young Boba a mentorship of sorts as well, as seen in incomplete Bane/Boba Arc and implied by Bane himself in “The Book of Boba Fett.”

Unfortunately much of that story is unknown beyond the helmet dent from the Boba and Bane shootout, just as the history between Jango and Bane is mostly unknown, plus how and when Boba Fett got his Firespray gunship/Slave I from Hondo Ohnaka. There’s a lot of unexplored material that will either never happen or may happen in the future. But it’s why it is debatable to what degree Boba Fett’s legacy in animation is, because beyond the non-canon content which tends to be well received and favorable, the animated canon has not fully developed him and seems more intent in building lore out of his legacy rather than focusing on his life.

The Clone Wars Season 4 Episode 20 ("Bounty")

Even in Boba Fett’s final episode in “The Clone Wars” (Season 4 Episode 20), we are given more questions than answers. In this episode we see Boba Fett with his own crew of bounty hunters known as Krayt’s Claw, the one that he formed behind the scenes after he left prison. Even elite hunters like Embo are doing business with Fett. Among Boba’s core hunters are Dengar and Bossk, whose first appearances in Star Wars were alongside Boba Fett in “The Empire Strikes Back,” but by that point in the timeline they were no longer in a crew. Alongside them are a droid C-21 Highsinger and the Theelin female bounty hunter Latts Razzi, whom Boba Fett did not stay in contact with after “The Clone Wars” ended. (Boba is not seen with Latts or Highsinger, who reappear in the “Tales of the Underworld” TV series.)

Krayt’s Claw had a headquarters in Tatooine and that’s where they meet Asajj Ventress, the former apprentice of Dooku. Ventress had to defend herself against Oked, a member of Krayt’s Claw, who bothered her in Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina on Mos Eisley. He was struck down dead. Coincidentally Ventress’ lightsabers originate from Dooku’s former Jedi Padawan in Legends continuity. She helped wipe out the True Mandalorians faction led by Jango Fett. Jango Fett eventually got his chance at revenge when Dooku (as Tyranus) hired Jango to hunt her down, in which he was rewarded with a chance at being cloned. Jango’s decision to have Boba Fett as a son came about after the hunt for Komari Vosa, the original owner of Ventress’ red bladed lightsabers. Ventress would ironically be the Han Solo of the episode “Bounty” on The Clone Wars (Season 4 Episode 20), being offered a job in a Cantina after having to put someone down. Bossk and Latts tell her to join Boba’s syndicate to replace their fallen associate whom she killed. She agrees, not wanting negative attention, and because she needs the money but acts surprised at how young Boba Fett is.

Boba Fett has no problem speaking down to anyone. He truly feels he is the best to operate a hunt and Ventress agrees. They travel to a planet where they need to smuggle a package to the planet’s leader via train, but there are raiders in the way. Kage Warriors attack Krayt’s Claw. Most get knocked out of the train except Boba Fett and Ventress who successfully fought off most of the raiders. However it turns out that the package was a kidnapped young female, being trafficked to a disgusting leader. Despite the revelation, Boba Fett feels committed to the job, even if he may not like it. However, Ventress will not commit and turns the tables on Boba, while saving the remaining Kage Warrior and his relative. Boba Fett proves to be an effective fighter in the episode but he prioritized money over morals and a force-sensitive punished him for it. In a way this episode mirrors the original trilogy, where Boba Fett’s love for the hunt backfires in a situation with a force-sensitive (Luke Skywalker) and it ends in a bitter failure that he has to learn from. It’s a good Boba Fett story within somebody else’s arc. Also noteworthy was Young Boba Fett’s helmet in the “Bounty” episode looks based off early concept design for Boba Fett’s helmet made by Joe Johnston. Fun fact: the character Rako Hardeen on “The Clone Wars” similarly had a helmet based off another of those early designs. Rako was appropriately called the Marksman of Concord Dawn, just to hammer the point home that he is another creation based off Boba Fett’s legacy.

Concord Dawn was an invention that came about from Boba Fett’s lore. New fans of Star Wars fans may know of Concord Dawn from the cartoon series “Rebels,” which featured it as a battle-damaged planet and Mandalorian Colony run by Mandalorian Protectors like Fenn Rau. The whole concept comes from Boba Fett who was a Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn in his tale from “Tales of the Bounty Hunters.” Fenn Rau was made possible because of that. Likewise the antagonistic Imperial Supercommandos — the Mandalorians loyal to the Empire — are based off Boba Fett’s legacy as well, as George Lucas had originally conceived the armor as Imperial Super Trooper armor. The early prototype Boba Fett armor test footage had the armor white, looking much like what Imperial Supercommandos look like. In the episode of “Protectors of Concord Dawn,” Rex makes an official canon connection to the Mandalorians of Concord Dawn and the Clone Army of the Republic, sharing how Mandos helped train clones on Kamino. This was already established in Legends (aka Expanded Universe) but Rex confirming the lore was nice.

“The Clone Wars” and “Rebels” as series are much better understood if you are familiar with the Legends works that inspired them. For example the faction of Mandalorians known as Death Watch has its lore rooted in Jango Fett lore. Death Watch first appeared in the comic book “Jango Fett: Open Seasons.” They were an evil group of Mandalorians who killed Jango Fett’s family on Concord Dawn during a Mandalorian Civil War simply because they helped Jaster Mereel’s men. Much later in the war, Death Watch killed Jaster Mereel and Jango took over the True Mandalorians. However his reign as leader was short-lived as the “True Mandalorians” were framed by the “Death Watch” for murder and manipulated the Jedi through political deception to war with Jango’s Mandalorians. The Tor Vizsla led clan of Death Watch enjoyed their deception and elimination of their honorable rivals for some time, until Jango Fett could get revenge on Tor. But there was another Vizsla, named Pre Vizsla. Much like Tor, Pre was occupied with conquest and immoral, and after conspiring with the likes of first Dooku and then Darth Maul, he would also lose his head like Jango did. The Death Watch died out much like the True Mandalorians, except they had no honor, which is why the Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze left the Death Watch behind despite being a member. New Mandalore politics were complicated. They had abandoned their warrior heritage and it backfired on them when those warriors exiled to Concordia conspired with enemies, which led to New Mandalore’s downfall. While Prime Minister Almec saw Jango Fett as nothing more than a common bounty hunter, it’s men like Jango that Mandalore needed and lacked, which is how Maul was able to take over temporarily. Eventually the Empire would target Mandalore as well, killing millions. It’s clear that Mandalorian Civil Wars made it all the easier for the Empire. For Mandalorians to truly survive and thrive, they would need to unify and live honorably much like guys like Jaster Mereel had intended for the True Mandalorians, rather than having such a divisiveness and drama that came from the Mandalorians in the animated realm.

“Clone Culture” is proof of how much more united the Fett clan was in comparison to other Mandalorians. Clones were very united. It was a brotherhood. Stories like that of the Republic Commando video game featuring Delta Squad showed how effective clones could be as an elite team. A cartoon story like “The Bad Batch” featuring Clone Force 99 also showed how effective clones with a special skill could be as a team. The clone Wrecker exhibits superior strength. The clone Tech exhibits superior intelligence. Crosshair exhibits superior marksmanship/sniper skills. These are all traits that Jango Fett had, so any amplified trait would be on the level of a prodigy. Then there was Omega, who fans refer to as Omega Fett, as she is the only other pure unaltered clone of Jango Fett. Boba Fett is unaware of his sister however, but Clone Force 99 read about him from the Kaminoan data where Boba is described as the “Alpha” clone of Jango Fett. It’s unknown if they ever shared that information with Omega. It’s also unclear if Jango ever knew of her existence. It’s somewhat a parallel of Luke and Leia in Star Wars… they did not know about each other for a long time as well. Perhaps Boba and Omega do meet in the future but for now it seems like they lived separate and different lives despite sharing the same genetic material.

Star Wars: Visions Season 1

While the animated canon lacks any classic Boba Fett, he still lives on in non-canon, and not just in the world of LEGO Star Wars and cartoons like Robot Chicken, but in the world of “Star Wars: Visions.” The show’s first season took a departure from the norm with Anime-style animation and stories that were non-canon and fresh in its approach and use of the Star Wars universe. However, despite its focus on originality it still had an episode use a few familiar faces, that of Boba Fett, Jabba the Hutt, and Bib Fortuna, in the episode “Tatooine Rhapsody.” While Boba Fett wasn’t meant to be the focus, he steals the spotlight in this episode. We see Boba Fett doing what he does best — bounty hunting. He hunts down a young rebellious Hutt in a rock band with a former Jedi padawan who survived Order 66. After disrupting the Hutt’s rock concert Boba Fett chases the bounty down in the sky with his Slave I ship before shooting his target down and dragging the Hutt to Jabba. Jabba eventually spares him and his music band after they perform their way out of an execution when Jabba’s audience finds their music engaging enough to save them. Even Boba Fett seems to enjoy the music at the end — although the music was the weak point of the episode, to be frank. It was refreshing to see a classic portrayal of Boba Fett, with Temuera Morrison voicing him. It was fortunate that the team who made the cartoon seemed to favor Boba Fett, with one member of the studio admitting in the behind the scenes bonus material that he put more Boba in it than originally was planned.

Eventually, we got even more classic style Fett in animation with another leaked sequence from an unfinished episode of “The Clone Wars,” showing Boba Fett using his jetpack fighting Jedi Anakin Skywalker within the setting of busy city traffic. Unfortunately, it’s an unfinished sequence and likely won’t ever get finished, so it’s bittersweet yet cool to see what-could-have-been.

So, I think we can conclude that the legacy of Boba Fett has indeed have had an impact of animation. He played a big part in vintage and modern Star Wars but in very different ways. Modern Star Wars has used Boba’s legacy, and Jango Fett’s legacy (which is the same thing) to expand the universe and create new characters and yet the character himself seems to have been relegated to a sort of status quo. The stuff that happened to Boba Fett in “The Clone Wars” we could have guessed after watching the Prequel and Original Trilogy. We could have guessed he’d want revenge against the Jedi. We could have guessed he’d end up with his father’s associates. We already knew he would become a bounty hunter. Based off the original version of the Expanded Universe, we also could have guessed that an evil/misguided group of Mandalorians were involved in the Clone Wars. But these stories are still fun regardless, but they also don’t feel like requirements to be a Boba Fett fan.

Galaxy of Adventures Boba Fett Banner

While Boba Fett’s influence is seemingly everywhere Young Boba Fett is ultimately in a total of 5 episodes (excluding the multiple unfinished episodes he was in) and Adult Boba Fett is spread out between two vintage appearances (“Holiday Special” and “Droids”), one Visions appearance, and the many LEGO/non-SW cartoon appearances, which are funny and great but don’t add to the lore. “Galaxy of Adventures” and Hasbro Star Wars were also interesting animated web micro-series made for the younger audience that featured Boba Fett. In “Galaxy of Adventures,” we see the Skywalker Saga moments remade and thus we get moments from “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” that feature Boba Fett — from Darth Vader hiring him and his bounty hunter peers, to his fight with Luke nearby Jabba’s sail barge. But the shorts throw in some extra Fett moments not seen in film but were alluded to, like Fett disintegrating a bounty for example. In the Hasbro Star Wars shorts, there’s a bit more of The Mandalorian/Din Djarin but one of the three shorts featured him and Boba Fett versus Stormtroopers in Mos Espa, which is nice.

Overall, the bad news is that there isn’t much Fett in animation. But the good news is that there is still a lot of potential there, and his influence is still there and never really left. I think while Fett has had quite a film/comic book/novel/action figure/video games legacy, his legacy in animation isn’t as strong because he’s so neglected. I theorize perhaps people enjoy the status quo of Boba Fett being a mystery. Too many Young Boba Fett stories hurt the image he originally had of being villainous. Too many adult Boba Fett stories hurt the image of him being that victim of war who lost his father. “The Clone Wars” cartoons had viewers sympathetic to his situation, up until he was a bounty hunter doing an immoral mission and then he was an unseen character for all the follow-up cartoon series (“The Bad Batch,” “Rebels,” “Tales from the Underworld”). One might as well imagine his vintage cartoon appearances from “Droids” and the “Holiday Special” as canon events in order to fill in that gap between Season 4 of “The Clone Wars” and Boba’s appearance in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Hopefully the future sees a Boba Fett cartoon story that explores Boba in the prime of his career, or a story that explores Jango Fett in his prime. Either way, Fett is due for a return to animation.

BFFC members Cujo (member 714) and Gustavo (member 553) discuss the recent 4-part #BobaFett miniseries. What did you think? Sound off in the comments.

More info on the 4-issue miniseries, which featured 14 covers in all — or 15 if you include that the Kaare Andrews had a virgin (textless) variant too:

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Josemaria Casanovas Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Leinil Francis Yu Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Kaare Andrews Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Kyle Hotz Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Miguel Mercado Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Skan Srisuwan Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Klaus Janson Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Paulo Siqueira Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Dave Wachter Variant)
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Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Luke Ross Variant)
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Alyssa Wong wrote the Boba Fett “Black, White & Red” #4, released at the very end of 2025.

We spoke with the Star Wars comic writer about the final issue:

BFFC: What inspired you to write this particular Boba Fett story?

Boba Fett vs. Raslin Grace showdown! It was great to take a crack at the man, the mystery, the Boba Fett. And I missed Raslin, my charming, horrifying bounty hunter. I wrote her into the last issue of my Doctor Aphra (2020) run and “Tall Tales,” my short story in Star Wars: Revelations #1 (2023). She’s a character who deserves more time to shine, and I love pitting a newbie against a legend. I wanted someone who could go toe-to-toe with Boba Fett on the battlefield. I wanted that spicy sizzle between their different personalities.

I also had Eriadu on the mind, and as they say, where there’s Eriadu, there are Tarkins. I’d gotten to explore them in my work for The High Republic, so I thought, “Why not?” It’s a powder keg of a setting… and a great place for a showdown.

BFFC: What did your writing process for Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 look like?

I always start with a simple concept: story idea based loosely around “Things I Think Would be Fun to Write.” For Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4, I knew I wanted to write a murder mystery with a masked vigilante, bring back Raslin Grace, and return to the Tarkins and Eriadu. We caught a glimpse of what the Tarkins were like in The High Republic era, centuries prior to this story; how did we get from that to the Tarkins in the present day? What role do they play in this story? How does Eriadu’s warlike culture form the landscape of civil unrest under the Empire?

Boba Fett is our Sherlock Holmes. He’s an outsider striding into a boiling storm. His only stake here is solving the mystery so he can get paid. So, with Boba Fett at the center of this story, I ask: “What are the things only Boba Fett can see? Who are the best and worst people he can meet? Who’s his client and why does he take this job? Who is the most interesting antagonist for him? And in general, how do I make his life more difficult?”

The Tarkins have the cash, so they’re the client. Why did they hire him? A young Tarkin has been assassinated. That’s our victim. Does Boba Fett have a personal stake in the Tarkins’ vendetta? Not really… but clearly someone does, so whom? Everyone, it turns out. Who killed the young Tarkin? Someone who represents everyone. Who’s the actual dark horse antagonist for Boba Fett, the person who can meet him on the same level? The bounty hunter Raslin Grace, who ties into the Tarkins due to her Eriaduan high society background.

The more questions you ask, the more your outline grows, and before you know it, you’ve already written your script.

BFFC: You’ve written Boba Fett before in the War of the Bounty Hunters Doctor Aphra crossover. Both of those characters are rogues in their own way – how do you approach writing these kinds of characters?

I find writing rogues much easier than writing heroes. Their struggles are different. My heroes tend to strive toward a societal ideal, while rogues flex around it. Rogues know they’re not good people–or at least, they know they aren’t heroes. Good isn’t always an option for them, and often times, it isn’t one.

You can get so, so emotionally ugly with someone who believes that about themself. Can they be heroic? If so, are they standing in their own way? Or will they choose to double down on their own worst impulses? You can see this with a lot of characters I’ve written: Boba Fett, Doctor Aphra, Driggit Parse. Rogues are survivors. And that feels like a very real place to be.

(Also, I just have more fun with morally-grey to morally-heinous characters.)

BFFC: What was it like bringing bounty hunter Raslin Grace, who famously was hired to track down Aphra, back in this issue?

I love my girl Raslin. David Baldeón designed her when we worked together on “Tall Tales,” Raslin’s first story appearance. David brought the elegance of Grace Kelly (hence “Grace”) to my pitch of “Kraven the Hunter meets gorgeous, merciless high society debutante.” And you know I love writing awful, cruel, powerful women with great senses of humor.

Raslin is a skilled bounty hunter, charming and flirty, with the stone-cold heart of a killer. What sets her apart is that she doesn’t hunt because she needs the money–she does it for the love of the game. That hunger makes her a fun matchup against both Boba Fett and Aphra, even though they’re very different characters. In some ways, Boba Fett is more myth than man, and Aphra is as slippery as an eel. But Raslin is an unstoppable force. She’s human, but I wanted her to be uncannily unkillable. She always comes back. And any obstacles just make the hunt more exciting.

I think I’d like to write her again. We’ll see!

The final issue dropped on December 31st. Ask your local comic shop about it ASAP.

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Dave Wachter Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Luke Ross Variant)
2025

A murder mystery leads to a strong finale for this solid Boba Fett miniseries

It is bittersweet, but we have reached the fourth and final issue of Boba Fett – Black, White & Red. This miniseries has seen him take on unique and interesting missions, and Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 closes that out and maintains this standard until the very end. I am pleased to report that this makes the entire miniseries solid from start to finish.

This one is called Target: Eriadu. Eriadu is the planet it takes place on. It has mostly appeared in comics and novels, so the name might not be immediately recognizable to most. The plot of this comic is essentially a “murder mystery.” However, to clarify, there isn’t much emphasis placed on actual mystery solving. Instead, it’s mostly a straight-forward and basic hunt, like most bounty hunting missions. In this case, Boba Fett is hired to hunt down whoever murdered Sydna Tarkin. She is the niece of the well-known Grand Moff Tarkin. However, during this era he is still only a Governor. This means that the comic clearly takes place prior to the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. I like this little context clue, but I wish a year had been specified in the comic. One of my few, small complaints about this series is that the year the stories take place in isn’t specified. You can get an idea through context clues, like the above example, but I prefer a bit more precision. However, the positive side of this is that future stories can neatly fit in alongside this comic series, provided that they don’t contradict each other.

I suppose it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Tarkin doesn’t really react sentimentally to the murder of his neice. From his very first appearance in the original movie, it is obvious how cold-blooded he is. However, to extend that coldness to his own family is…impressive, albeit in a negative way. Perhaps he is estranged from his extended family or something.

Either way, it’s Sydna’s mother who is the client, and wishes to seek justice using Boba Fett’s expertise. She has, of course, come to the right place. Boba Fett only takes assignments which meets his harsh sense of justice. However, he dedicates himself to those few with fanatical skill. It is also his discretion that Mrs.Tarkin. Imperial justice is slow and Governor Tarkin has turned his back on the family. Whoever murdered her baby girl must suffer, but discreetly.

The main gyst of this mission is essentially a three-way conflict between Boba Fett, Sydna’s killer, and Raslin Grace. Raslin is a bounty hunter who has actually appeared in other Canon comics before, such as Doctor Aphra. As a matter of fact, Alyssa Wong, who is the author of this issue, also wrote most if not all of the Doctor Aphra series that began in 2020, including Doctor Aphra #12 which featured Boba Fett. She also wrote the issue that Raslin Gace debuted in: “Tall Tales.” This story was released in Revelations #1 (2023). Wong has inserted an original character of theirs into this Boba story that they also crafted, and it has worked pretty damn well. It is the mark of a good writer when they are able to interweave both an original creation of theirs and a legacy character seemlessly. Raslin Grace is mostly a sniper but is deadly with her blades in close combat as well.

As for the killer, everyone refers to her as “The Shadow of Bri-Phrang.” Bri-Phrang is the city this takes place in, and as far as I know this is the first appearance of this character. Not much information is given on her. It’s simply clear that the Shadow is a woman and that she hates the Tarkins. She is essentially a stealth assassin who mainly uses the aforementioned catspaw dagger.

Both Raslin Grace and the Shadow have unique, interesting load outs. Their armor and weapons, while not on par to Boba’s, are enough for them to be a threat and wage this little war. They also look cool; they are masked enigma’s similar to Boba Fett himself. I could easily see both of these characters being brought to life by female cosplayers in the near future, especially if they’re looking to build unique characters that have never been done before. For example, the Shadow has a dagger that looks remarkably similar to the Valyrian steel dagger from Game of Thrones.

The motivations of the characters, as well as the reason for this murder, are also interesting. For starters, many people in the city of Bri-Phrang have a bone to pick with the “old families” of Eriadu, most notably the Tarkins and the Graces. If the other Tarkins are cruel in a way similar to Governor Tarkin, I can see why they wouldn’t be popular. So the majority of the locals who Boba encounters consider the Shadow of Bri-Phrang a hero for taking out Sydna Tarkin. Hence, the Shadow is the physical embodiment of this motivation. She was impervious to Sydna’s attempt to bribe her, so clearly this was a personal vendetta that she has in common with the locals.

Funny enough, Raslin Grace is somewhere in the middle between Boba Fett and the Shadow in their motivations. While the Shadow is motivated by this grudge, Boba is simply motivated by the usual: credits and success as a bounty hunter. Sure, the core of that is his dedication to Jango Fett’s legacy, but that isn’t touched upon this issue. Raslin Grace herself is a hunter too, but doesn’t really need the money given her family connections. She hunts mainly for the thrill of it, and aims to take out both Boba Fett and the Shadow simply because they are worthy opponents. So it’s truly ironic for someone of noble lineage — especially from one of the families hated in Bri-Phrang — to be mixing it up with the likes of Boba and the Shadow. She is a mix of what Boba is, and what the Shadow hates. This makes their three-way, Good Bad and Ugly style confrontation even more juicy.

As I mentioned, this concludes the series with another solid entry. I’m not sure where I would rank it compared to issue #1 and #2: they were all in the ballpark of good, solid Boba Fett stories. I can, however, say with absolute certainty that Issue 3 stole the show in spades. So my current ranking for this series is #3 and then some sort of tie between #1, #2, and this one — #4. Perhaps later I can rank them more definitively. But it’s really hard when all the issues were so good. It’s a nice problem to have, and I commend all four writers for portraying Boba Fett faithfully, well, and giving him additional awesome missions under his bounty hunting belt. If there’s anything that Issue 4 stands out in, it’s probably how cool Raslin Grace looks when she throws down. The Shadow looks cool when she fights too, but we saw more of Raslin and she has more weapons.

So it’s with a heavy heart that I accept the end of this series. I highly recommend all four issues, and you don’t even have to read them in order since they’re all self-contained. All four deserve to be read and remembered.

The Pros

• Epic fight with cool characters
• Interesting lore on the Tarkins

The Cons

• Issue would benefit from fleshing out the lore/backstory

Rating

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4
2025 Varies $5.99 Ebook / Kindle

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Dave Wachter Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #4 (Luke Ross Variant)
2025 Varies

This year we surpassed 224,000 followers when counting our website’s memberships alongside our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, Bluesky, and Threads.

Here’s a recap of our most popular content from January 1 to today, December 31.

Facebook | Instagram | BFFC News | YouTube | Twitter

If all social platforms were awesome, we could compare all things on the same metric, but unfortunately some stats we can get with ease are based on impressions/views and others are based on likes, the latter of which of course are harder to earn. We’ve noted that alongside each data set below.

Facebook

Here are our top 10 posts based on all of the year’s content, which clocked in a whopping 2,816,390 engagements (which Facebook boils together as Reactions, Comments and Shares) on Facebook, where we currently have over 112,360 fans — bumped up when they converted the page “like” count to just the “follower” count:

#10: Boba Fett Voiced by Jason Wingreen
11,580 engagements since 10/9

#9: Boba Fett’s Animated Debut
13,180 engagements since 2/28

#8: Head nod to the daimyo, Temuera Morrison
15,086 engagements since 4/19

#7: Boba Fett in “Robot Chicken” (2007)
15,805 engagements since 6/17

#6: Happy birthday Danny Trejo!
15,989 engagements since 5/16

#5: Boba Fett in “Jedi: Survivor”
18,484 engagements since 4/28

#4: Boba Fett in “The Empire Strikes Back”
19,767 engagements since 5/9

#3: Happy Anniversary AOTC
21,710 engagements since 5/16

#2: Boba Fett in “The Empire Strikes Back”
28,452 engagements since 5/21

#1: Hayden Christensen’s Favorite Star Wars Character
38,083 engagements since 5/6

Stats pulled from Meta Business Suite (aka business.facebook.com) > Content > Export (button at the top) > select your Facebook page > select Lifetime, Post, and Creation Date > select January 1 to present (or “this year”) … which actually works this time!

Instagram

Out of the 197,028 total likes across all of our 2025 posts, here were our top 10 posts based on likes this year on Instagram, which has remained consistent at just over 38,900 followers:

#10: Some say #LifeDay – we call it #BobaFett day
1,883 likes since 11/17

#9: This television ad for Kenner’s Slave I toy from “The Empire Strikes Back” aired in 1981
1,985 likes since 2/7

#8: “I need equipment.” – #BobaFett
2,127 likes since 2/3

#7: Custom “teen beat” #BobaFett by @johnny_osage_ave
2,210 likes since 4/23

#6: New t-shirt available on the Disney Store website
2,271 likes since 4/29

#5: An Exclusive first look (full turn) at the Boba Fett Fine Art Bust by @collectpcs…
2,424 likes since 7/25

#4: #BobaFett will soon be on a can (and bottle) of Coke starting July 7
2,910 likes since 6/27

#3: Official pre-viz of #TheCloneWars #BobaFett vs. Anakin Skywalker
3,351 likes since 4/19

#2: Spotted at a gym in Seattle by a BFFC fan
7,506 likes since 6/14

#1: Throwback to #BobaFett voiced by Temuera Morrison in #StarWars Battlefront
8,284 likes since 5/22

Stats pulled from Meta Business Suite (aka business.facebook.com) > Content > Export (button at the top) > select your Instagram page > select Post > select “this year” … which also actually works this time!

BFFC News

Our News section has added more contributors and variety of contributions. From the 22 articles we published in 2025, these articles caught the most views.

#10: How Jango Fett’s Motivation Evolved from George Lucas to “Legends” to Present
203 unique views since 4/3, written by Mosh Babilonia

#9: Everything Boba Fett From Toy Fair New York 2025
228 unique views since 3/5, written by Chelsey B. Coombs

#8: Tribute to Vance Lorenzini
286 unique views since 9/8, written by Aaron Proctor

#7: Review: “Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1”
325 unique views since 9/17, written by Gustavo Perez

#6: How LucasArts Made Boba Fett a Video Game Icon
374 unique views since 5/11, written by Mosh Babilonia

#5: Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025: Guide for Boba Fett Fans
457 unique views since 4/10, written by Aaron Proctor

#4: SDCC 2025: Guide for Boba Fett Fans
459 unique views since 7/10, written by Aaron Proctor

#3: How Boba Fett’s Backstory Evolved from George Lucas to “Legends” to Present
580 unique views since 3/2, written by Mosh Babilonia

#2: 2025 Black Friday / Cyber Monday Star Wars Sales Featuring Boba Fett
787 unique views since 11/25, written by Aaron Proctor

#1: Star Wars Day 2025: Guide for Boba Fett Fans
932 unique views since 4/30, written by Aaron Proctor

Stats pulled from our Google Analytics (GA4), using Engagement > Pages and screens > filtering by /news/, and then remove any non-2025 matches.

YouTube

We just hit 7,810 subscribers now on YouTube, which has 202 videos now. Only 9 videos there this year so here’s the full set in reverse popularity order:

#9: BFFC Turns 29
108 views since 7/4, by Aaron Proctor

#8: SDCC 2025: Our Exclusive Interview with Premium Collectibles Studio
135 views since 7/27, by Aaron Proctor

#7: Attakus “The Book of Boba Fett” Boba Fett 1/5 Scale Statuette
215 views since 1/8, by Thorsten Heiss

#6: Unboxing Gentle Giant’s Jumbo “The Book of Boba Fett” Boba Fett with Removable Helmet and Coin
223 views since 3/17, by Aaron Proctor

#5: Exclusive Interview with Michael Hirsh and Clive Smith on Fett’s Animated Debut, Ewoks, and Droids
224 views since 4/17, by Chelsey B. Coombs

#4: SDCC 2025: Denuo Novo
374 views since 7/25, by Aaron Proctor

#3: Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025: Our Exclusive Interview with Hasbro
668 views since 4/22, by Chelsey B. Coombs

#2: SDCC 2025: Our Exclusive Interview with Hasbro
1,203 views since 7/27, by Aaron Proctor and Chelsey B. Coombs

#1: NYCC 2025: Our Exclusive Interview with Hasbro
2,638 views since 10/19, by Chelsey B. Coombs

Twitter

Since Elon has still blocked the free access to analytics.twitter.com, we can no longer report on our “best of” here like in years prior.

What were your highlights in BFFC coverage this year? Let us know in the comments so we can do more of that — as you wish.

Curious what made the cut in prior years? See 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020. (Our news coverage also goes all the way back to 1998.)

Despite his initially limited screen time, many know that Boba Fett is a film icon — and many also know of his legacy in video games and “Legends” lore from comics and novels. Boba Fett is a well-respected character in those media fields. However, when it comes to animation, one has to think: is Boba Fett as great a character in animation and what is his legacy there?

Even though it may seem so, it’s not a simple “yes,” especially if you only think about the non-canon, playful parody Star Wars animated content by LEGO and Robot Chicken. So, why would a great character like Boba Fett not be excellent in animation? What could have gone wrong? Or are things happening the way they should? We have to look back at history to really answer that.

In 1978, Boba Fett had an animated debut in the short cartoon — later known as “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee” — in the Star Wars Holiday Special that aired between the first two Star Wars movies. Along with Darth Vader, Boba were the first Star Wars cartoon villains ever. Boba was also the first Star Wars character to debut in animation before showing up theatrically in live-action. However, Fett was originally conceived for film, not animation. Not that many people saw the one airing of the “Holiday Special” until it had circulated among the fan communities on bootleg VHS and YouTube, much to the dislike of creator George Lucas, who generally disliked the larger television special.

In 1985, animated Boba would return in the “Droids” cartoon starring C-3PO and R2-D2, working for a gangster named Fromm (who also had a bounty on himself from Jabba). In a different episode, the “Droids” series also saw the animated debut of Boba’s bounty hunter rival IG-88, showing that Star Wars animation was willing to explore the lesser-known bounty hunters too.

Sadly, that was the end of classic Boba Fett in animation — just two episodes, both entertaining and teasing at the possibility of more Boba Fett cartoon appearances that never came back. The focus for animated Star Wars content shifted to Ewoks in the mid-1980s, before drying up in the 1990s. Work went towards updating the Original Trilogy for the “Special Editions” and working on the Prequel Trilogy instead, leaving no room for any cartoons during the decade.

It wasn’t until “Attack of the Clones” in 2002 with The Clone Wars era that Star Wars animation had an opportunity to return. It started with the 2D micro-series by Genndy Tartakovsky that ran in between the releases of Episode II and III (2003-2005) on Cartoon Network. There are a couple notable Fett-related aspects in the original Clone Wars cartoons. The most obvious is the character Durge, a fierce Gen’Dai who is a Separatist Commander on the show with Mandalorian symbols on his armor similar to that of Boba Fett. Durge’s mentor was a Mandalorian, so he wears the symbol in his mentor’s honor. But he also hates Mandalorians, as Durge was tortured by a group of them long before The Clone Wars (in retaliation for their slain Mandalore), so the symbol is misleading, as Durge truly despised Mandalorians. Durge’s hatred of Mandalorians was so great it extended to all clones, all who genetically came from a Mandalorian — Jango Fett — and thus why Durge was so willing to participate in a war against clones.

Like Boba Fett, Durge himself was also a bounty hunter. In the novel “Boba Fett: Hunted” by Elizabeth Hand (2003) the two hunters crossed paths as enemies, both doing a job for Jabba the Hutt. It was only natural that they cross paths, as the whole point of Durge as a character was to give the Jedi a bounty hunter type of animated “Clone Wars” villain that was formidable, much like Jango Fett was portrayed in “Attack of the Clones” against Obi-Wan Kenobi. Before Jango versus Kenobi on Kamino, there were no on-screen fights between an experienced Jedi and a non-Jedi character, so that sequence alone opened up many possibilities going forward.

The 2nd most Fett-ish thing about the initial “Clone Wars” animated series was the clone trooper named Fordo, a unique Clone Trooper with a red-framed Phase I clone trooper helmet visor reminiscent of Boba Fett’s T-visor. Fordo’s Phase II helmet had painted “Jaig eyes,” which is a symbol that comes from Mandalorian culture. (The word Jaig itself is Mando’a, the language of Mandalorians, meaning “Shriek-Hawk,” the name of a creature that only the skilled could hunt, and thus as a symbol was reserved for brave warriors.) How Fordo acquired the Jaig eyes was a story no longer available on the official StarWars.com website, but he did achieve the Jaig eyes legitimately even if no explanation is given on the cartoon itself.

Behind the scenes, the symbol originated from early production concept art by Joe Johnston and paint explorations for Boba Fett’s helmet. As a result, Fordo had a lot of presence and his frenetic action scenes were cool, showcasing his heroism. That was something that the clone troopers of the prequel films did as well but in a more collective level without too much individuality beyond Commander Cody in Episode III, who interacted with Kenobi multiple times prior to Order 66. Filmgoers got their first glimpse of a named clone trooper that the audience could care about, but it wasn’t until animation that we really got to see clone troopers stand out as individuals. Among faceless clone soldiers, Fordo was one that stood out clearly much like how Boba Fett and his armor stood out more than standard Stormtrooper armor did in the Original Trilogy. What was unique about the clones in the original Clone Wars cartoon was they were a unique variant type of elite clone trooper known as ARC Troopers (Advanced Recon Commando). In the “Republic” comic books during that era the stories of the Alpha-generation ARC Troopers were expanded on, showing they were under Jango Fett’s personal tutelage, passing Mandalorian customs down to clones. They were considered “Jango’s Legacy” almost as much as Boba Fett was.

Another clone would go on to get Jaig eyes on his helmet, but in canon, and that is Captain Rex. Captain Rex, much like Fordo, stood out even more because he went on to have many interactions with main characters like Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka, and Kenobi. He became a fan favorite who would go on to appear in several series beyond The Clone Wars like “Rebels” and “Ahsoka” despite not having been introduced in either “Attack of the Clones” or “Revenge of the Sith.” The Jaig eyes detail not only symbolized heroism, but showed a clear distinction between the depersonalized Imperial culture and the individuality-infused culture of Mandalorians — and even the individuality of Fett himself, a man who didn’t see him as a tool for the Empire, who believed in the power of choice. While Boba Fett’s final helmet design did not include Jaig eyes, there are plenty of design choices that gave his look personality, like the Jaster Mereel sigil symbol on his chest armor.

While “Clone Wars” was great and a well respected micro-series and companion to the Prequel Trilogy, another animated iteration of that era of events between Episode II and III was born afterwards. With an updated, more modern 3D animation look “The Clone Wars” (2008) was sure to impress visually. But before Boba Fett could appear the Fett storyline continued indirectly through the clone troopers of Jango Fett. One notable example of this was in the Season 1 episode “The Hidden Enemy.” It featuring a clone named Slick who seemingly betrays his brothers for money in a deal with a Sith Acolyte (Ventress) where he provided the enemy with information on the Jedi as a spy/saboteur. When his brothers catch him, Slick states clearly that he doesn’t have a problem with his brothers though. He said his act of rebellion was against the Jedi that he deemed as incompetent, seeing them as slave masters using the clones as slave soldiers in war.

This was an early example in canon of a clone trooper having “gone Jango,” as Dave Filoni described it behind-the-scenes. It’s where an (altered) clone unexpectedly shows personality traits of their genetic father. In this case it would be the love of money and the love of freedom, as it was freedom that Slick truly desired. On the other hand, with Boba being unaltered as a clone, he was expected to be like his father. Jango had to struggle through many hardships and knew what it was like to be a slave, as seen in the comic “Jango Fett: Open Seasons.” There is a tragic irony to how part of his legacy is an army that serves as slave soldiers and cannon fodder to the Jedi — at least before they became the mind controlled slayers of Jedi when Order 66 was activated. Despite clones being made to be more obedient the need for freedom was still there, although hidden. Despite being experts in their field, Kaminoans struggled to eliminate that need for freedom from a cloning process that involved a degree of mind control, which shows the strength of Jango Fett’s character.

Boba Fett grew up with a need for freedom as well, which was good, of course. However, he did not get freedom easily. He had to fight for it, overcoming his burning desire for revenge, which held him back from more professional life goals. After seeing his father die from a vicious lightsaber attack at the onset of the Clone Wars on Geonosis, all he could feel was anger and hatred for the Jedi Knight who killed his father. He also felt sadness for the loss of his father, while also feeling no connection towards anyone else, so he turned to who he thought he could trust: his father’s associates like Aurra Sing.

Aurra first appeared in “The Phantom Menace” as a background character — conceived from a sketch referred to as “Babe Fett” by Doug Chiang — but she transitioned to a more notable character in Star Wars animation years later, first appearing in cartoon form at the end of Season 1 where she worked with Cad Bane in the episode called “Hostage Crisis.” She returned in Boba Fett’s Season 2 story arc, in a story that actually took place prior to Sing’s Season 1 appearance.

“Death Trap” was the 20th episode of “The Clone Wars” where we see Boba Fett in his quest for revenge. He infiltrates the clone youth brigade and acts as one of the clone cadets named “Lucky,” making an impression and finding his way around a Jedi cruiser where he attempts to plant an explosive to kill Mace Windu, the Jedi who killed Jango Fett. Boba’s bomb ends up accidentally killing a trooper instead and Fett resorts to sabotaging the Jedi Cruiser ship, killing more clone troopers in the process by causing the cruiser to crash towards the nearby planet.

Before the crash, Boba escapes with some cadets who did not realize he was a spy. Their escape pod is caught by Jango Fett’s ship Slave I, being flown by Aurra Sing and Bossk the bounty hunter. As part of the plan, they come to retrieve Boba, but Boba expresses some concern for the young clone cadets before abandoning them to an uncertain fate. Jax, the young clone cadet, believed that Boba Fett being a clone would eventually come to realize he was wrong for leaving them behind. Unfortunately it was Aurra Sing, Boba Fett’s mentor at the time, calling the shots at the time, guiding Boba through his personal darkness by having him embrace the darkness. Aurra wanted Boba to get his revenge, but she wanted him to be ruthless towards 6 year-old clones too, showing no regard for their lives. Perhaps young Boba Fett did not realize how ruthless his father had to be in business.

Perhaps Boba should have known better to trust Aurra Sing, as a few episodes later in a 3-episode “The Clone Wars” arc she shows her true colors when she’d rather save herself than save Boba Fett. It goes down in a violent encounter with Jedis Plo Koon and Ahsoka Tano that ends with the Slave I, badly in need of a repair. Much like with other mentors Boba Fett had, it was short-lived and bittersweet. Aurra was one of the few mother-like figures to Fett, even if their time together was short and chaotic. But it provides a fascinating example of a character that is better off with no mother at all than a mother like Aurra Sing. Aurra Sing is a very dangerous woman after all.

In the episode “Lethal Trackdown,” the pirate Hondo Ohnaka at least reminded young Boba Fett that his father Jango was an honorable man, which was important for Boba to hear. He was so clouded in his quest for revenge against the Jedi that he forgot to think that maybe Jango did not want Boba ruining his life to get payback. And the consequence was jail. After all, he crashed a Jedi cruiser ship, killed multiple clone troopers, and attempted to kill several Jedi generals, and would have been successful were it not for the Jedi being luckier than “Lucky.” But Boba understood what he did was wrong, and expressed sorrow for the harm he’d had caused. Hondo was kind to reach out when nobody else would. It’s like what a social worker can do for troubled youth without a proper family, lead them in the right path when everybody else has given up on the kid.

Boba Fett expressed his anger to Mace Windu, yelling out that he would never forgive him for murdering his father. Windu, in a disappointed tone, replies that Boba is going to have to. Most would reasonably say that Windu sounded cold and unsympathetic to Fett, and understandably so. However, there is wisdom in the simplicity of Windu’s statement. Boba Fett gains nothing by not forgiving Windu, nor does Windu lose anything by being unforgiven, so it’s wasted hate, which is both unproductive and tragic. But Boba truly meant it, and he really did not forgive the Jedi.

Once Windu died at the end of “Attack of the Clones,” there was nothing Boba Fett could really do about the revenge anyway. Perhaps by that point in the war Boba had moved on from revenge. He did not feel bad for what happened to the Jedi when their own clone army betrayed them. Boba’s revenge came in indirect form, as the clone army had ruined the Jedi. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, whose deceptions led to Boba Fett’s existence, had killed Mace Windu. Anakin Skywalker, who was present at Jango Fett’s death, lost his soul to Darth Sidious. Obi-Wan Kenobi, who discovered the Fetts and clones at Kamino, causing them to leave their home, became a tragic figure, losing his apprentice to the dark side and losing his friend Padme to premature death right as she gave birth to twins. Just about everyone who was there that day Jango Fett died was cursed to a tragic fate.

The Jedi Council had only themselves to blame in the end of the war. In the Season 6 episode of “The Clone Wars” entitled “The Lost One,” the Jedi come to realize something they could not puzzle together. In “Attack of the Clones”, it’s the mystery around Sifo-Dyas’ death, the clone army, and the identity of Tyranus, a man that Jango Fett mentioned to Obi-Wan Kenobi as being the man that recruited Fett. It turns out that Sifo-Dyas was killed on a trip to the planet Oba Diah by the criminal Pykes who were native to that planet, under orders from Count Dooku. One of the Pykes who knew that the man named Tyranus was also the man named Dooku reveals that truth to Kenobi and Anakin when Sifo-Dyas’ death is investigated. Despite realizing that Dooku had hijacked the clone army project from Sifo-Dyas and also realizing he had employed Jango Fett to attempt an assassination on Senator Padme, the Jedi Council still went forward in their war using clones that had been provided to them by their enemy — and clones of a man who wore Mandalorian armor too.

Mandalorians were the enemies of the Jedi and yet the Jedi trusted what was essentially an army of Mandalorian clones that Count Dooku designed in a project he stole from a Jedi he murdered while parading around with a Sith-like name — Tyranus. In all their wisdom the Jedi could not see the obvious, or rather, they chose to ignore the truth, because it was more convenient to do so. Coincidentally Boba Fett would eventually war with the Pyke Syndicate many years later, with absolutely no knowledge of the Pykes having helped Dooku hijack the clone project which led to Boba’s birth. Things kind of went full circle in that regard, unbeknownst to Fett.

From just a few select episodes we can see that Boba Fett has made an impact in Star Wars animation, both directly and indirectly, as his presence is felt even in episodes that do not include him. Perhaps you’re not that convinced yet, so we can continue this analysis of Star Wars animation from the perspective of a Boba Fett fan another time, but for now we can go and revisit vintage Star Wars like “The Clone Wars” to see that original generation of Jango Alpha-ARC Clones, or we can watch modern Star Wars like “The Clone Wars” that continued and expanded on the Fett storyline from “Attack of the Clones.”

Continued in Part 2

Old fashioned bounty hunting with a blaster, flamethrower, whipcord, and even boot spikes make for a great Boba piece

I’ve been following the “Boba Fett – Black, White & Red” miniseries from the very beginning. The first two issues were both great, noteworthy entries in Boba’s pantheon of amazing adventures in comics. He’s always been an MVP in this particular medium, both in Legends and in Canon. As good as the first two issues were, however… I think this one absolutely takes the cake.

The story in #3 resonates with me to my very core, and hits home when it comes to the very reasons I became a Boba Fett fan in the first place. It’s about the integrity and value of keeping your word, the power and pain of nursing a grudge in the face of injustice, and good old fashioned bounty hunting.

This one is called “Meeting of the Minds.” It’s actually a pretty literal statement, not some metaphor about intellectual debates. The beginning starts with Boba doing what he does best: disintegrating his adversaries. Boba’s arsenal, like last issue, wreaks absolute havoc and it’s an absolute shame this isn’t a scene in live-action. His blaster, the flamethrower, the whipcord — even his boot spikes — inflict damage in this fight! He uses the latter to kick and lacerate the shins of an enemy. I vibe strongly with that panel because I too used to kick shins when I was a little kid, but it looks a lot cooler when Boba does it. Heck, anything looks cooler with him. Another amazing shot was Boba tying up an enemy with his whipcord, then pulling him in to use as a shield to intercept blaster fire. This is the skill set of the best bounty hunter in the galaxy; bravo to both the writer and illustrator for portraying this so well.

Boba is going through all this trouble in order to capture an information broker. He is seeking information on a particular bounty, an old one that went “dormant” years ago. In this case, dormant means the bounty is no longer active. That is precisely the reason that this broker asks Boba, “Why is this so important to you?”

This comic takes place both “Now” during which Boba is in his prime seeking this information, and “Then,” during which Boba is still young and using a very important outfit from his past. If you have watched “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” you might recall that in Season 4 Boba Fett had an interesting outfit that wasn’t yet his green Mandalorian armor. It was this mask and suit comprised of mostly dark grey and a wine red color. The mask in particular was very interesting, but kind of hard to describe. It’s essentially the top half of a welding faceplate with the bottom half of some sort of respirator. It honestly looks really cool and it’s a pity we don’t have more merchandise of it, or additional appearances. That is, until now: it is this outfit that a young Boba- presumably around 12 or so- is wearing in this flashback.

Here’s the basis gist: the son of some fishmongers was unjustly killed over a game of Chance Cubes. This is the same form of gambling we saw Qui-Gon Jinn indulging in during Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. The murderer responsible is this large, brute-like alien named Corm Vargon. He is also a religious zealot and associated with an extremist caste of the B’omarr monks; this will be a relevant detail later in the comic. For those who might not know or need a refresher, B’omarr monks are infamous because they willingly remove their brains from their bodies and put them in these spider-like droids instead, so that they may ponder the mysteries of the galaxy forever. Some of them can still be spotted scuttling about in Jabba’s Palace, which was formerly a B’omarr monastery.

It is obvious that Corm Vargon has no remorse whatsoever for the injustice he has done. But according to Boba, they have scrounged together enough of their meager earnings to hire him and attempt to exact justice. I found this motive to be compelling, sympathetic, and I became very invested in seeing this through. Not only is this one of Boba’s early bounties in his career, but it’s a good cause. And as Boba Fett once said in Tales of the Bounty Hunters, “I bow to no one and give service only for cause.”

Unfortunately, things do not go in Boba’s favor. Despite his amazing skill and his father’s training, he is no much for this foe. Speaking of which, Corm Vargon apparently knew Jango Fett, and used his legacy to taunt Boba. He said that although Jango was a great man, Boba was far beneath him and not living up to his legacy. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something to that effect and I’m sure that wounded Boba deep down.

Long story short, Boba is now attempting to avenge this past incident. During the “Now” era, Boba is clearly in his prime, so I presume this takes place roughly around the events of the Original Trilogy. This would mean that, give or take, about twenty years have passed since Boba Fett failed this bounty. Now, despite how many years have passed, Boba still wants to exact justice.

This is exactly what I find so compelling and gripping about this comic. Let’s break it down and think about the ramifications of this. For starters, Boba must still feel a tremendous amount of guilt. We can’t deny that Boba Fett grows up to be a ruthless enforcer during his adulthood. But remember, he accepted this bounty when he was still a child — one that still had youthful optimism and a more black and white sense of justice. I have no doubt that, as a kid who still hasn’t been corrupted by the ruthlessness of bounty hunting, that he would feel some sort of personal stake in avenging the fishmonger’s son. It is a reverse situation to one he can relate very strongly to: during this era, Mace is likely still alive. Being hellbent on avenging Jango’s death, Boba would see a parallel of this struggle in the grieving eyes of the fishmongers, trying to avenge their son.

He must also feel a lot of anger. This Corm Vargon trash got away with using his father’s name to insult him. There are very few things that cut deeper than that for Boba. And being so young when this happened, with the pain of his father’s death still somewhat fresh, I’m sure that amplifies the effect. This has now become a revenge mission for Boba himself, too.

Lastly, it’s Boba’s code of always completing the bounty missions he undertakes, no matter what. This is what I meant earlier when I mentioned the idea of keeping your worth. Once Boba takes on a job, he completes it. No matter what. And everyone in the entire galaxy knows that. That’s what it means to be the best; to adhere to high standards that most other bounty hunters wouldn’t. It makes sense of course, for Boba certainly isn’t most other bounty hunters. He’s the bounty hunter- an imperial even says that verbatim in the last issue.

I highly recommend reading this issue. The outcome of this mission is worth witnessing, even if it’s slightly bittersweet. But the good far, far outweighs the bad. I have read just about every comic Boba Fett has ever been in. This is one of my absolute favorites. It’s definitely in my Top 10, possibly even my Top 5 (I’d have to think about it). The writer, Ethan Sacks, has written for both Jango and Boba in the past. From what I’ve seen in his work, he understands the Fetts very well. It is this understanding that allows him to write solid pieces for them. In particular, I applaud the use of what I call the “Interim Suit” Boba had in “The Clone Wars.” Those of you reading, if you have a better nickname for that outfit I’d be happy to hear it. If I recall correctly, this is barely the second ever appearance of that outfit, which is saying something, given that the episode it debuted in originally aired in 2012 — now 13 years ago.

I also commend the core plot of this story. Despite the comic being short, it establishes a conflict that cuts deep for Boba and makes it easy for readers to get invested. The fact that Boba would still have the integrity to pursue this bounty, despite the money reward no longer being offered… it demonstrates the code that sets Boba apart from other hunters. He has carried the anger and guilt of this incident for so long, and yet is still hellbent on keeping his word and completing his mission. That relentlessness and honor are what made me a Boba Fett fan. Throw that in with the cool armor and weapons, and you’ve got yourself a character that has endured as a fan favorite for decades.

I’ll comment briefly on the art style. Using only three colors, particularly black white and red, gives these comics the vibe of something gritty like the Sin City movies. I think it absolutely complements the type of story being told. In fact, using too much color would probably detract from the grittiness.

I could go on and on about this issue, so I should stop here. I can borderline guarantee that you’ll enjoy this issue if you’re a Boba Fett fan. The final battle by itself is so good, carries a nasty but entertaining surprise, and is such a reward for Boba fans who want to see him shine. Throw in the story leading up to it, and you’ve got a comic that is not only a great Boba piece, but a great comic overall.

The Pros

• Amazing, compelling story
• Deep cut in Boba Fett’s history
• Great action scenes with Boba
• Great visuals that complement both the action and the plot

The Cons

• None

Rating

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3
2025 Varies $5.99 Ebook / Kindle Paulo Siqueira Variant

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Klaus Janson Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Paulo Siqueira Variant)
2025 Varies

It’s time for the 12th annual Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale breakdown, focused all around Boba Fett and co.

Shopping for yourself or a friend/fan/lover? This round-up can help. We also have a separate holiday guide and holiday ornaments list.

Updates: Danny Haas, Jason W. Christman

Jump to: Toys and Figures | Video Games | Print | Apparel and Accessories | Books | Other

Toys and Figures

Amazon

There are many items are on sale on Amazon.com’s Star Wars store, which rounds up their major items — mostly apparel but some toys as well. You can also easily narrow down the results to just Fett items, including:

Fifth Sun Boba Fett Silhouette Helmet Fill Graphic T-Shirt
2021 $12.99 $19.99 Black Friday Sale

Jango Fett Hero Blasters T-Shirt
2020 $19.99 Black Friday Sale

Boba Fett Retro Mandalorian Poster T-Shirt
2025 $19.99

Fifth Sun Best Dad Ever Jango Fett Poster T-Shirt
2022 $16.99 Black Friday Sale

* And the helmet silhouette one is even cheaper on Walmart — see above.

LEGO

Get the LEGO UCS Jango Fett’s Firespray-Class Starship (75409) for $32 off, only at Walmart online.

The LEGO Jango Fett helmet is 20% off at Amazon and Target.

The LEGO Jango Fett’s Starship (75433) is also discounted right now — 20% off on Amazon and Target.

LEGO UCS Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship (75409)
2025 $299.99 $299.99 Black Friday Sale $299.84 $299.99

LEGO Jango Fett Helmet (75408)
2025 $69.99 $55.99 Black Friday Sale $69.99 $62.95 Black Friday Sale

LEGO Jango Fett's Starship (75433)
2025 $69.99 $55.99 $56.99

Entertainment Earth

Several Fett items are on sale on their site. Their pre-Black Friday sale is tiered for in-stock items: spend $100 to save $10, spend $150 to save $20, spend $200 to save $30, or spend $250 to save $40, plus free shipping. Discount applied automatically at checkout. Nice to see the Monogram helmet coin bank in their list.

Monogram Boba Fett Helmet PVC Figural Bank
2024 Varies

Sideshow Collectibles

Starting 11/10 through 12/28, they have a randomly selected free Sixth Scale Figure with a qualifying purchase — spend $300 and pick from two, or spend $450 and choose from four on their site. They also have $5 to $10 shipping on some Fett items.

Disney Store

No Fett items on sale,

Video Games

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Xbox Store has a Black Friday discount, between 75% and 85% off.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
2023 Varies $15.89 PS5 (Standard) $65.00 PS5 (Deluxe) $39.95 Xbox Series X (Deluxe) $599.99 PS5 Game with PS5 Console (Collector's Edition) $16.99 Xbox Series X (Standard)

Star Wars Outlaws

The Xbox Store discount is 70% off.

Star Wars Outlaws
2024 $36.90 PS5 $38.50 Xbox Series X $31.99 PS5 (Gold Edition) $34.99 Xbox Series X (Gold Edition) Varies

Print

Acme Archives

Starting 11/20 and going until 12/2 at noon Pacific, get 25% off on their site. Discount is automatically applied at checkout. Not stackable and cannot be used with other discount codes. New additions include “Hunter For Hire” by Joe Hogan and new pins by Danny Hass.

"Hunter For Hire" by Joe Hogan
2025

"The Empire Awaits" Collectible Pin by Danny Haas
2025

"No Mistakes This Time" Collectible Pin by Danny Haas
2025

Jason W. Christman

The artist with officially licensed prints is signing all orders and doing free U.S. shipping until the end of the year via his website. “Perfect Hibernation” features Boba Fett in the Cloud City carbon freezing chamber scene, plus he’s in “Jabba’s Palace,” shown below in the version via Acme Archives back in 2022. He’s also selling prints of “Cargo Hold,” originally released in 2012 via Acme.

"Jabba's Palace" by Jason Christman
2022

"Cargo Hold" by Jason Christman
2012

Danny Haas

Danny Haas — whose Fett pins we just featured in our Acme Archives section above — also has a shop with a different Boba Fett piece on his website. He’s doing a free Ahsoka piece with every purchase right now for a limited time.

Apparel and Accessories

Cotton Bureau

Wednesday, 11/26 to Monday 12/1: get free shipping for all our on demand “BFFC” shirts and stickers. Use code THANKYOU25 at checkout.

RSVLTS

They’re doing up to 60% off for Black Friday on their site. You can also get free shipping if you sign up for their mailing list, which will send you a code to use at checkout. Sale includes their recently re-stocked “No Good To Me Dead” BorlandFlex Flannel Shirt.

RSVLTS "No Good To Me Dead" BorlandFlex Flannel Shirt
2022

Heroes & Villains

Starting 11/24, get 30% off on their site. Deal includes one of their Boba Fett backpacks (now $84) and their Boba Fett Mandalore performance hoodie (now $63), plus more.

Heroes & Villains Boba Fett Backpack
2020

Heroes & Villains Boba Fett Mandalore Performance Hoodie
2023

Denuo Novo

Starting 11/21 until 12/2 at 5pm (timezone TBD), get 15% off sitewide plus 2x Rewards Points. The deal includes their Fett jetpack kit.

Boba Fett / Jango Fett Jetpack Kit
2023

Books

Check back later.

Other

Regal Robot

Their Boba Fett Prototype Armor Skull Mini Sculpture is currently 50% off on their site. It’s based on his pre-production armor’s shoulder symbol and we got to do a first look reveal video of it.

Regal Robot Boba Fett Prototype Armor Skull Mini Sculpture
2023

More

Are we missing something cool? Let us know in the comments.

Ethan Sacks helms issue #3 of Boba Fett’s “Black, White & Red” anthology, out this Wednesday, November 26th.

We asked the veteran Fett writer all about the latest issue of the four-part miniseries in advance:

BFFC: Tell us about your use of such deep cut characters like the B’omarr Monks and Djas Puhr.

Ethan Sacks: Once editor Mark Paniccia approached me with an offer for another chance to write Boba Fett, a character who I fell in love with during my run on Bounty Hunters a few years back, and in this cool black, white, and red (and lotsa gray, literally and figuratively) format, the B’omarr monks just popped into my mind. I mean they are black, white, and red. It’s right there! But those skittery exo-skeletons and long-lived brains have creeped me out since I first saw them on the movie screen in Return of the Jedi as a 10-year-old. What makes someone put their brain in a jar willingly to live forever? Plus I’ve always had a fascination with spiders and the idea of an infestation of those critters is an idea I’ve wanted to play with for a long time.

I got the single best note I’ve ever gotten from Lucasfilm when I included a reference photo of an infestation of Huntsman spiders: “New nightmare unlocked.” I will treasure that one forever.

As for Djas Phur, that is credit to editor Mikey Basso, who is an encyclopedia of Star Wars lore. But once he brought it up, I thought his species (Djas’s species, not Mikey’s human types) would make a formidable foe for Fett with those honed reflexes and fighting skills.

BFFC: What was it like writing for a different era of Boba Fett we usually don’t see?

To me, Boba Fett has been defined by the profound loss of his father at a young age. He spent much of his life trying to live up to a massive legacy. And he had to learn on the fly. It’s a cold galaxy for an orphan trying to make it in the bounty hunter trade. He eventually rose to eclipse even Jango, but it took a lot of hard knocks to get there. I relished the chance to tell a story set in BOTH of those eras: the dichotomy between the impulsive kid trying to cut his teeth, and the grown-up badass who breaks teeth.

BFFC: How does the more limited – but vivid – black/white/red color palette affect your storytelling?

I knew we had the pieces to tell a good story with that format, but having the great Juan Jose Ryp, an artist whose work I’ve admired for years, is what made it come together so well. His stunning art and color choices made this tale creepy as hell. There are parts that seem downright nightmarish. This has been a dream project all around!

BFFC: What inspired you to write this particular Boba Fett story?

I was intrigued by the idea of the bounty that got away. Exploring a failure that happened in Boba Fett’s past, before he was fully formed as the badass we know, that left an itch that he needs to scratch, a blemish on an otherwise near perfect record? Is there something more important to this legendary bounty hunter than the credits? I love trying to get inside the head under that helmet. Plus… did I mention how creeped out I get by those B’omarr monks?

The third issue comes out this Wednesday, November 26, 2025. Be sure to ask your local comic book retailer about any or all of the variant covers, too.

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Klaus Janson Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #3 (Paulo Siqueira Variant)
2025

“Boba Fett’s not a bounty hunter… he’s THE bounty hunter.”

I previously gave a glowing review of Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1. I’m pleased to report that the trend will continue with issue #2 of this solid, rewarding anthology series, each by different writers. These comics are 2 and 0 when it comes to portraying Boba Fett both well and faithfully, something I’m very grateful and hyped about because I’m hoping it can lead to a comeback for him.

The plot for this one is simple, straightforward, but fun and classic when it comes to Fett missions: Boba is pursuing a bounty. However, this particular bounty is an exceptional thief who has a master of evasion- not your typical target. Also, as revealed in our recent interview with the author, the story makes sure to show us things from the bounty’s point of view. In other words, what does it feel like to be hunted by Boba Fett? This comic shows us well that it’s essentially dread, adrenaline, and nonstop running.

The beginning starts in a way that highlights these very things and takes me back to the Expanded Universe itself. One of the first panels is a looming shot of the Slave I. The way it’s shown is just so overwhelming and awesome. It must feel so daunting to have it bearing down on you, looking for you.
Samu the Scurrier, who is Boba’s target, admits to feeling fear. But he’s a slippery quarry. For starters, he somehow manipulated the information on his bounty puck to show a picture of the wrong person. This even causes a delay for Boba, who had to be told by a droid that this had been the case. While Boba gets more information on Samu from the droid, Samu is trying to call in favors from literally anyone he can on this planet. I imagine he has operated here for a while, because it’s obvious he has some sort of history with the characters showcased. One particular one, an Imperial officer, has some lines that I really liked because it once again demonstrates what Boba Fett is supposed to be. When Samu is discussing the possibility of simply paying off Boba, the Imperial scoffs and says “You don’t understand who’s after you, huh? Boba Fett’s not a bounty hunter…he’s THE bounty hunter.”

This is who Boba Fett is, at his best. The best bounty hunter in the galaxy, with no equal. A dedicated master who completes any job he takes on, even missions others consider “impossible.” In other words, that one line from the Imperial implies both his effectiveness and his reputation for not yielding for whatever reason, be it bribery or opposition. It is fitting that this line is said with an awesome shot of Boba hovering with his jetpack, looking down like a bird of prey seeking to swoop down on it’s target. Excellent. Kudos to both author Saladin Ahmed and illustrator Ramon Rosanas.

Another trick buys Samu more time- a homemade bomb of sorts, releasing a powder that scrambles the sensors used by Boba’s helmet. But Samu’s sister, who was also looking for Samu, helps point Boba in the right direction. She wants him to be captured alive by Boba, because he is apparently pursued by people who want him dead. We find out who a couple of pages later: a trio of Houk. Houk are a species of large…how do I explain this? Skadge from the Old Republic game. They’re his species. Imagine if something like a bearded dragon was transformed into a large, thick humanoid, large enough to compete with Wookiees. That’s what these Houk guys are.

I don’t know if this counts as a spoiler, but they are no match for Boba. One of the reasons Boba is the best is because of the devastating, versatile arsenal he uses in the Mandalorian Armor he inherited from Jango Fett. He puts this arsenal to good use, absolutely wiping the floor with all three of these guys easily. It was like making three Gungans fight an Acklay: just an absolutely vicious, thorough, and amusing obliteration. Boba 1, Houk 0. The flamethrower, in particular, shined here.

I don’t want to give away too much of the ending, because I think this comic is worthy and I want to encourage readers to check it out. But I will say this: Boba has, at minimum, a shred of honor despite his ruthlessness. This means a lot in a world like bounty hunting, where treachery is as abundant as oxygen in the air and no one can truly be trusted. Boba got this honor from Jango Fett, and I think his relationship with Boba played a role in what went down in this last encounter, not just Boba’s commitment to finishing his bounties. Just as Jango was Boba’s idol, Samu also plays that role for his child as well. It’s a touching way to send off a simple but excellent comic.

It’s hard to praise this comic in a way differently from the last issue, because it excels in a very similar way. I absolutely loved this issue because it’s like having the original Boba Fett back. The one from the Original Trilogy and the Expanded Universe, who was always on top of his game and presented a very real and overwhelming threat to his quarry. With this Boba, less is more. He doesn’t talk much, or move needlessly. But when he does, it absolutely counts. The hint of honor goes a long way for me too. He already had somewhat of a code from the very beginning, even before the Prequel Trilogy was released. But with Jango Fett added to his backstory, the honor was an overlapping way of reconciling the past novels with the ones released during the Prequel era. This idea isn’t flat out stated, but definitely implied in the ending.

Overall, this is proving to be one of my favorite Boba Fett comic series of all time. I would rather have shorter projects that are faithful in their characterization of Boba, than long projects that aren’t. Although I favor live-action and video games over comic books, the comics are still part of Canon and also a worthy medium of entertainment in their own right. These comics are worthy successors to the likes of Twin Engines of Destruction and Blood Ties. The plots of Black, White and Red might not be as deep, but they are nonetheless just as faithful in their handling of Boba Fett.

I highly recommend these comics to any seasoned Fett fans who want to relive “the good old days,” or to new fans who want to see Boba at his best, in a unique art style with minimal colors that suits him well. I hope issues 3 and 4 continue this trend. Imagine going 4 and 0? What a run that would be…fingers crossed.

The Pros

• Another faithful portrayal of Boba Fett
• Interesting point of view from the quarry, a likeable character in his own right
• Flamethrower turning a Houk into fried chicken
• Although short, comic tells a solid story from beginning to end

The Cons

• Enemies are typical cannon fodder – still no heavy hitters; I want Boba Fett vs Durge but maybe I’m asking too much

Rating

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2
2025 Varies Skan Srisuwan Variant $5.99 Ebook / Kindle

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Skan Srisuwan Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Miguel Mercado Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Kyle Hotz Variant)
2025 Varies

Saladin Ahmed continues Boba Fett’s “Black, White & Red” anthology with issue #2, out October 29th.

We got to chat with the Eisner Award winning writer about it in advance:

BFFC: Welcome back to the Star Wars universe! You previously wrote short stories for the Canto Bight and From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi anthologies. What was it like writing for Boba Fett this time around?

Saladin Ahmed: Well despite my deep love for rancor keeping, tackling Boba Fett certainly feels like a level up of sorts within the universe. Whether you agree with the conventional wisdom or not, he’s been considered the coolest character in Star Wars for decades — how could I not jump at the chance to write him?

BFFC: What did your writing process for Star Wars: Boba Fett — Black, White & Red #2 look like?

My writing process looks pretty unromantic — doing it for a living means treating it like a job. Wake up, get the kids to school, make coffee, sit down in front of a computer for most of the day.

But I’ve had some terrible jobs, and the big difference with this one is that alongside the hard work there’s fun. You always find a key thing in the story that you latch onto that generates the excitement that keeps you working. For this story it was thinking about bounty hunting in reverse — what would it be like to be hunted by Boba Fett? And what sort of slippery eel could make him work for his pay? The story flowed from there.

BFFC: Is there a specific Boba Fett moment that inspired the story you wrote?

Less a specific moment and more his broad reputation. Boba Fett is the guy who always catches his quarry. That’s what’s cool about him. So I thought it would be fun to put him against someone who isn’t tough or powerful but who can run like hell.

BFFC: You also wrote an issue of Wolverine: Black, White & Blood. How does the more limited, but vivid, color palette affect your storytelling? And are there differences between how you use it for Fett vs. Wolverine?

What’s wild is I also did a Harley Quinn story in the same mode! I think it’s an awesome palette to work with — for me it’s about thinking through what’s most alive in that character’s world. For Logan it was a whole lot of blood. For Boba Fett it’s a rocket pack and blaster bolts.

The second issue comes out a week from Wednesday on October 29, 2025. Ask your local comic book retailer about any or all of the variant covers, too.

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Skan Srisuwan Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Miguel Mercado Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #2 (Kyle Hotz Variant)
2025

BFFC’s Chelsey B. Coombs spoke with Chris and Brandon on the Hasbro Star Wars team after a surprise reveal of a new Black Series “Book of Boba Fett” Boba Fett in their panel today! We got to speak with them about the details of the new figure, right in front of us and outside the display case. Brandon mentioned if you stay loud about things (e.g. throne for Fett, etc.), it can make a difference – they’re listening. We also chat about the HasLab success, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” on the horizon, and more.

Boba Fett really gets to shine in comics — especially this one, which begins a 4 part anthology style miniseries with different writers for each issue.

As stated from its title, “Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1” consists only of using the colors black, white, and red. We need to state the obvious because this style is instrumental in creating a certain vibe for this comic. It makes it seem “retro,” more dated than it actually is. The style might not be for everyone, but I did enjoy it. It reminds me of certain movies like “Sin City,” that were largely in black and white with minimal color elements. It gives an artistic and atmospheric gravitas to the whole thing. I’m no comic aficionado, so I don’t know how common this style is. But for this particular miniseries, especially one about Boba Fett, I think it works.

But the most important part of anything in pop culture is the story itself. So how does it hold up? We’ll briefly go through it and I’ll give my verdict on that.

This issue is called “The Impossible Job,” written by Benjamin Percy with art by Chris Allen. That’s actually an important factor concerning Boba that we’ll dive into later. For now, the story starts on Sterna IV, which is apparently an Imperial prison station. Boba is slaughtering Imperials left and right while dragging some prisoner. Everyone involved thinks Boba is crazy to be doing this – that the Empire will destroy him. The comic makes sure to note to us that this is the sort of mission that most would consider impossible. However, as one early panel says, “Boba Fett always found a way when others didn’t.”

Let’s pause a moment, because that particular quote hit heavy with me. At his absolute best, Boba Fett is the definition of relentlessness and efficiency. It’s a faithful continuation of his original portrayal in “The Empire Strikes Back” and is especially a great tribute to who he was in the Expanded Universe / Legends. This idea of finding a way when others would have given up or not even tried – that was one of the core ideas of what Boba once represented, and what inspired me following his missions as a kid. When I read this quote, I knew that this author gets it. Benjamin Percy gets Boba.

I imagine this takes place during the Galactic Civil because both the Rebels and Empire are mentioned. Boba, of course, escapes with the prisoner and delivers him to the client, a rhino-like crime lord appropriately named Tusk. However, bounty hunting is a complicated profession. One of the reasons it’s complicated is because treachery in this business is as common as oxygen molecules in the air. For whatever reason, Tusk had sold him out to the Imperials and Boba is surrounded by Stormtroopers. This particular moment was interesting and tense. There were about nine Stormies surrounding him. Realistically, it’s essentially impossible to win a 1 vs. 9 at close quarters. But remember, this is the legend Boba Fett that we’re talking about. Conversely, Stormtroopers are absolute cannon fodder and a competent operator can likely take out several on their own. However, Boba plays along and lets himself get captured.

Long story short, he’s captured alive because the Imperial officer involved in this operation wants a certain thief named Bantan Jabar captured, along with a data disk of stolen Imperial data. If Boba can do this bounty for the Empire, his previous transgression in the prison break is forgiven. A quick side note: that initial prison break kind of reminds me of something similar Jango Fett did in the game “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.” However, Jango’s mission was far crazier and harder than what we just saw Boba pull. I guess completing impossible missions runs in the Fett family.

This Bantan Jabar is hidden on a volcanic system, protected by the Rebel Alliance. Boba and the Slave I are immediately surrounded by Rebel vessels, but they just “want to talk,” notes one panel. Their leader is a rough Rebel called Rooker. They do the dirty work for the Rebel Alliance. They know Boba is after the disk that the thief gave them. However, they want to strike a deal with Fett. They offer to pay him off, double the bounty, to not continue the bounty. Boba agrees…

However, Boba always completes a mission once he accepts it. Deducing that the heat of this system would force Rooker to have a base on a cooler location, Boba finds a nearby moon and heads there. Of course, the base is there. It seems to be very well built and impervious to outside attack. However, a critical error presented an opportunity: the oxygen recycler was located partially outside the base. Boba’s jetpack missile makes short work of this and the base starts filling with smoke. The thief, Jabar, seems to be a member of the same race as Pong Krell; he tries to use 4 blasters to blast his way out of this mess. It doesn’t matter, as Boba easily subdues him with the good old whipcord.

The next and final sequence of the comic is what Boba Fett is all about and wraps up the story in the same cunning way Boba used to triumph in the “good old days.” We see Boba negotiating with both the Rebels and Empire. With the Empire, he gives the coordinates for them to meet him and trade the bounty for the data disk. With the Rebels, he will give them the physical data disk back in exchange for the money they promised him. It’s more or less the same deal…

The Imperials arrive to Fett’s coordinates to find the thief with a thermal detonator in his mouth, and a hologram of Fett. He requests the deal to be completed, and it is. You see, the Imperials were planning to kill Fett after they got the data disk, and he knew it. This is the signature trait of the way Boba Fett operated in the Expanded Universe / Legends: he was always one step ahead of his opponents. In anticipation of this ambush, he doesn’t show up physically and leaves an incentive – the thermal detonator – for them to cooperate.

But it gets even better. Boba had also given the same coordinates to Rooker’s Rebels. They were also planning to double cross Fett and he also got the drop on them in the exact same way. He outsmarted both parties, turned their machinations in on themselves and even pitted them physically against each other. In conclusion, everyone in this comic loses but Boba – and that’s what I like to see. It’s a testament to why he became the best bounty hunter in the galaxy.

Overall, this comic was simple and straightforward, but great. It’s an excellent nod to the Boba of old and I hope this trend continues. Hopefully it can help Boba regain momentum, starting with issue #2 which drops October 29. He has unfortunately had something of a drought after “The Book of Boba Fett.” He made an awesome cameo in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor” and a forgettable one in “Star Wars Outlaws.” The stories like the one in “Black, White & Red,” why can’t we get more of that in other mediums? Fingers crossed for now. I think this comic is a worthwhile read and a faithful addition to Boba’s career.

The Pros

• Faithful portrayal of Boba Fett

The Cons

• Enemies are typical cannon fodder – no heavy hitters

Rating

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1
2025 Varies Josemaria Casanovas Variant $5.99 Ebook / Kindle

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Josemaria Casanovas Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Leinil Francis Yu Variant)
2025 Varies

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Kaare Andrews Variant)
2025 Varies

We just learned that Vance Lorenzini passed away at the age of 74 on June 4, 2025.

Co-owner of Daydream Productions with Sandy Dhuyvetter, back in 1978, Vance collaborated on three of the costumes for “The Empire Strikes Back” and one helmet used in “Return of the Jedi.” (Some in the cosplay community swap out the “Empire” ones to say the Pre-Pro 2 costume and helmet plus the Promo 1 and Promo 2 costumes, but there’s consensus on the “Jedi” helmet, which was part of the Promo 1 set.) Everything arrived to their Los Gatos, California based shop from England in the all-white “prototype” form, all featuring the iconic dent.

We reached out to Sandy to share the news and she had this to share with us:

Vance and I met over 50 years ago as Art Teachers in El Rancho School District in Pico Rivera, California. We were passionate artists and quickly fell head over heels for each other. We planned our escape from teaching and together we transformed into professionals as we forged our way to the Bay Area. We called our newly hatched and our first business, Daydream Productions. Our portfolio was rich in that we were both active artists, even while teaching.

Our energy complimented each other as we schlepped our work and found the entertainment sector was alive and active in the Bay Area. We started working almost immediately. The first year, we painted almost a hundred windows during the Christmas season. We silk screened T-shirts and sold them out of our car at festivals. We were hungry and loved creating.

Our first project for Lucasfilm was More American Graffiti working on set props, poster, race car logos and whatever other visual that might be needed. Our second job was creating the final 3 costumes for the original Boba Fett in 1978.

By the end of the project, we both understood our paths might not cross but they were blossoming.

Vance’s career launched as he went on the road with film crews to offer creating and artistic direction. He ended back in Los Angeles area where he continued his career. I went on to discover that the multi-media aspect to film was exploding and started a Bay Area firm called The Electronic Pen.

Vance was quick to laugh and always creative in thought. He was a shining light that always made laugh and made me realize life was good. I know he inspired many.

I am so sorry to hear of his death. My deepest condolences to his family.

— Sandy Dhuyvetter

Sandy Dhuyvetter with 3 Boba Fett Helmets

Known more so for his production designer credits across five decades, Vance was “a creative force behind the scenes, [producing] and [designing] more than 5,000 television commercials and 2,800 music videos, along with several feature films and television projects. His exceptional artistry and innovation earned him numerous awards and widespread recognition throughout the industry,” notes the Vance Lorenzini Memorial Fund on GoFundMe, spearheaded by Vance’s son, Christian Lorenzini.

Some of his non-Star Wars work included working with filmmakers like David Fincher and Michael Bay; brands like Porsche and Nike; and musicians like Katy Perry and Mariah Carey. See his Wikipedia and IMDb pages for more. Don’t miss his Instagram page too for more visuals through 2021.

Marcus Nispel, a colleague shared this on Facebook: “[He] introduced me to the concept of quality. Vance used that word all the time. He taught me that quality is not just important in what we put in front of the camera… but that it matters in all aspects of life: In what we eat, how we live, friends, music, health… in everything. … Vance Lorenzini was and always will be the epitome of excellence… he has left us with a body of work and a work-ethic that one can only hope to aspire to.”

Sandy Dhuyvetter with Vance Lorenzini, circa 1977. Photo courtesy of Sandy for our post here.

Helmet nod to Rachel G. for emailing us to let the larger community know.

Benjamin Percy kicks off the debut issue of Boba Fett – Black, White & Red, the four issue anthology starting September 17th.

We had the opportunity to ask the acclaimed writer about the upcoming issue:

BFFC: What did your writing process look like for Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1?

Benjamin Percy: When you’re working with Marvel on any property, there’s an approval process. Typically you put together a pitch – and once that gets noted and approved, you provide a beat-by-beat breakdown of the issue—and once that gets noted and approved, you go to script. And then your collaboration has just begun with the artist and colorist and letterer, so things continue to get massaged. Many steps, each one intended to make the story stronger.

But Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 isn’t just a Marvel story—it’s also a Star Wars story. So there’s another force (so to speak) at work. Lucasfilm is kind of like Yoda: wise and encouraging, but also tough and all-knowing. They have the absolutely insane challenge of taking all their stories (and there are many of them—from the movies to the shows to the novels to the comics)—and making them fit within their established continuity. They are carrying around encyclopedias worth of knowledge in their heads.

So all of us are working together to give fans the very best a galaxy far, far away has to offer. I pitched a story—called “The Impossible Job”—that puts Fett in a tight spot. He’s chasing a bounty—on the greatest thief in the galaxy—but he’s getting pinched by both the Empire and a rogue unit of rebels. They approved the germ of the story, and we started building from there.

It’s been a total blast. But the most fun part? Seeing the art. Every time I got an email alert, I rushed to open the latest pages and panels and designs. Christopher Allen is an artist I’ve worked with before (on Predator Vs. Black Panther), and does a brilliant job with Fett—and with the Star Wars universe. The layouts are so dynamic and the backgrounds and sets are lushly detailed. You can tell he loves drawing in this world.

BFFC: Is there a specific Boba Fett moment that inspired the story you wrote?

Not really. It’s more of a vibe. Fett is so cool, so unflappable, so capable. I wanted to put him in a situation that had serious heat and pressure to see how he’d respond.

BFFC: How does writing someone like Boba Fett compare to writing Wolverine or The Predator?

Well, both of those characters you mention are especially primal and raw. Fett might be a hunter, like the Predator, and he might be a loner, like Wolverine—but there’s so much self-control as he calculates his next move and how he’s gonna get paid.

But regardless of their differences, here’s what’s the same: they’re both big franchise characters that people love. So you want to honor their legacy while also putting your own unique stamp on them.

BFFC: How does the more limited, but vivid, color palette affect your storytelling?

If I’m writing a Black, White, and Red book, my brain is immediately focusing on that red—and how we can take advantage of it. I already mentioned how Fett finds himself pinched between two opposing forces—the Empire and a rogue rebel faction—as he pursues the greatest thief in the galaxy… but I didn’t tell you how I raised the stakes even further with the setting. This guy has hidden himself in a lava system. So the reds vividly burn their way onto the page.

The debut issue comes out September 17, 2025. Ask your local comic book retailer about any or all of the variant covers, too.

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Josemaria Casanovas Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Leinil Francis Yu Variant)
2025

Star Wars: Boba Fett – Black, White & Red #1 (Kaare Andrews Variant)
2025

We spoke with Anthony Adams, the owner of Premium Collectibles Studio, who showed off their relatively new Star Wars line at SDCC this year with Darth Maul and Darth Vader.

Before this interview, we had just coordinated with PCS via Gabe Estrada (aka gabesempire) to show off the design of their forthcoming Boba Fett fine art piece on our social channels, after it was revealed during the Lucasfilm: High-End Star Wars Collectibles panel on Friday. Some feedback came up on our post, which Anthony addresses – a cool, rare reaction to get things more accurate, especially at this price point. (Shout out to BFFC fan and The Dented Helmet expert Budafett.)

Anthony also mentions when pre-orders should open up and how there will be a variant without the back artwork, which features Boba on his rancor from “The Book of Boba Fett.”

We got another opportunity at SDCC for an exclusive interview with the Hasbro Star Wars team, starting with product designer Eric Franer who worked on the new Black Series Jango Fett. We also got the lowdown from Hasbro Star Wars brand manager Jing Houle and design manager Chris Reiff on the newer vignette pieces and the new Vintage Collection LAAT/i Gunship HasLab, plus asked about their own personal favorite releases and the latest on their soft goods on figures.

Questions by BFFC’s Chelsey B. Coombs and video by BFFC’s Aaron Proctor.

From Thursday to Sunday, see our Facebook and Twitter feeds for the most up-to-date imagery and info from the convention floor.

Thanks for checking out our 11th annual guide for Fett fans to SDCC! We’ll be attending San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) again as press!

Here’s our checklist to all the Boba Fett stuff we know about in advance and/or as we see it, plus related findings like general Star Wars exclusives. Updated often, especially during the convention itself.

Jump to: Panels | Exhibitors | Artists | Authors | Cosplayers | Video Recaps

Panels

We browsed the official panels list and found a few for Star Wars fans:

Thursday, July 24

Nothing of note.

Friday, July 25

• 10:00am – 11:00am: Lucasfilm Publishing: Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away… @ Room 7AB
  “From the days of the High Republic to the Rise of the First Order, storytellers from across the Star Wars galaxy offer behind-the-scenes stories. Featuring authors Tessa Gratton, Cavan Scott, George Mann, and Charles Soule. Be the first to see sneak peeks and hear exciting reveals from upcoming creative projects. Moderated by Michael Siglain.”
• 11:00am – 12:00pm: Lucasfilm: High-End Star Wars Collectibles @ Room 7AB
  “Lucasfilm’s Brian Merten invites you to hear what’s happening in the galaxy of Star Wars high-end collectibles. You’ll get a look at some exciting new items as well as learn what drives the people who strive to make the items that provide an authentic connection to the stories we all love.” One fan, Gabriel Estrada (aka @gabesempire on IG), plans to stream it all here:
  
• 12:30pm – 1:30pm: Doug Chiang will be signing at the AA25 – Sails Pavilion
• 1:00pm – 2:00pm: Star Wars Books from Random House Worlds @ Room 7AB
  “The Force is strong with these books! Tom Hoeler (editorial director at Random House Worlds), Gabby Munoz (editor at Random House Worlds), New York Times bestselling author Charles Soule (Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi), and audiobook narrator Marc Thompson discuss the epic conclusion of Star Wars: The High Republic and take a deep dive into upcoming books set in a galaxy far, far away from Random House Worlds.”
• 2:00pm – 3:00pm: Hasbro Star Wars Panel @ Room 7AB
  “Members of the Hasbro marketing and design teams discuss the popular Hasbro Star Wars line, including the Black Series and The Vintage Collection. Attendees will get an in-depth look at Hasbro’s latest action figure offerings from throughout the saga. Word on the HoloNet is there may also be a few surprises. May the Force be with you!”
• 5:00pm – 6:00pm: The Saga Museum of Star Wars Memorabilia @ Room 7AB
  “Collectors Steve Sansweet (founder of Rancho Obi-Wan, former head of fan relations at Lucasfilm), Gus Lopez, and Duncan Jenkins, and board members Anne Neumann, Michael Wistock, and Rich Smolen discuss the history and background of four of the world’s foremost Star Wars memorabilia collections and their plans to open a public, world-class museum to exhibit and preserve these objects. Preview items to be auctioned at Comic-Con Museum on Sunday to support this effort. Q&A to follow.”
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm: The 501st Legion: Star Wars Villainous Costuming @ Room 7AB
  “Legion members Dean Amstutz, Kevin Weir, David Neth, David Ancheta, Sara Wetmore, Milan Nguyen, and Todd Mullin from the Imperial Sands and Southern California Garrisons provide an overview of the creative process that bring Stormtroopers, Tusken Raiders, Boba Fett, or Kylo Ren from the silver screen into reality. They will speak about the process for working with armor parts, small prop and soft costume construction, and 3D modeling and printing. They will also discuss membership, from initial interest through final approval.”
• 7:00pm – 8:00pm: This Is Our Way: Mandalorians, Inclusion, and Adaptive Costuming @ Room 7AB
  “Members of the Mando Mercs Costume Club explore how the Mandalorian way embraces disabilities, both in the Star Wars universe and in our own, through inclusive storytelling and costume adaptations that make armor accessible to all.”

Saturday, July 26

• 10:00am – 11:00am: Jazwares 2025 Sneak Peek @ Room 6A
  “This year Jazwares goes bigger, bolder, and brighter! Collectibles connoisseur Jeremy Padawer presents exclusive reveals, including new collectibles from the Jazwares Vault, Pokémon, Squishmallows, Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron, Total Anime, AEW, BLDR, Hello Kitty and Friends, and more. Expect the unexpected with epic brand updates from Jazwares panelists Paul Viggiano (Pokémon brand and design), Tim Bungeroth (Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron & BLDR), Daniel Jung (AEW Brand), Selah Estrada (Total Anime Brand), Aaron Margolin (sci-fi and horror brand and design), and Elena Wilson (Hello Kitty and Friends design).”
• 10:30am – 11:30am: Doug Chiang: A Conversation About Star Wars and Beyond @ Room 29CD
  “Doug Chiang (senior vice president & executive design director at Lucasfilm) will hold a fireside chat to discuss his career as a film designer and share insights on working on Star Wars. Chiang speaks candidly about his evolution to becoming a better artist and gives a special preview of his upcoming two-volume, 800-page, deluxe slipcased book, Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy (Volume I) and The Star Wars Legacy (Volume II), on sale Dec 2025 from Abrams Books. The book features over 2,300 drawings and paintings—many of which have never been seen before. John Romulo (digital asset coordinator at Lucasfilm) will moderate the conversation.”
• 12:00pm – 1:00pm: Doug Chiang will be signing at Abrams (Booth 1216)

Sunday, July 27

• 10:00am – 11:00am: Yours, Mine, and Ours @ Room 24ABC
  These authors tell new stories within and beyond the worlds we know. Jeffrey Brown (Hulk Teach, X-Men: Days of Future Fun), Tessa Gratton (Star Wars: The Acolyte: The Crystal Crown), Megan Shepherd (Hour of the Pumpkin Queen), Charles Soule (Star Wars: Trials of the Jedi), and David Walker (Big Jim and the White Boy) discuss what it’s like to work with existing characters and worlds and what it means to contribute to and expand beloved fandoms. Panelists: Tessa Gratton (Star Wars: The Acolyte: The Crystal Crown), Megan Shepherd (Hour of the Pumpkin Queen)
• 11:00am – 12:00pm: Sneak Peek: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art @ Hall H featuring George Lucas, Guillermo del Toro, and Doug Chiang
  “Legendary filmmaker George Lucas, Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro, and Academy Award-winning artist Doug Chiang explore the power of illustrated storytelling and offer a sneak peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, moderated by Grammy, Emmy, Academy Award-nominated, and Golden Globe Award-winning artist, Queen Latifah.”

Exhibitors

We dug through the official exhibitors list and the StarWars.com exhibitor exclusives list (which is incomplete) so here’s a more accurate shortlist for Fett fans in alphabetical order:

• Beast Kingdom @ Booth 2849
• Beeline Creative / Geeki Tiki @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion) has a Boba Fett mug reveal / pre-order at SDCC, but they added this on Instagram: “[Both are] a Special Edition of 500pcs, any qty’s that don’t pre-sell in San Diego will be available online at a later date.”
  

  Geeki Tikis Boba Fett COCO-PALS Ceramic Mug
  2025
  They also have their new Sarlacc Pit punch bowl reveal / pre-order also at SDCC, but added this: “The Sarlacc will launch at SDCC for a special show price. Any remaining qty’s will be offered online at a later date.”
  

  Geeki Tikis Sarlacc Pit Punch Bowl
  2025
• Dark Horse Comics @ Booth 2615
• Denuo Novo @ Booth 2913-G (Lucasfilm Pavillion) is back this year — with a Darth Vader helmet
• Diamond Select Toys @ Booth 2607 which has nothing Star Wars related on display; we also confirmed with a Diamond rep that Gentle Giant Ltd. is no more, just in name only with no plans currently to bring it back
• EFX Collectibles @ Booth 3721 has high-end Star Wars collectibles but no Fett or Slave I this year
• Enso Rings @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion)
• Fantasy Flight Games @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion)
• Figpin @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion) has some Star Wars pins and exclusives including a 6-inch scale “ROTJ” Rancor, K-2SO, Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, Jedi Knight Revan, Han Solo Quest, and Sith Quest; they also announced “FiGPiN Quest making its first appearance at the STAR WARS Pavilion! Introducing the STAR WARS Han Solo FiGPiN Quest – a four-piece blind box collection featuring Boba Fett, Bib Fortuna, Lando Calrissian, and Han Solo trapped in carbonite;” they also have a second space at Booth 405 without Star Wars pins
  

  FiGPiN Han Solo Quest Boba Fett Pin
  2025 Varies
• Funko @ Booth 5341
• Hake’s Auctions @ Booth 704
• Hallmark @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion); they also have a second space at Booth 3348
• Hasbro @ Booth 3213
• Her Universe @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion)
• Heritage Auctions @ Booth 900
• Insight Editions @ Booth 2129
• Jazwares @ Booth 3513 has some Star Wars exclusives – again no Boba – which includes Darth Vader’s TIE Advanced and 2x Black Squadron TIEs
• LEGO @ Booth 2829 has their upcoming Jango Fett’s Starship (75433) set on display, coming August 1
  

  LEGO Jango Fett's Starship (75433)
  2025 $69.99 $55.99 $56.99
• Loungefly @ Booth 5145, but they might not have Star Wars items this year
• Lucasfilm @ Booth 2913 aka Lucasfilm Pavillion has a prosthetic of Can Bane from “The Book of Boba Fett” on display
• Mattel @ Booth 2945
• Monogram International @ Booth 3645 has a Boba Fett bank (prior release) for sale here for $30
• Premium Collectibles Studio (PCS) @ Booth @ 329 has some high-end Star Wars items and a “Book of Boba” fine art bust listed on their website, but TBD if it’s on display or any more info to get
• Penguin Random House @ Booth 2021 for their Star Wars stuff (plus 1514, 1515, and 1623 for non-Star Wars)
• POP MART @ Booth 135 will have the debut of their latest Star Wars figure line, which includes Jango Fett; it’s blind box style for $19.99 and not a convention exclusive; they’re also selling the full set for $238.99
  

  POP MART Jango Fett Figure
  2025
• RSVLTS @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion) may have their recent convention exclusive shirt, which features Boba Fett alongside other characters; they shared a graphic and info for their per-day convention exclusives and Boba Fett isn’t on them; they also have a second space at Booth 3735
• Stern Pinball @ Booth 3721
• Tamashii Nations / Bandai @ Booth 3329 (update: nothing Fett here)
• Thunder Bay Press @ Booth 1117 has some Star Wars books plus one in-person plus social media giveaway for a signed copy of Star Wars Fascinating Facts by Pablo Hidalgo — see their Instagram post for details on how to enter to win
• Topps Digital @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion)
• Toynk @ Booth 121, 3849, 4344, and 815
• Trends International @ Booth 2913 (Lucasfilm Pavillion)

Acme Archives and Regal Robot won’t be there this year.

Artists

These artists often feature Boba Fett in their work:

• Brian Rood @ Booth 1929
• Cliff Cramp @ Booth 2030
• Dan Veesenmeyer @ Artists Alley EE-24 who sometimes does LEGO Boba Fett art
• DKE Toys with Creature Bazaar @ Booth 2643
• Joe Corroney @ Booth 4300
• Punch It Chewie Press with BB-CRE.8 @ Booth 1332
• Lee Kohse @ Booth 2737
• VanderStelt Studio @ Booth 1931

Artist David Rabbitte will also be at SDCC as just an attendee.

Authors

Writer Jody Houser (Star Wars: Age of Republic Jango Fett #1) will also be there!

Cosplayers

• The 501st Legion will have their annual group photo outside the convention center (which often has 5-10 Fetts) on Saturday at 11am at the Amphitheater on the Mezzanine level, organized by @chiefgeekphotography (IG)

Video

Coming Soon

Looking for our coverage from years past?

2024 guide, 2023 guide, 2023 video, 2022 guide, 2022 videos, 2020 guide, 2019 guide, 2019 videos, 2018 guide, 2018 videos, 2017 guide, 2017 videos, 2016 guide, 2015 guide, and 2014 guide.

Despite how it may seem nowadays, artificial intelligence in Star Wars is not a new concept. AI was one of the staple concepts in the Star Wars universe as seen in the droids — protocol, astromechs, and combat (bounty hunter/assassin/battle) — although the term “artificial intelligence” did not appear in Star Wars content until 2015. As a result, almost every human character in the Star Wars universe would have come across droid technology to some degree unless you just happen to be trapped on a planet without technology, like Endor or Dagobah. Boba Fett and Jango Fett would be the type of characters who got used to AI technology, although each had fairly unique relationship with them versus most characters in Star Wars.

Typically in Star Wars, you have droids as assistants. Luke Skywalker with his Uncle and Aunt, for example, needed droids to assist them in work and at home with repairs and maintenance. Jawas scavenged for droids to sell because it was a lucrative business. Geonosians built droid armies because it was profitable. The Jedi Order as far back as 25,000 years (before the Battle of Yavin) used droids for teaching younglings how to build lightsabers, such as Huyang from “The Clone Wars” and “Ahsoka” television series. The Empire also used droids for combat and torture, although they liked to keep their droids from being too independent thinking, as seen in Dark Troopers which are more like mindless killer robots than sophisticated AI. And then there’s my favorite category of droid — the assassin or bounty hunter droid — and it was first seen in Boba Fett’s live-action screen debut in “The Empire Strikes Back” on Darth Vader’s Executor.

IG-88

IG-88

In the famous scene that introduced Boba, we see Darth Vader hiring six bounty hunters to hunt the Millennium Falcon ship down — with “no disintegrations.” These hunters were Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-LOM, and IG-88 (aka IG-88B), with the latter two being the first assassin or bounty hunter droids to appear in Star Wars. Despite killer droids with sophisticated AI involved in the hunt, it was Boba Fett who succeeded — a testament to his skill as a hunter. IG-88 came close, tracking Fett to Cloud City on Bespin, but Fett saw he was being tracked and turned IG-88 (temporarily) into scrap. It seems an advanced hunter droid cannot factor in luck, whereas by his nature as a human, Boba Fett would be paranoid enough to be prepared for another hunter trying to intercept his bounty. IG-88B would meet Fett again later (in the War of the Bounty Hunters story arc’s IG-88 one-shot comic), once again failing to factor in luck, and failing at his objective. Boba Fett’s blaster shot meant for IG-88 hit a carbon-freezing device he recently installed in Slave I that then froze IG-88. Boba Fett could have destroyed IG-88B once and for all, but Fett lets him live. By booting the frozen droid off his ship and giving the droid something to think about, it left the droid to consider why Fett let it live. It also consider what purpose it has now that it has no mission or master, having it wonder how it could fail if it has been born to succeed. In that moment, Boba Fett freed the droid IG-88B and expanded its droid mind with a newfound existential, philosophical way of thinking. It was a rare act of mercy from Boba, which makes one wonder how he really felt about droids. Did he pity their existence — or did he relate? After all, what is Boba but a copy of another human being, much like how IG-88B was a replica in a set of identical looking droids.

4-LOM

4-LOM

4-LOM was the other original assassin droid that had encounters with Boba Fett. 4-LOM’s name is a bit of a joke from a behind the scenes perspective, as it works as an acronym for “For the Love Of Money.” 4-LOM is basically C-3PO if C-3PO were into crime. 4-LOM’s encounters with Boba Fett — in Shadows of the Empire, War of the Bounty Hunters, and Bounty Hunters #35 — all involved Boba Fett badly damaging the droid, showing once again Boba Fett’s skill against droids who possess advanced AI programming, although the two never truly had any meaningful interactions outside of the bounty hunting business. It never seemed like Fett saw the droid 4-LOM and his force-sensitive, gas mask-wearing friend Zuckuss as much of a challenge, even though on paper a team up like that should be quite formidable.

R2-D2

R2-D2

Boba Fett did not only have an adversarial relationship with peers, but also with arguably the most iconic Star Wars character of all time: R2-D2. This astromech has lived a long time and seen many things and R2-D2 has played a big role in the Legends and Canon life of Boba Fett. In “The Empire Strikes Back,” R2-D2 is present when Luke Skywalker failed to sneak up on Boba Fett in Cloud City, saving Luke from getting shot by Boba Fett’s EE-3 blaster shots by delaying Skywalker’s movements. Even before this, R2-D2 saved Luke’s life in the “Holiday Special” cartoon, “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee,” where R2 manages to intercept a message between Boba Fett and Darth Vader. R2 then relays the message via C-3PO that Fett is working for the Empire before he could capture Skywalker and the rebels.

BL-17

BL-17

R2-D2’s dislike of Boba Fett was probably greatest on the “Droids” cartoon where Boba Fett had a droid ally that successfully manipulated C-3PO and almost strained R2 and C-3PO’s relationship. BL-17 was the name of Boba Fett’s droid in Legends, prior to “A New Hope.” BL-17 was a droid that once served with the Mandalorian protectors who were aligned with the Confederacy in the Clone Wars. It then became Boba Fett’s droid serving as a partner in the business of bounty hunter.

Highsinger

Highsinger

That relation is not much different than how young Boba Fett in Canon had C-21 Highsinger as a bounty hunter partner in Boba Fett’s clan, Krayt’s Claw. The cancelled game “Star Wars 1313” allegedly would have explored that partnership further between Boba Fett and a droid similar looking for C-21 Highsinger. It would have been interesting to see, but unfortunately what we know about C-21 was that eventually he and Boba Fett separated ways, perhaps because Highsinger sided with Cad Bane when Bane and Fett feuded. Last we saw of Highsinger he was destroyed on a mission with Latts Razzi, another bounty hunter that Boba Fett worked with during “The Clone Wars.” While the original Boba Fett droid, BL-17, was also destroyed during a mission (which R2-D2 interfered with), Boba Fett was rather upset about the droid’s fate, going after his own clients of the Fromm Gang to make up for the loss. It would seem to indicate Boba Fett did value the artificial life of androids to some extent. Maybe it was more because it was his droid and thus his possession, but it could also be that there was sentimental value with BL-17, being a droid that was connected to Mandalorians, since I never really saw Boba Fett as materialistic, or at least not materialistic without a purpose. He owns what he needs.

R2-D2 (Part 2)

R2-D2 did get the best of Fett twice, but the heroic maintenance/repair droid made up for it in the end, but only before being Boba’s nemesis. His first great offense against Boba was denying Fett of revenge against Mace Windu, as R2-D2 is the only reason Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker survived on the planet Vanqor. That was back when they searched the remains of a Star Destroyer that Boba Fett destroyed, where Windu and Anakin discover a bomb within a Mandalorian helmet resembling Jango Fett. In the Dave Filoni directed “The Clone Wars” episode “R2 Come Home,” R2-D2 prevents Boba Fett from finishing off Mace Windu and then tricks him into thinking that Windu flew off the planet, successfully evading the Slave I’s attacks long enough to reach a hyperspace ring. Boba Fett was denied executing the killer of his father… all because of one little astromech.

The second time Boba Fett got screwed over by R2-D2 was the most famous example of Boba Fett getting unlucky, the famous Sarlacc Pit sequence from “Return of the Jedi.” Now the whole rescue plan was flawed except for one thing, and that was R2 storing the lightsaber. Leia’s rescue attempt and Luke’s initial attempt failed, so what worked was R2 delivering a lightsaber into Luke’s hands, which was total luck since what if Luke’s hands were tied on the skiff? The lightsaber mostly came in handy in that sequence when fighting Boba Fett specifically. The other minions could have been handled with blasters and a few force pushes, but the lightsaber was needed against Fett. When Fett sees Luke distracted by Lando’s near-fall into the pit he comes flying on to the skiff with the help of his jetpack. He raises his EE-3 towards Luke to shoot but it’s the lightsaber that slices Fett’s weapon, temporarily disarming him. Boba could still shoot out the whipcord, which succeeds until a Sail Barge gunner’s blast deflects off Luke’s lightsaber, hitting the skiff hard enough where Fett fell. This allows Chewbacca enough time to warn Solo of his presence, causing him to panic and get a lucky strike on Fett’s jetpack, shooting him towards the Sail Barge and then towards the Sarlacc. R2’s delivery of the lightsaber is the only reason why the heroes survive this sequence. Perhaps Fett should have trusted his instincts and made a preemptive move on R2-D2 in the Sail Barge, as there was one moment where he seemed to glance at the droid with some suspicion.

R2-D2 ultimately did help Boba Fett, albeit indirectly. In “The Book of Boba Fett,” Grogu’s presence on Tatooine in the battle for Mos Espa between the Pyke Syndicate and the Fett Gotra is the result of R2-D2’s link with Mandalorian Din Djarin, an associate of Boba Fett. R2 was the only means to staying in touch, allowing Din to travel to the planet Ossus where Luke was training/re-training the Mandalorian foundling Grogu. The gift Mando gives Grogu makes Luke reconsider his first student’s status, giving Grogu the choice of leaving to reunite with his human father. R2-D2 travels to Tatooine to deliver Grogu to the Mos Eisley mechanic who could find Din Djarin, who was busy working for Boba Fett in a semi-suicidal mission. Grogu arrives just in time to save his father from dying honorably in war, using his force powers to damage a Scorpenek Droid. Scorpenek Droids are one of the examples of unintelligent droid life meant to be weapons of mass destruction. It sometimes takes the combined efforts of The Force, advanced weapons like a darksaber, and Boba Fett on a Rancor to eliminate these major robotic threats.

8D8

8D8

The irony is not lost that a droid like 8D8 from Jabba’s palace who went on to work with Boba Fett may seem menacing with their morbid programming, but 8D8 is rather harmless. They are how they are programmed but they are capable of some independent thinking. For example, 8D8 thought Boba Fett felt threatened by the Hutts and thus avoided saying the name of Jabba during a palace briefing, a sentiment Fett felt insulted by. 8D8 also felt Boba Fett might be perceived as weak if he did not torture his enemies, something Boba Fett did not condone. But it’s interesting how tolerant Fett is of a droid being an independent thinker to some degree.

LEP-Series Service Droid

In contrast, the smaller droid in “Book of Boba Fett” that resembled a rabbit, the LEP-Series Service Droid, did not see Fett’s pretty side at first, shutting itself off after being chased around a kitchen when Fett invaded Bib Fortuna’s palace. It then was given a second chance, working in Boba Fett’s palace. This would show Boba Fett being tolerant of a droid that initially was a “quick little bugger” to him. There were several other droids working in Boba Fett’s palace, so he has learned to use droids out of convenience, even having droids dress him up in his armor on occasion. Perhaps as a retired bounty hunter he is more open to droids that provide a convenient service, although traditionally Boba Fett was not a character that cared for using droids for luxurious reasons, so “Book of Boba Fett” was experimental in that approach, done to add some aura of royalty around the Daimyo portrayal.

Jango Fett’s Droids

Jango Fett was not much into using droids like his son was, although worked alongside them in “Attack of the Clones” briefly during the droid factory sequence where Fett arrests Anakin and Padme. In the canon Bounty Hunters comic series, Jango Fett was seen fighting off a group of battle droids (Bounty Hunters #37), including a KX-series droid — the droid type originally developed for the “Rogue One” film. Jango Fett disarms the KX droid with a powerful knife weapon while using his flamethrower and whipcord launcher to defend his self from other battle droids. Jango Fett’s ability to fight droids was something seen within the Clone Army, as they inherited Jango’s gifts and thus were formidable enemies for an army of battle droids. Normal human beings, apart from the force-sensitive, do not stand much of a chance against battle droids unless they have the right tools and skills, which Jango Fett did. In the video game “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter,” there were some situations where Jango had to fight droids as well, like the battle droids of the prison where he stole the Firespray ship he’d name Slave I. There was also an optional secondary bounty involving a protocol droid, showing that Jango — and other Guild members — hunted droids down for money as well. For protocol droids to be wanted dead or alive would suggest a dark side to artificial intelligence in the service industry — and the very first Star Wars story was about a droid being hunted down for the sensitive information it contained, was it not?

R2-D2 (Part 3)

Back to R2-D2 again: he even plays a role in the life and death of Jango. At the very start of “Attack of the Clones,” R2-D2 is nearly destroyed on the landing platform that explodes, killing off several members of Senator Padme’s security and staff, including Padme’s decoy. The explosion was set up by bounty hunter Zam Wesell under the orders of Jango Fett. Zam was working for Dooku who hired Jango as a favor to Nute Gunray of the Trade Federation who was manipulated by Palpatine to do so, in order to destabilize the government enough in order to allow emergency powers for the Chancellor to approve of the clone army to deal with the threat of the Separatist Droid Army. Padme would have lost her life sooner were it not for R2-D2 as Jango and Zam make a second attempt at Padme’s life while she slept in her guarded Coruscant home. While it was technically Anakin that stopped the venomous multi-legged anthropods (named Kouhuns that come from the Wild Space region of the universe), Anakin could not have accomplished what he needed to do were it not for R2-D2 delaying the deadly creatures long enough. R2’s little delay inevitably is what sparks the chain of events that leads Obi-Wan Kenobi discovering Kamino, the Fetts, and the clones.

It was a miraculous, unlikely chain of events that involved Jango being seen briefly enough in the far distance after he shoots Zam with a Kamino dart which Obi-Wan’s prospector friend identified, pointing him towards the right direction. It seems Palpatine’s plans were never for Jango Fett to succeed in killing Padme. Instead, his skills of discretion and subtle assassinations backfire just enough where only a Jedi could find him exactly where Palpatine wanted and that Jango would be skilled enough to evade the Jedi while simultaneously being followed to Geonosis where the Separatists were meeting and the droid factories were, along with the initial Death Star design plans. While many could view Jango Fett’s mission a failure, it went exactly as Palpatine orchestrated, as he led them to both Kamino and Geonosis. It sets up for the ultimate showdown, between the Fett clones and the droid army. That concludes with Anakin Skywalker turning into half a machine and Boba Fett having to endure a war where soldiers with his father’s face were dying in a war against machines. Despite that, because he had no real connection to the other clones, he probably did not take it personally, so he was never one to refer to battle droids as clankers. In the Battle of Geonosis the difference between man and droid could not be more clear, as C-3PO can lose his head and get it re-attached by R2-D2. While at the same time in the same arena, Young Boba Fett can’t do anything about a very final death, except take the helmet of his father and mourn, looking into the T-visor where his father’s eyes once were looking back at him. He eventually would make his father’s helmet his own face, so much that even for a Mandalorian the way he moved had a robotic quality (even being confused for a droid by Jawas in a 1983 Marvel Comics story).

While droids are generally not a focus of Boba Fett stories, he has had enough of a history at this point where a storyteller could focus on that aspect in a story, unlike with Mandalorian Din Djarin who has a very planned out storyline in with regards to droids. Din Djarin’s distrust of them is rooted in his parents being murdered by a group of battle droids during The Clone Wars. They were programmed to exterminate villagers, who were then destroyed by heroic Mandalorians who saved Din and took him in as a foundling. Eventually and slowly he learned to accept droids are not evil in nature, learning that — while they possess artificial intelligence — most are still subject to the programming they are given. The variety of programming possible is exemplified in IG-11, transformed multiple times: from bounty hunter, to a nurse droid, to a remote guided robot, and then back to AI in the form of a Marshal.

On the other hand, Boba Fett grew up in a time when his blood-related brothers were at war with droids, while other droids were working as bounty hunters. He saw his father fight on the same side as Separatist droids in a battle against Jedi, only then to see clones siding with the Jedi against the droids. The lines of good and evil were blurred when it came to droids so he could not really think of them in those terms. Boba Fett knows reality doesn’t care how you feel, so he was neutral with droids. I think perhaps Boba Fett saw artificial intelligence as nothing but a business. On the flip side, a human character like Din Djarin feared and distrusted artificial intelligence on a personal and even spiritual level, mirroring real life attitudes on AI; people may see AI as an opportunity or something very problematic. The interesting thing about Star Wars is the lack of information on the origin of droids. They have existed thousands of years before the events of the original film and yet no one ever seems to question their origin in the universe.

We do know Jango Fett played a role when it came to a war between organic species and AI droids. His genetic material was being used for an army bred to fight that inevitability (even if it was the result of heavy manipulation by the Sith) and we know Boba Fett showed he was capable of doing a better job in the intergalactic bounty hunter business than advanced droids like IG-88 and 4-LOM. That’s what makes the Fetts unique in the conversation regarding Star Wars droids. Maybe it’s because one could imagine Fett in a world like that of “The Terminator” film series’ vision of an apocalyptic AI-dominated future. Perhaps because Boba Fett’s armor design was so battle worn, as if it had been through many battles, a key part of the Boba Fett armor design that has been lost in most modern interpretations of Mandalorian armor. While most fans of Star Wars focus on how Mandalorian armor and weapons were a good counter to Jedi Knights, another way to view it is that strong armor like that of beskar finally gave non-force sensitive types a way to even the odds against droids that are used as weapons in war. The Mod culture would also seem to reflect a subculture of people that evened the odds against machines by modifying their human bodies with droid style enhancements.

But if the droid enemy is R2-D2 then Mandalorian armor and modifications aren’t enough — because plot armor goes a long way in the Star Wars universe. After all, Star Wars is a fantasy as much as a sci-fi. While maybe an army of Boba Fetts fighting off killer androids isn’t realistic, or Boba Fett being superior over advanced bounty hunter droids may seem implausible, that’s kind of the point of this style of storytelling. It’s just like the unlikelihood of the Death Star being destroyed (twice). Or it’s like the miracle that the Rebels could find enough cracks during totalitarian-style Imperial rule where they could eventually discover the Death Star’s existence and its secrets. Or it’s the implausibility of characters surviving wounds that would normally kill a person, such as Anakin’s wounds, Palpatine’s survival, Maul’s survival, or Boba Fett’s survival of a near death experience. The droids of Star Wars are not meant to be too realistic or serious but the universe provides a diverse representation of androids, which have added much to the lore of characters like Boba Fett and other popular characters by perfectly blending sci-fi concepts with fantasy tropes.

One of the most brutal stories within the Star Wars Legends continuity was Boba Fett: Agent of Doom, a truly savage one-shot comic released by Dark Horse in 2000. Written by John Ostrander, who is known for his work on Suicide Squad, and illustrated by Cam Kennedy, the comic showcased the atrocities committed by the Galactic Empire while also highlighting the depths that Boba Fett was willing to go to in order to cement his reputation as the galaxy’s greatest bounty hunter, making it an unmissable read.

The story begins around a decade after the Battle of Endor, with Fett meeting a member of the Gulmarid species named Slique Brighteyes in a seedy bar on a backwater Outer Rim world known as Basteel. Brighteyes explains that his species was driven to near-extinction by the Galactic Empire, who ransacked their homeworld of Gulma and massacred most of the inhabitants. The few surviving Gulmarids were then rounded up by Imperials and placed aboard a prison ship known as the Azgoghk, where they were subjected to horrific experiments by an Imperial scientist named Leonis Murthé. These events were depicted in flashbacks throughout the panels in which Brighteyes described them to Fett. And since Star Wars is generally viewed as a family-friendly franchise, Ostrander certainly deserves praise for showcasing the galaxy we all know and love in a far more sinister light. The writer was also clearly not afraid to highlight the atrocities committed by the Galactic Empire, making Agent of Doom a story which really does display the dangers of totalitarianism.

Brighteyes reveals that he wants Fett to kill Murthé and Mir Tork, the Imperial admiral who commands the Azgoghk, as revenge for what they did to his people. Although the Empire had already been defeated by the time Agent of Doom took place, Murthé and Tork still continued to commit atrocious actions onboard the Azgoghk while also evading justice from the New Republic, and it is clearly understandable that Brighteyes would want to see them brought to justice. However, since the Gulmarids are clearly not wealthy, Brighteyes admits that he can only offer Fett a paltry sum of one hundred Imperial Credits for the job. This initially enrages Fett, who presses his blaster against Brighteye’s head and warns him that he is not someone who takes lightly to being mocked. Seeing as Brighteyes clearly has nothing left to lose, the alien then calmly explains that Fett’s reputation has suffered greatly after his encounter with the Sarlacc and his numerous failed attempts to capture Han Solo. Brighteyes then goes on to explain that accepting and completing this highly dangerous new assignment, which nobody else dared to attempt, could repair some of the damage to Fett’s blemished reputation. After a pause, Fett then agreed to accept the assignment. This exchange of dialogue proved to be fascinating for various reasons. Firstly, it proved that Fett really does care about protecting his reputation at all costs, something we can all relate to on some level. Despite being a bounty hunter who operates in a galaxy far, far away, Boba Fett still cares about how he is viewed by other people, making him a surprisingly human and relatable character, regardless of the cold and merciless exterior he presents to the outside world. And while he clearly did not have enough money to make the job appeal to Fett, Brighteyes clearly knew that appealing to Fett’s pride and his aloof but very real sense of morality, would ensure that he accepted the assignment.

Secondly, the conversation also showcased Fett’s sense of morality. Although Fett was regularly employed by the Empire at the height of its power, he still clearly disagreed with many of the immoral actions committed by the Empire’s totalitarian regime, and his willingness to accept the assignment also proved that he wanted to punish Murthé and Tork for their immoral actions. Since Fett does not remove his helmet throughout Agent of Doom, his exact feelings as he paused before accepting the job are ultimately ambiguous, but Ostrander no doubt wanted to display Fett’s human side by depicting him mentally weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the assignment before he agreed to hunt down the two war criminals.

Murthé and Tork are shown to be two of the most despicable villains ever depicted in the Star Wars franchise, as they both enjoyed the pain and suffering they inflicted on others. Murthé even admits that he no longer pretends to be a scientist, and that he simply inflicts pain for the pleasure it gives him. We also saw the heinous Murthé gleefully blasting a restrained Gulmarid with a blaster, while copious amounts of blood littered the floor, and a severed Gulmarid head and internal organs were strewn across a nearby table. Tork also explains that he approves of these appalling actions as he approves of the Empire’s anti-human agenda, and that, regardless of the Emperor’s death, he believes that all non-humans should be cleansed from the galaxy. Ostander clearly did a great job of making readers hate these two Imperials, because after just a few panels, fans will no doubt be hoping that Fett kills them both. And the panels showing Murthé torturing his victims almost seemed like they belonged in an R-rated horror film as opposed to a story in the Star Wars galaxy, since Kennedy really did pull no punches when it came to depicting the gruesome and heinous actions the crazed individual committed. Agent of Doom is certainly one of the more mature Star Wars comics on the market, and with good reason. There was even a panel depicting a grinning Murthé with the blood of his victims splashed across his face, since his sadism clearly knew no bounds.

As soon as Fett accepted the job, we were treated to some spectacular action sequences. Fett initially used an Ion Cannon to disable the Azgoghk’s engines as it was about to land on the world of Malicar 3, causing it to violently crash-land. He then transmitted a message to the ship, where he stated that he simply wanted Murthé and Tork, and that the rest of the crew could either go free or die along with them. Fett is known for being a man of few words, and the merciless way in which he delivered the cold and straightforward message would certainly have sent a chill to all those onboard the ship.

The crew of the Azgoghk refused to surrender, resulting in a gun battle with Fett after he used his jetpack to board the ship through a side opening. Fett effortlessly gunned down most of the guards while avoiding being hit himself, since this story was clearly written before it was established that anyone wearing Mandalorian armor is essentially a superhuman who is invulnerable to damage. Most of the guards proved to be no match for Fett, and he left a trail of bodies in his wake as he marched across the ship.

Fett then freed the captive Gulmarids who were being held onboard the Azgoghk, but he refused to help them any further, explaining that they should take the weapons of the dead guards and fight their way to freedom if they wished to survive. Although Fett clearly values the lives of sentient beings, he still believes in self-autonomy, which explains why he told the few surviving Gulmarids to fight the remaining guards themselves instead of helping them any further after he freed them.

Agent of Doom was published in 2000, before it was revealed that Boba Fett’s fatherly figure, Jango Fett, was killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu. Therefore, Fett did not have much of a reason to hate the Jedi at the time the story was published, unless you count how his skirmish with Luke Skywalker above the Great Pit of Carkoon played a role in him being fed to the Sarlacc. Since his grudge against the Jedi Order had not yet been established, Fett actually shows some respect towards the Jedi throughout Agent of Doom, as he explains to Murthé that wielding a Jedi’s weapon does not make him a Jedi. Fett was clearly disgusted by the sight of the sadistic Imperial scientist pretending that he knew how to wield a lightsaber in combat, and Murthé’s pathetic threats while he brandished the weapon clearly did not intimidate Fett. Instead of ending Murthé’s life quickly, Fett instead set the Imperial officer alight with his flamethrower, and casually looked on as the burning Murthé begged the bounty hunter to end his life to relieve him of his suffering. Since Murthé literally admitted earlier in the story that he enjoys inflicting pain on others, the way in which he begged for a quick end after being set on far was certainly satisfying. Like most who take pleasure in harming others, Murthé clearly could not handle being on the receiving end when pain was finally inflicted upon him. And because Fett causally looks on as Murthé burns and begs for a quick end, it was clear that, while he often tries to keep his sense of morality hidden, the bounty hunter clearly felt that Murthé deserved to suffer as punishment for the atrocities he had committed. Although he certainly is no saint, Boba Fett clearly still possesses a strong sense of right and wrong, something which was highlighted throughout Agent of Doom.

Fett then encounters Tork, who proves to be more of a challenge than the squirming Murthé. Although Tork threatened to detonate the ship’s self-destruct sequence unless Fett surrendered, the cunning and devious Fett then wisely chose to taunt his prey by pretending to leave and saying that he would hunt him down later. This act of mockery intentionally engaged Tork, who furiously demanded that Fett turn and face him before being shot dead by the bounty hunter. A squirming and mortally injured Murthé then charged into the room, and Fett swiftly ended him with a shot from his wrist launcher.

Because of the grim and bleak tone of Agent of Doom, Kennedy’s artwork was never too bright or colorful, and the dingy colors on display served the book well. The interiors of the Azgoghk were shown to be dimly lit, with foreboding shadows and narrow corridors helping to create feelings of tension and claustrophobia as Fett prowled the ship. The scene where Fett encounters Tork was bathed with an aggressive red light, to highlight the murderous intent which both men had on their minds. And the portions of the comic taking place outside took place at night, with daylight never being present throughout the story. Kennedy also conveyed strong levels of detail throughout the comic, with the dents on Fett’s armour, the bloodstained floors in the torture chamber, and the malicious smirks on the faces of Murthé and Tork all being shown clearly and deliberately unpleasantly.

At the end of the story, Fett returns to Basteel to deliver a sack containing the severed heads of Murthé and Tork to a dying Brighteyes. We did not actually see Fett decapitating the corpses of the two Imperials, but the sight of blood dripping from the sack which he was carrying still proved to be something which will be burned into your memory for years to come. Fett also tells the Gulmarids who he liberated earlier to do whatever they need to do to survive, while also warning them not to forget his name. Although he performed an act of kindness by freeing them from their captors, Fett still has a reputation to uphold, and he has clearly had his fill of charitable acts by this point. Brighteyes is then shown lying on his bed, and while he appears to be dying, he still manages to express his gratitude by saying that he knew that Fett would complete the job, for the simple reason that he is Boba Fett. Although Brighteyes is on his deathbed and the survival of the Gulmarid species in doubt, the story still ends on a bittersweet note, with Fett fulfilling his duty and Brighteyes learning that his people have been avenged. And readers will still be satisfied to learn that Brighteyes and the rest of his dwindling species finally got to experience justice, with the sack containing their severed heads serving as a grim reminder that nobody escapes from Boba Fett.

Boba Fett: Agent of Doom simultaneously showcases the lengths that Fett is willing to go to protect his reputation, while also highlighting the hidden sense of morality he hides underneath his Mandalorian armor. Although it certainly was not the most cheerful or upbeat Star Wars story you will ever read, Agent of Doom still proved to be an unforgettably brutal and harrowing account of why Fett is the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter. And its relentless depiction of the more vicious side of the Star Wars galaxy and the way in which it exhibits Fett’s determination to succeed at all costs made it into one of the best one-shot comics from the entire Legends catalogue.

Rating

Boba Fett Agent of Doom
2000 Varies $1.99 Kindle / ComiXology Digital Edition

Shadow of Fett’s Empire

Did you know LucasArts first video game wasn’t even Star Wars? Lucasfilm Games (later called LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) was created by George Lucas years ago in 1979 when he was seeking to venture towards other avenues of entertainment. But it wasn’t until the early 1990s that a LucasArts Star Wars video game was made and released. This was mostly due to licensing issues but it was in some ways a blessing in disguise — especially for Boba Fett. In the 1980s there were video games based off the original trilogy films. Atari 2600 saw the first few Star Wars games, the first being “The Empire Strikes Back” (1982). When that sold well, they released a lightsaber-based game called “Star Wars: Jedi Arena” (1983), which was a failure. Afterwards were a couple “Return of the Jedi” games on multiple consoles in 1983/1984. In 1987, Japan got an exclusive Star Wars game on Famicom (plus another exclusive Star Wars game in 1991).

Mark Hamill with “The Empire Strikes Back” pinball game from 1980.

On the arcade side of things, there were coin-operated arcade machines for all three movies released in 1983, ’84, and ’85. There was even a “Star Wars: Droids” game based off the cartoon in 1988. It’s a lesser known computer game that makes reference to the Fromm gang in its game summary — the same Fromm gang that Boba Fett associated with in the first Star Wars animated series. Sadly, that and the Empire Strikes Back pinball from 1980 by A. Hankin & Co. — the first licensed Star Wars pinball machine ever made, which did not have Boba Fett in the art, but it at least could make you think of him — was about the most Boba Fett you got in the 1980s video game era. His breakout moment had happened in film and television – but not in video games. At least not yet.

Then the 1990s came and Boba’s luck began to change in video games. But how did it happen and what was the point in which his status elevated to a video game icon? I theorize that it is Shadows of the Empire (1996) that cemented the status. But a Star Wars theory isn’t enough, I want to prove my claim, so I have to take a look at the history and evolution of it… so back to the topic of LucasArts (presently known again as Lucasfilm Games) and their history of Star Wars games that eventually led to Boba Fett joining the ranks of video game stardom with the likes of gaming legends like Donkey Kong & Chun-Li.

Shadows of the Empire (video game) - box cover

After making mostly forgettable original games in the 1980s, LucasArts ventured into the market of making video games based off their films. However, they started off with the Indiana Jones movie franchise, rather than the other Harrison Ford led series of Star Wars. Fortunately, they ended off the decade on a high note with some notable Indiana Jones games and LucasArts was on their way up. With Indiana Jones working out in the early gaming world it was only logical to move on to Star Wars. That worked out well for them too with the first couple of Star Wars games, based off the first 2 films, being successful enough.

Super Empire Strikes Back, Boss 8 (Slave I vs. Chewbacca)

Boba Fett finally made his first appearance in video games in The Empire Strikes Back (1991) and then again in Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back (1993), the upgraded version of the same game concept. In each version you can battle Boba Fett and the Firespray-class Slave I. Boba Fett even appears on the cover of Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back to complete the character’s first major video game milestone of being in a game: being a boss fight and making the cover. However, the one flaw about this game was the difficulty. While it did receive praise from certain magazine outlets, it also got heavy criticism from others, citing the challenges of maze-like gameplay being frustrating. Boba Fett wasn’t a game icon just yet.

The Software Toolworks Star Wars Chess

Boba Fett’s third appearance in gaming would come in a more … unusual well. Star Wars Chess (1993) did not make much of a name for itself (as one would expect) but it was indeed a chess game themed after Star Wars featuring Boba Fett as an Empire piece. The game included multiple animations of Boba Fett destroying someone from the Rebel Alliance — or Boba being destroyed by one of them, usually in a comical fashion. Seeing C-3PO take out Fett is a tough watch, although seeing Boba in action is a joy. As much as I personally don’t mind the game, it’s not making anyone’s list of favorite Star Wars game, so things needed to get back on track for Fett.

Boba Fett in "Dark Forces"

That’s where Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995) enters the picture. Now Dark Forces was part of that golden age of Star Wars computer games featuring 3D graphic gameplay. That all started with 1993’s popular Rebel Assault title that incorporated live-action footage and the more popular 3D space shooter TIE Fighter. But unlike those games there were no flying missions in Dark Forces — it was closer to a shooter like the popular DOOM. That was part of the charm of “Dark Forces” since it was DOOM but in the Star Wars universe. Being the gracious real life character he was, George Lucas allowed for creative freedom in these games. According to one prestigious game magazine of the time (EGM, July 1996) that featured an interview with a developer of “Dark Forces,” George Lucas even played and enjoyed “Dark Forces.” In the LucasArts era he was seemingly well aware of what was going on in the game universe. Fans certainly had no problem with it, as it respected both the film lore and Expanded Universe of multi-media. Instead of being in some sort of alternate version of “The Empire Strikes Back,” Boba Fett suddenly had real video game lore. He had a new enemy in the force-sensitive Kyle Katarn. In one of the sequels called Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003), Katarn even reminisces about fighting Boba Fett after he learns one his students met him on a mission as well. Much like his role in the “Empire Strikes Back” games, Boba Fett was once again a boss character. Plus, he was on the back cover of the CD-ROM too, so once again being featured in the marketing of the game.

"Dark Forces" CD-ROM Insert with Boba Fett

After “Dark Forces” in 1995, I would say Boba Fett was on the verge on being a video game icon. But people forget that “Dark Forces” was originally a computer game, not a console game, so it didn’t initially have the console audience. While 3D gameplay was a revolutionary step forward in gaming — something that first person shooters like “DOOM” and “Dark Forces” helped pioneer — there was still something lacking from a cinematic perspective in first-person shooter (FPS) games. Even with cutscenes the player didn’t quite feel like they were in a movie during gameplay just yet. Dark Forces did receive a console port in late 1996 for PlayStation, but by the time there was a new game on the horizon part that had Boba Fett at the heart of things and had a more cinematic approach to the gameplay. That game was “Shadows of the Empire.”

"Shadows of the Empire" Cover

Now I say Boba Fett is at the heart of “Shadows of the Empire” because of course the storyline covered that period between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” It was Boba Fett’s mission to deliver Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt while Han’s friends sought to save him while also pursuing an end to Imperial rule as part of the Rebellion effort. Sure, Fett did not have much of an active role in the novel by Steve Perry, only spoken of and seen in Slave I. His novel story has Lando and Leia tracking Slave I using information from an informant who saw his ship on an imperial base on the planet of Gall three months after he should have already delivered Han Solo to Jabba. (He needed to repair his ship after a dogfight with IG-88.) A smuggler/mercenary who is friends of Lando and Han Solo named Dash Rendar guides the Millenium Falcon crew of Lando, Leia, Chewie, C-3PO, and R2-D2 to the planet of Gall and spot Fett’s ship — but TIE fighters attack and Fett escapes. In the novel Dash Rendar in his Outrider ship with his droid Leebo left the scene and did not attack Fett because he was not paid to, a mercurial move reminiscent of Han Solo. Wedge Antilles, the leader of Rogue Squadron, criticized him for it but still proves to be of worth when he helps save Luke Skywalker from Jabba’s gang of bounty hunter. They were hired by Black Sun, the powerful syndicate that could rival the Empire, and Prince Xizor, the Falleen species syndicate leader, to kill Skywalker in order to mess with Darth Vader’s plans, trying and winning over the Emperor. Interestingly when Jabba the Hutt met with Prince Xizor in the novel he mentions that Boba Fett had worked for Xizor once or twice before, which is more an indication of his prestigious intergalactic reputation. Boba Fett’s presence is only really seen on the back cover art by Drew Struzan but it is felt throughout the story. No dialogue needed and no action in the novel, yet still an effective portrayal.

Shadows of the Empire #1

“Shadows of the Empire” was not only a novel though — it was part of a larger multimedia project, which was another aspect of its charm. Being for all ages, Star Wars is meant to have variety. Historically the tone of Star Wars varies but it’s always been diverse. Some stories are more lighthearted, while others are more serious. “Shadows of the Empire” accomplishes both tones within the same project: it’s a novel that adults might prefer, but it was also a comic book miniseries that added more action as well as a video game where it got proper cutscenes with voice actors instead of stills with text. (The Nintendo 64 version had a scene with Han Solo that is mysteriously absent in the PC version.)

Battle of the Bounty Hunters (Pop-up Comic)

Lastly, as far as storyline went within the project there was a pop-up comic called “Battle of the Bounty Hunters” featuring Boba Fett fighting off IG-88D and a few other threats before delivering Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt. It’s basically the children’s version of Boba’s arc from the “Shadows of the Empire” comic, so simplified that the other bounty hunters were absent & it has Boba shooting down a few stormtroopers & a random Tatooine creature, making Boba look a bit more heroic I suppose, whereas the comic highlighted Boba Fett’s intelligence in outsmarting his opponents. In the comic he has to not only fight off and outsmart IG-88D but also Bossk, 4-LOM, Zuckuss, and another hunter named Furlag (along with a few unnamed bounty hunters that got in Boba’s way). On top of that he had to deal with Jabba’s gang of bounty hunters when he landed on Tatooine.

The cherry on top of the primary and comic story was that, in the video game, Boba Fett also fought Dash Rendar. In the “Shadows of the Empire” novel, Dash did not bother fighting Boba Fett or attacking Slave I on the Gall Imperial Spaceport because he was not contracted to, only hired to guide Leia, Lando, and Chewie to Fett’s ship. Without the Outrider’s help, the Millennium Falcon was unable to stop Slave I from leaving Gall. They had no choice but to go for the plan of waiting for Boba Fett to deliver Solo to Jabba and infiltrating the palace to save him. In fairness, Dash Rendar he is unique in his own right: the less romantic version of Han Solo who opts out of joining the rebellion despite working for them. In the video game things play out quite differently. Dash Rendar is more heroic in the game and is the one who gets the information on Boba Fett’s whereabouts from IG-88. Dash finds IG-88 in the junkyards of Ord Mantell and battles him — in a very difficult video game boss fight. Overconfident, IG-88 admits to Rendar where Boba Fett was before being destroyed (that dirty rat!), which is different than the comic book miniseries and pop-up comic book that had IG-88 defeated by Boba Fett. (That said, there are multiple IG-88 units, so it’s a moot point.) on the Afterwards, on the next level of the video game, Dash Rendar travels to Gall’s imperial spaceport where he fights off stormtroopers, native creatures, and even an AT-ST, before having to face Boba Fett in the ship hangar with Slave I. You first fight Boba Fett in an arena-like hangar where he jetpacks around and shoots at you. As Dash, you have the same ability except you lack armor and need to grab all the health you can find. Then you chip away enough of Boba’s health points until he climbs aboard the Slave I and now in his ship he attack you with it’s guns. This was a big deal because Slave I wasn’t really seen in action back in the day. We saw it fly in the Original Trilogy, knew it had weapons, and saw its interior, but it was a bit of a mystery what it could do. Even in the “Shadows of the Empire” novel, the Slave I does not engage in battle; it had no need to as Imperials became aware of the Rebel intruders. Plus, Slave I had just been repaired after a dogfight it went through with another hunter. But Fett wasn’t interested in fighting off Rebels — just delivering Solo and getting paid. It’s a similar logic to how in “Empire Strikes Back” Boba Fett doesn’t turn Slave I around and simply shoot down Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian on the Bespin platform. He could have, but Boba Fett knows the extremes of war. He would rather depart in that type of situation, especially when he already has his own peers — other bounty hunters — looking for him to take away his prize. But the video game “Shadows of the Empire” rewrites the scene to where Boba Fett couldn’t help but take shots at Dash Rendar with Slave I. Realistically, Slave I would win without an issue, but it’s a video game. As Dash with a jetpack, you can fly up to a low flying Slave I and shoot your weapons at it. Unable to maneuver much within the Imperial hangar, Boba Fett decides it’s not worth it and departs the destroyed Imperial base on Gall to head for Tatooine. Along the way, as seen in the comic book version, he also encounters Bossk, 4-LOM, Zuckuss, and Furlag who all fail to stop Boba Fett from his goal. Once on Tatooine another round of bounty hunters fail to stop Boba Fett, who outsmarts them by dressing up Zuckuss in his backup armor in order to have hunters chase Zuckuss while Boba delivered Solo to Jabba the Hutt.

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

I would like to think of the N64 video game version of the story as a rare example of changing an element of a novel in a cool way: by having Boba Fett and Dash Rendar fight. But in this alternate, secondary version of the story, realistically, Boba Fett should win that fight. But back in the 90s, the Han Solo/Boba Fett rivalry was real and it was only fitting a character similar to Han Solo be given the opportunity to fight Boba Fett. The PC version of the game even included a quick cutscene of a silent Boba Fett near his Slave I at the Imperial spaceport — seen right before they battle in gameplay while Fett escapes in his ship off screen. It’s fitting that Boba Fett says nothing at all (whereas IG-88 had plenty of dialogue). It shows that he was ready for action and not interested in talking. Amazing how Boba can not say a thing in both the video game &and novel while still being an impactful character. That said, the comic book version provided the more talkative Boba Fett (such as talking to Han Solo frozen in carbonite), which is in great contrast to the mainstream portrayal.

A New Hope: Special Edition, Mos Eisley Spaceport Scene, Blu-Ray (Retina)

Not too long after the release of “Shadows of the Empire” came the release of the first “Star Wars: Special Edition” in 1997. Among the additions to the film were a few nods to the “Shadows” project, including a ship that looks like Dash’s “Outrider” and the inclusion of swoop bikes plus ASP Labor Droids. Another addition was Boba Fett to the formerly omitted scene where Han Solo negotiates with Jabba the Hutt alongside the Falcon, other hunters, and Chewbacca. While the filming of Mark Anthony Austin as Boba Fett for SW:SE may have nothing to do with “Shadows” itself, it certainly gave Boba Fett yet another boost in the mid-1990s not long after being featured in this multimedia event. While he had the spotlight in film in the 80s, the 90s found Boba Fett elevate to becoming a comic book and video game icon, so it was only fitting that among the live-action Star Wars filming done in the 1990s that Boba Fett is there in the “Star Wars: Special Edition.” The 90s saw Boba Fett continue to be in video games after “Shadows of the Empire,” such as “Star Wars: Masters of Teras Kasi” (1997). It was a fighting game that took Boba Fett out of the boss fight role and made him playable for once. It was also the first video game to have a Boba Fett voice actor (by Neil Ross) since “Shadows” went with the silent portrayal of Fett. Masters of Teras Kasi also put him on the front cover and a lot of promotional material in artwork where he is battling Luke Skywalker. At this point it was clear Boba Fett had made it thanks to the efforts of “Shadows of the Empire.” There was no shock to Boba getting the spotlight anymore.

Video games provided a new medium for characters that didn’t get enough screen time in film. It’s this that allows for a character to expand its audience. The success of games like NES/SNES “Empire Strikes Back,” “Dark Forces,” and “Shadows of the Empire” that helped make Boba Fett a playable option, as well as the advancement of technology. Unfortunately, “Masters of Teras Kasi” had more of a mixed response than Fett’s previous games, but the idea of a playable Boba Fett lived on from that point on. In “Star Wars: Demolition” (2000) where you can jetpack around maps battling vehicles and even a Rancor. “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter” (2002) had Jango Fett, prior to being the father of Boba. He was also in the popular “Star Wars: Battlefront” and LEGO Star Wars games.

Star Wars Battlefront Wallpaper

Fett was definitely a favorite choice in the “Battlefront” games, which had Temuera Morrison voice the role of Boba this time instead of just Jango. Tom Kane and Dee Bradley Baker were the lucky ones who got to voice Fett multiple times in video games. Hopefully Daniel Logan — who voices Boba in “LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga” (2022) — gets to voice Boba in a game again so he can join that multi-time group; he certainly is old enough to voice a video game Boba that is in his prime. Temuera himself got to voice many clones of Jango Fett, including Boss (RC-1138), an elite clone commando from the video game “Republic Commando” who was part of Delta Squad and trained by Walon Vau, a Mandalorian that was recruited to train clones by Jango himself (which is referenced in the game).

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

The Fett Legacy is so solid his fans were even rewarded a pinball table (2013) of his own featuring the other bounty hunters of “The Empire Strikes Back” whom he beat out in the race to capture Han Solo and the location of the Millenium Falcon. That makes him only one of about a handful of characters to get their own character-named pinball table. What the future holds as far as a game about Fett or a playable Fett is unclear, but it has its place in history.

Star Wars Pinball

Boba Fett was more regularly appearing as a non-playable character – be it in popular classic games like “The Force Unleashed” (2008) where he had the displeasure of meeting Starkiller. He’s also in modern games like “Jedi: Survivor” (2023) where Cal Kestis had a tense moment with Boba Fett hunting an associate of his, who at the time was using Cal to carry out bounty missions. In fact Boba Fett’s scene (or scenes if we include the additional commentary) was an incredibly popular moment in the game if YouTube views, likes, and comments are anything to go by. Fans disappointed by Disney+ media’s interpretation of Boba Fett were relieved by Boba’s “Jedi: Survivor” moment, with some even preferring that sequence over “The Book of Boba Fett.” What was universally agreed on is that Temuera Morrison’s two approaches to voicing Fett were both great, as he sounds scarier and less forgiving in “Jedi: Survivor,” whereas in “Book of Boba Fett” he shifts between stoic, tough, and friendly when with allies. In a way the video game realm treated Boba Fett a bit better than how Boba was treated in television (especially when you factor the unfinished arc from “The Clone Wars”), although it wasn’t always smooth. The cancelled “Star Wars 1313” will always be seen as the moment that derailed Boba Fett in video games slightly, made all the more bittersweet by what was salvaged out of the project in terms of the beautiful concept art available here on BFFC. But if he wasn’t an icon, would he have survived that (attempted) derailment?

Star Wars 1313 (Cancelled), Boba Fett Concept Art

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

The fact is, he is always welcome in the video game world, as evident by the magazine coverage of yesteryear, and what gamers say. It would also be hard for most other Star Wars characters to catch up to the solid history and reputation of video game Boba Fett, including a similar character. As popular as Din Djarin in “The Mandalorian” became in the last handful of years, for example, he’d have no shot at catching up to Boba Fett’s status of a video game icon — although for the last few years many have demanded such a game. Then there’s a character like Bo-Katan Kryze who has had many stories and has survived the test of time, but doesn’t have a video game legacy. George Lucas was a bit cooler about allowing others to use his characters in video games. Perhaps characters based off Boba and Jango Fett are a bit overprotected by their own creators? But then there are the Mandalorian bounty hunters made exclusively for video games — an odd category as they have very little chance of making a name for themselves if they are limited to one game. Boba Fett will always be the most popular choice because he has the most history.

Even if “Shadows of the Empire” may not make everyone’s favorite Star Wars game list, it was still a big milestone for Star Wars games that finally began to interconnect with the films, like “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.” That’s opposed to non-substantial game adaptations of the films or something like Star Wars Chess which added nothing to lore. It was games like “Dark Forces” and “Shadows of the Empire” that started to really add to the lore. In the case of “Shadows,” it served to abridge “Empire” and “Jedi.” While it was a big deal at the time, I have to also mention that “Shadows of the Empire” sadly isn’t Canon — or anymore (depending on your take on degrees of Canon). Many argue it ought to have been. With the large gap between “Return of the Jedi” and “The Phantom Menace,” there were certain projects that were treated like movies like the Thrawn Trilogy, “Dark Empire,” and “Shadows of the Empire.” (Speaking of “The Phantom Menace,” Prince Xizor actually makes a hidden cameo appearance in it — I’m serious, look it up! — so it certainly seems like George Lucas saw “Shadows” of the Empire as a worthy story for the lore.) The multimedia project even had its own soundtrack composed by Joel McNeely, Topps trading cards, and toy lines from several companies. It even had references or connections in multiple video games including “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter” where you get a quick glance of the Outrider in the opening sequence – or how the “Battlefront” reboot included a training mission that remade the Hoth level from “Shadows of the Empire” (based off of “Empire”). The multimedia project itself left quite a legacy for itself within Star Wars while also helping boost Boba Fett’s video game status as well. It didn’t really win any game awards but it was one of the better N64 games of that year and it left a lasting impression. I would not doubt it will return eventually to consoles, although it’s strange it hasn’t already happened.

Oddly enough, characters like Dash Rendar and Prince Xizor are seemingly nonexistent in Canon so far. (They’d look great in a second season of Boba Fett, wouldn’t they?) But they are still memorable and alive and well in the minds of some Star Wars fans who crave for more stories like that. It goes to show the power of the multimedia project. If it were only a novel, would we have remembered what those guys looked like? And for a character like Boba Fett, “Shadows” as a multimedia project allowed fans to see him in multiple ways: as the shadowy villain of the novel, the more aggressive villain of the game, or the anti-hero of the comics where you are root for him against the other hunters trying to steal his prize. It was an interesting contrast to the Fett from the feature films. For example, in the Original Trilogy, the Slave I isn’t seen in battle, it’s a ship that stalks its prey and carries the bounties it collects towards its doom. The video games would never shy away from using Slave I in a boss battle, even though it would not be until “Attack of the Clones” where we saw the ship’s full potential in battle on screen. That’s the magic of creative freedom. Those games weren’t simply adapting Boba Fett, they were adding to the character we all loved — and still love today.

May the 4th aka “Star Wars Day” involves a bunch of product reveals and sales from official licenses. This year’s official theme is “Power the Force.” BFFC has dialed in just the goods for Boba Fett fans. May the 4th be with you!

Merchandise

Acme Archives

The art vendor is doing 25% off between May 1 and 5, with the discount applied at checkout. They have a newer “Helmets: Jango Fett” collectible pin and many more limited edition prints with Fett on their site.

Amazon

Their annual May the 4th Be With You landing page lists the main deals, plus a Boba Fett specific page, which includes the JoyJolt Star Wars Cosmic Color Drinking Glasses. Their are select deals specifically on May 4 only too.

JoyJolt Star Wars Cosmic Color Drinking Glasses
2025 $32.32

BoxLunch

Starting May 2 and going through May 5, they have 30% off all Star Wars products on their website and in store. Since they list 27,000+ Star Wars matches, you can also narrow that to just over 1,200 matches with Boba Fett. Like Her Universe, everything seems to be on sale throughout the year.

Denuo Novo

Their 10% off sitewide and free shipping sale has already started, which includes their pre-assembled Fett jetpack kits as well as a revival of their unassembled kit version are on their site. (See our video review of the unassembled kit when it first dropped.)

Boba Fett / Jango Fett Jetpack Kit
2023

One thing to note: “Due to the new U.S. tariffs, select pre-order and in-stock items may be subject to a temporary fee when they arrive at our warehouse. Affected customers will be notified in advance, and pre-orders can be canceled at any time without penalty.”

Disney Store

The latest Boba Fett baseball jersey originally appeared just in Disney Parks but it’s now included on their site alongside May the 4th promotions. They may just be doing new product drops and not discounts, unfortunately.

Disney "Galactic Outlaw" Boba Fett #80 Baseball Jersey
2025

And, surprise, on May 4th, they revealed this pin which will be sold in Disney Parks plus DisneyStore.com:

Disney "The Empire Strikes Back" 45th Anniversary Boba Fett Slider Pin
2025 Varies

Enso Rings

Their Star Wars Day sale takes 25% off and includes three of their remaining “The Book of Boba Fett” collection (Galactic Outlaw for $33.74, Fennec Shand for $31.49, and Boba Fett for $29.24) as well as other Star Wars rings on their site.

Enso Rings Galactic Outlaw Ring
2021

Enso Rings Boba Fett Ring
2021

Fortnite

The latest Fortnite x Star Wars crossover is timed with Star Wars Day. (Boba Fett is already in the game if you happened to pick up his skin, ship, or accessories when they were avail.) In one of the promo pics, BFFC fan Poke681YT (Twitter) noticed the blasters are the same ones used by Jango Fett. This is likely a v-bucks in-game purchase to upgrade to, but it also might mean a Jango Fett skin could be coming any day now…

Funko

From April 30 (12pm Pacific) to May 4 (11:59pm Pacific), Funko is doing a buy 2 Star Wars items get 1 free deal on their website. Several Boba Fett items in stock this year.

Hasbro

They’re doing a livestream event on May 2 at 8am Pacific / 11am Eastern on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel “for reveals and updates from The Black Series, The Vintage Collection, and more.” Maybe we’ll get something Boba or Boba adjacent? (Update: nothin’.)

Her Universe

Between May 2 and May 5, you can get up to 50% off Star Wars items. Their newer releases include a Boba Fett Icons Hoodie under their Our Universe brand on their site. They also have over 800 matches for “Fett” on their site too, most of which is discounted.

Our Universe Boba Fett Icons Hoodie
2025

Heritage Auctions

There are numerous Boba Fett items in their May 4 auction, including a unique Kenner peach Boba Fett first shot and also the original Robot Chicken Boba Fett stop motion puppet used in the show. (See our BFFC promo for their Robot Chicken item on May 3rd.)

Heroes & Villains

They’re doing reveals May 1 through May 5, plus exclusives and a select 20% off product sale. But only on May 2, their “Duel at Mos Espa” Boba Fett shirt will be available over on their site. On May 3 only, their Din Djarin shirt features Boba Fett’s helmet. And on May 5 only, their Cad Bane shirt name checks Boba Fett and Jango Fett.

Heroes & Villains "Duel at Mos Espa" Boba Fett T-shirt
2025

Heroes & Villains "Children of the Watch" Din Djarin T-shirt
2025

Heroes & Villains "Peligroso" Cad Bane T-shirt
2025

LEGO

The new LEGO Jango Fett Helmet (75408) and LEGO UCS Jango Fett’s Firespray-Class Starship (75409) are both May 4 releases (although LEGO Insider members can get in as early as May 1).

LEGO Jango Fett Helmet (75408)
2025 $69.99 $55.99 Black Friday Sale $69.99 $62.95 Black Friday Sale

LEGO UCS Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship (75409)
2025 $299.99 $299.99 Black Friday Sale $299.84 $299.99

If you’re already a member of their free LEGO Insiders program, two more things:

• If you order the UCS ship through LEGO.com, you’ll also get their Jango Fett’s Starship Key Chain. Deal begins 5/1 and ends 5/5.
  
  

  LEGO Jango Fett’s Starship Key Chain
  2025
• If you have a ton of points, there are also a few Fett exclusives basically timed for Star Wars Day, dropping between April 30 and May 4. The Jango Fett’s Starship Coin costs 2,500 points and the “Flying with the Fetts” poster by Joe Hogan costs 1,800 points.
  
  

  LEGO Jango Fett's Starship Coin
  2025
  
  
  

  LEGO "Flying with the Fetts" by Joe Hogan
  2025

Shoe Palace

The spot to pick up kicks now has shirt and short apparel with Boba Fett on it plus an “Empire Strikes Back” poster at select store locations on May 4. See their site for the exact cities.

The Empire Strikes Back 45th Anniversary Poster by Oliver Barrett (Shoe Palace Exclusive)
2025

Shoe Palace Boba Fett Mens Jersey
2025

Shoe Palace Boba Fett Mesh Shorts
2025

Steam

The popular gaming platform is doing a Star Wars Day sale on their site, which ends May 5. The recently released “Bounty Hunter” (2004 enhanced edition of the 2002 original) is $10. “Shadows of the Empire” (1996) is $1.49. “Star Wars Outlaws” (2024) is also 50% off. (Helmet nod to BFFC contributor Tresob for the heads up.)

Target

They’re celebrating Star Wars Day with a special part of their website, which includes their kid-sized “May the 4th Be With You” tee.

Star Wars "May the 4th Be With You" 2025 T-Shirt for Kids
2025

Topps

Star Wars Meiyo by TOPPS is a new trading card set of 100 cards, which seems to be a reveal via StarWars.com and definitely not a discount. Boba Fett shows up on at least three cards in the set: Chrome Sticker S-2, Ukiyo E UK-1 Boba Fett vs. Cad Bane, and Ukiyo E UK-3 The Bounty Hunters. Topps has some more info on it on their site.

More

That’s not all… The official Star Wars website has more (updated for 2025), but we combed through it for Fett-related items. If you’re less disconcerting, check out their list too.

Did we miss anything else? Let us know in the comments!

Check out our past May 4 guides: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

BFFC’s Chelsey B. Coombs spoke with Nelvana co-founders Michael Hirsh and Clive Smith in advance of their panel at Star Wars Celebration Japan.

Dive into their memories of Boba Fett’s animated debut plus their work with George Lucas on the Ewoks and Droids Adventure Hour.

If you’re at Celebration, save the date: this Saturday, April 19 at 10:30am – 11:30am is their panel on the Story of the Faithful Wookiee, Ewoks, and Droids cartoons.

Bonus: you can watch the B&W test Boba Fett footage they’re talking about from 1978 here on BFFC.

Also: we interviewed “Holiday Special” Boba Fett animator John Celestri about his role in this all back in 2019.

Our handy guide to Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 is your very own checklist to all the Boba Fett sightings we know about. Updated up to and through the convention, thanks to our reporter there, Chelsey B. Coombs.

Not attending? They have some events livestreamed.

We explored the official Panels and Photo Ops lists to inform these highlights — with the most Fett potential:

Friday, April 18

Note: day 1’s live stream was made private by @StarWars soon after the day ended…

• 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM: Collectors Social @ Collectors’ Stage
• 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: “The Mandalorian & Grogu” @ Celebration Stage (and streamed to Galaxy Stage and Twin Suns Stage) with guests Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau; we’ll be attending this one!
• 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Hasbro Star Wars Panel @ Twin Suns Stage — we’ll be attending this one!
• 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM: Light and Magic Season 2 @ Celebration Stage
• 2:00 PM: Lucasfilm Publishing panel, featuring writers like Ethan Sacks (“Jango Fett,” “Bounty Hunters”)
• 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM: Lucasfilm Animation’s 20th Anniversary @ Celebration and Galaxy Stages
• 4:30 PM – 5:30 PM: Bit Reactor Developer Panel featuring Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games @ Galaxy Stage
• 4:50 PM: Temuera Morrison photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 5:30 PM: Fett Father & Son, Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 5:50 PM: Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)

Saturday, April 19

• 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM: The Story of the Faithful Wookiee, Ewoks and Droids featuring Michael Hirsh and Clive Smith who both were involved in the Star Wars Holiday Special cartoon at Nelvana; see our video of Hirsh giving a similar talk at SDCC last year and also our newly released interview with the two of them:
• 1:30 PM: Temuera Morrison photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 2:20 PM: Fett Father & Son, Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: Doug Chiang’s Masterclass @ Twin Suns
• 2:40 PM: Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: Vintage Japanese Diecast Delights @ Collectors

Sunday, April 20

• 11:45 AM – 12:45 PM: From Collecting to Visual Storytelling – Star Wars Toy Photography @ Collectors
• 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: “ILM Presents The Mandalorian and Beyond: Behind the Scenes of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and more” @ Galaxy Stage with guests John Knoll and Richard Bluff
• 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM: “The Fett Family” @ Twin Suns Stage with guests Daniel Logan and Temuera Morrison
• 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: FIFTY YEARS OF MAGIC: Celebrating the Legacy of Industrial Light & Magic @ Galaxy
• 2:10 PM: Temuera Morrison photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 2:40 PM: Fett Father & Son, Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)
• 3:00 PM: Daniel Logan photo op (reservation encouraged)

Exhibitors with Fett Merch (or Likely Bets)

We combed through the full list of exhibitors and the merch catalog to make this handy cheat sheet, along with adding a bunch we spotted not included on the official convention site:

• Hot Toys: not an exclusive but the first chance to pre-order the Star Wars Cosbi Balloon Series #056 Boba Fett and Hot Toys Zakka Masterpiece 1/6 Scale Package Boba Fett Magnet
  
  

  Star Wars Cosbi Balloon Series #056 Boba Fett
  2025
  
  
  

  Hot Toys Zakka Masterpiece 1/6 Scale Package Boba Fett Magnet
  2025
• Medicom Toys: not an exclusive but the first chance to pre-order the Be@rbrick (Bearbrick) Chase “The Empire Strikes Back” Boba Fett
  
  

  Be@rbrick (Bearbrick) Chase "The Empire Strikes Back" Boba Fett (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025
• Happy Lottery: not an exclusive but a pre-sale opportunity for the Jango Fett character acrylic stand, the unlabeled Jango Fett’s Slave I, and the larger The Skywalker Saga Poster
  
  

  Happy Lottery Jango Fett Character Acrylic Stand
  2025
  
  
  

  Happy Lottery Jango Fett's Slave I Vehicle Acrylic Stand
  2025
  
  
  

  Happy Lottery The Skywalker Saga Poster
  2025

Artwork

• “The Daimyo of Mos Espa” by Brad Hudson
  
  

  "The Daimyo of Mos Espa" by Brad Hudson (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025
• “The Force Arcana” by Dianne Vaznelis
  
  

  "The Force Arcana" by Dianne Vaznelis (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025

Exclusives

Looking through the official merchandise (which isn’t everything) plus our own research:

• Medicom has their Sofubi Vintage “Prototype Version” Boba Fett
  
  

  Sofubi Vintage "Prototype Version" Boba Fett (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025
• Celebration’s pin trading program has a Mystery 2-Pack Boba Fett Pin
  
  

  Star Wars Celebration Mystery 2-Pack Boba Fett Pin
  2025
• RSVLTS has an event exclusive Boba Fett pin and also the “I Want Them Alive” shirt with him on it
  
  

  RSVLTS "I Want Them Alive" Shirt (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025
• Star Wars Celebration store has a Boba Fett Samurai T-Shirt and a Boba Fett Boba Tea Plush
  
  

  Boba Fett Samurai T-Shirt (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025 Varies
  
  
  

  Boba Fett Boba Tea Plush (Star Wars Celebration Japan Exclusive)
  2025 Varies

Curious about our guides for prior Celebrations? See Star Wars Celebration Europe (2023), Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (2022), Star Wars Celebration Chicago (2019), Star Wars Celebration Orlando (2017), Star Wars Celebration Europe (2016), and Star Wars Celebration Anaheim (2015).

There was once a time where Boba Fett’s father, Jango Fett, was known as “the last of the Mandalorians.”

Count Dooku (aka Darth Tyranus): “Our search for the Prime Clone is nearly complete. The galaxy’s most dangerous mercenaries have been pitted against one another and I sense the victor will be a bounty hunter named… Jango Fett! The last of the Mandalorians, the sole survivor of the Jedi Raid on Galidran; He’s the perfect soldier in every way. I have interrogated a number of his former associated, yes, in fact, I’ve just returned from the planet Concord Dawn, where Fett was born… and his family died.”

Darth Sidious: “Excellent. The most dangerous men are always Orphans…”

— Star Wars: Open Seasons “legends” comic, written by Haden Blackman

Star Wars: Jango Fett Open Seasons Trade Paperback
2003

At this point in time, making him the last of the Mandalorians was a good way of explaining why it was that Jango Fett was chosen as the Prime Clone, aka the Clone Template. Whereas in the “Canon” film “Attack of the Clones,” he left his origins. Why he was recruited by Count Dooku remained a mystery. This left it to one’s imagination, as George Lucas’ focus was more on showing off what Fett could do in a fight, leaving only a glimpse of background information on the character. The film reveals a lot — that Jango Fett 1) had encountered Jedi in the past, 2) had known Count Dooku for about a decade, 3) had been living on Kamino (but not native to the planet), 4) had a reputation as a bounty hunter (who associated with at least one other hunter), 5) had some oversight of sorts with the training of clones, assuring Kenobi that they will do their job well, and 6) had a clone son named Boba Fett.

Fett's Apartment (Key Frame 7)

“Attack of the Clones” primarily portrays Jango Fett in two distinct ways. First, as a mercenary with combat and piloting skills with a reputation as a bounty hunter who is ruthless and professional enough to silence his own partner when it came down to it (Zam Wesell) while also capable enough to fight Jedi (RIP Coleman Trebor), and wild beasts (like the Reek). Second, as a caring, protective father plus a tragic figure, who despite the profit from being the Prime Clone and having his own clone son (the alpha clone Boba Fett), has put himself and his son in a dangerous position in pursuit of a simple life. He’s the simple man “trying” to make his way in the universe (or galaxy), right? But that’s easier said than done.

Temuera Morrison, Daniel Logan and George Lucas

Star Wars: Jango Fett Open Seasons #3

It makes sense for a person who has overcome trauma to want to escape painful past memories and start a new life. Jango Fett’s scars are not just on the surface, but also inside. In “Legends,” he loses his family (both parents and sister) to the Death Watch faction of Mandalorians. Then, years later, he loses his Mandalorian father Jaster Mereel. Eventually that entire faction of “True Mandalorians” were wiped out by a group of Jedi Knights (misled by Death Watch misinformation) in a battle where Jango, after witnessing one his own Mandos cut in half by a lightsaber — ferociously killed several Jedi using his own justified might — before surrendering.

Many years later, Jango Fett would suffer anther great loss with his Toydarian friend Rozatta who assisted him in the bounty hunting business. She was murdered by his main rival, the Mandalorian Montross, in Count Dooku’s bounty hunter contest that determined who would be the clone template for the Grand Army of the Republic. That army would then be modified to obey Palpatine’s Order 66 when the time came — an event which saw the murder of thousands of Jedi and the end of the Jedi High Council. As Jango Fett’s second family (the Mandalorians) had been murdered by Jedi, it was only fitting Count Dooku would reward Jango Fett with the ultimate revenge opportunity. And yet Jango wanted something more… as Rozatta planted the idea of seeking more to life than just bounty hunting. Jango finally listened and made himself a son, Boba Fett, or “Jaster’s Legacy” (as Jango was a man of Mandalorian culture).

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #37 (Alex Maleev Variant)
2023

Sadly in “Canon,” some of the tragedy element is lost with Jango Fett (for now), although not entirely. For example, in Marvel’s Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #37 written by Ethan Sacks, we see a flashback of Jango Fett attempting to save his bounty hunter friend Kligson after he is injured in a heist that didn’t go as planned. Eventually he had to abandon his friend to a community of droids and say his farewell to him in a bittersweet moment.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #37

Star Wars: Jango Fett Trade Paperback
2025

In the limited Jango Fett miniseries by Ethan Sacks, we also learned that Jango Fett and Aurra Sing had an on-and-off type of relationship, both professional and not. At the end of the story arc, Aurra Sing asks Jango Fett if he ever considered having kids to pass down the Fett legacy to. She knows he was good with handling the young Nakano Lash, a young thief who — like Jango — got caught in the middle of an orchestrated conspiracy meant to destabilize the Republic. (That would make Supreme Chancellor Valorum look bad, to make it easier for Palpatine to replace him, as he did in “The Phantom Menace.”) Jango Fett at that point is not ready for a child, but considers it.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
2002

Star Wars: Age of Republic Jango Fett #1
2019

Meanwhile, Count Dooku learns of Jango’s professionalism, competence, and discretion from a corrupt Governor who had hired Jango Fett to re-acquire an item of political and cultural significance. This is what piques Dooku’s interest in Fett, which is what leads him to Jango to meet on one of the moons of Bogden. (This was mentioned in “Attack of the Clones” and seen in both the “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter” video game from 2002 written by Jon Knoles and the comic book “Age of Republic: Jango Fett” from 2019 written by Jody Houser).

Star Wars: Age of Republic Jango Fett #1

Boba Fett was not part of Dooku’s plans however, and yet Palpatine, being the evil mastermind he was, was able to incorporate and factor Boba Fett into his grand scheme. “Everything is going as planned,” said Sidious. Then again, maybe Boba wasn’t part of the plan. The Empire eventually got frustrated with the clones, not having realized their hidden paternal trait — something that especially irritated the imperial Dr. Royce Hemlock on “The Bad Batch” series. While Palpatine realized orphans made for dangerous men, he may have unwisely dismissed the innate need for family that even “the last of the Mandalorians” would feel.

Star Wars: Age of Republic Jango Fett #1

With all that being said, “Canon” has left some mystery to why Jango Fett decided to have a clone son named Boba. Was it his friend Aurra Sing’s casual suggestion that implanted the idea? Maybe it’s because he was a Mandalorian Foundling, looking to start a “Clan of Two” — like Clan Mudhorn, aka The Mandalorian and Grogu? In a way Jango and Boba are the original clan of two, except it ended prematurely for them. The direction George Lucas gave was simple enough – the father/son dynamic, the bounty hunter angle, and the clone angle. The clone angle is really the most unique aspect here because it begs the question of why have a clone son, rather than a non-clone son/daughter — like Boba had in “Legends?” And then on top of that, why raise him up in such a dangerous setting, living on a planet of water and storms? Was that part of the training, to get Boba used to a harsh environment? Or was it just because there was no other choice? This is where the contradiction lies: the “simple man” is awfully complicated. It’s hard to be simple in a complex universe, in a dangerous galaxy. The lives of Jango and Boba were anything but simple.

Perhaps Jango Fett had so much faith in his genes and abilities that a clone of himself was the logical ideal choice for a son. It was a guarantee that his Fett legacy would live on, beyond the clone army that shared his face. Had Boba Fett been more fortunate enough to have a mother, it would have been much harder for Jango to get away with pushing Boba towards the bounty hunter life. As an orphan and Mandalorian foundling who had to struggle to survive at a young age, he would have felt comfortable leaning Boba towards dangerous situations because his confidence and faith in Boba would be as high as his own self-confidence and pride in ability.

Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, Jango had a son or daughter with someone in his line of work like Aurra Sing or Zam Wesell. There is no guarantee that the offspring lives up to Jango Fett’s reputation, even with the appropriate training – or had he adopted a foundling. Through Cloner Technology of the Kaminoans, Jango Fett was able to achieve something special that he only otherwise could have been done through some convergence of Force Magic/Magick — and dark sorcery, to reference “The Acolyte,” which of course isn’t his thing. It’s understandable why he would take an opportunity of a lifetime, making what he saw as the perfect son. Jango Fett was an honorable man, even to pirates. While pirates tend to put money above all, Jango deep down under the hard armored exterior was a caring person. I think we can conclusively say that Jango cared more about Boba than he did about wealth or revenge on the Jedi.

But wealth was part of it too. Boba Fett does not exist as a clone without his father’s love of money. Boba similarly inherited that love of credits as well, working for the top gangsters of his time, including Darth Vader, the right hand man of the Emperor. After obtaining much wealth he eventually reached an epiphany, just like his father: there is more to life. When Jango turned his life around, he soon thereafter lost his life in the war orchestrated by the very Sith that chose to copy him to make perfect soldiers. Had Jango known the future would be “Clone Wars” — that led to an end of the democratic Republic and the rise of an Empire that dissolved the Senate and threaten whole planets with destruction — would Jango have killed Dooku when he had the chance? Boba Fett similarly was blinded by his own personal feelings and ambitions that he overlooked the bigger picture at times, which one could argue is his one real character flaw. Will it cost Boba Fett his life eventually, as it did his father? And on the opposite side of the fence will we see a similar dynamic with Din Djarin and Grogu where perhaps Din’s fate is not too different than that of Jango and Grogu ends up dealing with the same kind of trauma young Boba felt? Probably not, but it’s fun to think about Jango’s Legacy in Star Wars too. Hopefully the near future will provide even more insight into the life of Jango Fett, the complicated yet simple man from Concord Dawn.

This weekend, Boba Fett Fan Club went to Toy Fair New York, a trade show that brings toy companies and distributors under one roof to show off their latest products. Boba Fett had a big presence at the show – at least in terms of the Gentle Giant Studios booth – but there were lots of other Star Wars goodies, too, so let’s jump in.

Gentle Giant Studios

As I walked the floor Saturday morning, I was shocked to see a giant Kenner-action-figure-style Boba Fett statue at the Gentle Giant Studios booth. This was a fiberglass version of the 3D-printed Boba Fett Life Size Vintage Monument that Gentle Giant released all the way back in 2015 for $2,750. According to the representative at the show, they’re not planning a re-release of the six-foot scale behemoth, but thought it would be cool to bring along. It certainly got my attention, so mission accomplished.

Gentle Giant Ltd. and Diamond Select Toys

Not to be confused with the aforementioned Gentle Giant Studios, which does 3D scanning, prototyping and fabrication, the Gentle Giant Ltd. and Diamond Select Toys booth had a few new Star Wars items on display for the first time, including Jumbo Figures of Darth Vader (First Appearance), IG-12 with Anzellans and IG-12 with Grogu from “The Mandalorian” season three. It was surprising that there were no Boba Fett collectibles in the booth at all, but if you’ve got a craving for Fett, may we suggest their AOTC mini bust or the unhelmeted “The Book Of Boba Fett” (TBOBF) mini bust?

Hasbro

Hasbro invited BFFC to an after-hours fan media event to get an inside look at some of their latest action figures. There were two Boba Fetts on display: The Walmart-exclusive MixMashers “TBOBF” Boba Fett with pieces you can pull apart and recombine to create a Franken-Fett and the Epic World of Action Power the Force figure based on his appearance in “The Mandalorian.” The latter seems to be a rebranded repack of the 2024 Epic Hero four-inch scale figure that includes a giant jetpack with firing rocket and a flamethrower gauntlet. Both of the figures are aimed at a younger demographic (ages four and up), feature fewer points of articulation than Hasbro’s Vintage Collection (TVC) and Black Series figures and come at a cheaper price point.

I’m still hoping we’ll get a more accurate Black Series “TBOBF” figure as the TBOBF-branded version that was released in 2022 seems to be based on Fett’s appearance in “The Mandalorian” season two. Check out our guides on the differences between the “Re-armored” Mando Chapter 15 and  “Daimyo” TBOBF costumes to see the differences.

Also on display were a number of figures previously revealed in the Hasbro Star Wars team’s February 2025 livestream, including those from the Revenge of the Sith 25th Anniversary and Return to Tatooine themes, as well as the new Acolyte Stranger Black Series role play helmet.

Funko and Loungefly

Funko’s booth heavily featured their new Bitty Pop Bitty City line, which have road, scenery and land accessory packs to display your Bitty Pop and Bitty Town collections. The Bitty Pops are only 0.9-inches tall and come in similarly tiny boxes, so these are essentially even smaller versions of a Lego minifigure-scale city. There was a Bitty Pop Luke in his landspeeder driving (or would it be hovering?) down the street tailed by Santa in the Millenium Falcon in Funko’s display city, so we may see Boba in Slave I eventually. You can get the new “The Empire Strikes Back” Fett Bitty Pop figure in a four-pack (available on Amazon and seen in the Death Star display above) and “The Mandalorian” Fett Bitty Pop in another four-pack (also available on Amazon).

The only other Boba Fett I saw in the booth was from 2024’s Pocket Pop Holiday Mini-Figure 4-Pack, which are one-to-two inches tall and not to be confused with the Bitty Pops. As an aside, did you know there are a ton of Pop sizes?

Over the last few months, I’ve noticed a conspicuous lack of Star Wars Loungefly items being released, and when I asked a Funko/Loungefly rep at Toy Fair about it, she said there will be more coming later this year for May the Fourth.

Jazwares Micro Galaxy Squadron

I’ve been loving Jazwares’ Micro Galaxy Squadron line, which has given us three renditions of Slave I so far: Jango Fett’s Starship, Boba Fett’s Starship from TBOBF and Boba Fett’s Starship from ESB, which began arriving from Amazon just last week. You can check out our 2023 video review of the first two. Boba has also been released in the Clash at Carkoon Battle Pack and as a Nikto Speeder Chase variant.

Jazwares had no Boba Fett reveals at Toy Fair, but they did show off new ARC-170 and TIE/rp Reaper attack lander ships.

Paladone

Paladone makes licensed fandom products and had a number of Star Wars options on display in their booth. I reviewed their Boba Fett Diorama Light back in 2022 – it holds an honorary place on my desk – but there are a lot more lighting options where that came from. Their 48-inch tall and 10-inch wide half-scale Death Star panel lights (available at Entertainment Earth) can change color and react to music, although at $149.99 for one panel, decking out a whole room with them would require a significant investment. Paladone’s Millennium Falcon and X-Wing desk lights were also on display, and I think a Slave I version would be neat to see in the future.

Their 4.7” Din Djarin and Grogu holographic laser-etched crystal lights (available on Amazon) at the show would make great night lights; the Paladone rep I spoke to said there was a Boba Fett version that wasn’t on display, but that hasn’t been officially announced, so stay tuned on that.

While I’m iterating on products, a holographic crystal light of a Jango Fett clone in an embryo tube like we saw in “Attack of the Clones” and “The Bad Batch” would be the perfect application for the format, although I highly doubt that will happen because the market for that would essentially just be me.

Metal Earth

There were a few Boba Fett model kits in Metal Earth’s Toy Fair booth this year. I hadn’t seen their TBOBF Slave I kit (although it came out back in 2022), but I had seen the helmet model kit that was on display that came out a few years before that. Be aware that these kits are rated eight out of ten and five out of ten in difficulty, respectfully, so I would recommend trying some easier Metal Earth kits before tackling these.

Just Play

Disney’s Star Wars Doorables get in on the chibi blind box craze, and a display at Just Play’s Toy Fair booth featured the tiny figures and vehicles of the Galactic Cruisers Series 2. Thankfully, the Boba Fett with matching deco X-wing variant is considered common among this series, and boxes sporting the barcode ending in “A10” contain the bounty hunter, according to a tip from @darthjaq on Twitter.

Shadow Pop Displays

It’s sometimes difficult for collectors to display all of our figures – there’s only so much shelf space, after all, so the Shadow Pop Displays booth definitely caught my eye. These shadow boxes are made from corrugated cardboard and can be customized with backgrounds like Lego plates or comic covers, as well as acrylic shelves. They’re also relatively inexpensive with a four-pack coming in at $36. The light speed variant would look great with your Star Wars figures.

That’s all for Toy Fair 2025! Let us know if there’s anything that caught your eye from our round-up and follow Boba Fett Fan Club on social to stay up to date on all of the latest Fett collectibles.

Any recent or new Star Wars fans would have a very hard time grasping Boba Fett’s history even if they read his Wookieepedia “Legends” page, and all for one major reason: the retcon of Boba Fett that occurred with “Attack of the Clones.”

Even for us older fans who struggle with remembering how the lore developed into what became “Legends” (aka Expanded Universe) and Canon, you need to time travel in a way to revisit the old stuff. And maybe those who only think of Star Wars as just being about laser swords, blasters, cute puppetry, and CGI, they might not understand why the development of the mythology — and the psychology behind the creative changes — is really at the heart of this passionate fandom.

When I first became a fan in the mid-1990s, there was still a lot of mystery to the character of Boba Fett. The character had been around since the end of the ’70s and yet no one knew where he came from or his true destiny. I was a lot more aware of the Dark Horse Comics version of the character, where Boba was a gritty bounty hunter post-“Return of the Jedi” in comic book stories that had the edge of a Judge Dredd magazine. I also knew of the novels of that time, like the “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” and “Tales of the Bounty Hunters anthologies that added to the events of the original trilogy. And of course the multimedia project of “Shadows of the Empire,” right around the time the Special Editions came about. But what I wasn’t as familiar with were the old Marvel Comics tales of Boba Fett plus Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala, and where — outside of George Lucas’ contributions to the character and armor — the roots of Mandalorian lore began there.

In Marvel Comics Star Wars #68 (first on newsstands November 16, 1982), we see Fenn Shysa in the original Mandalorian lore was a Mandalorian Protector (aka Supercommando or Imperial Shocktroopers as noted in Bantha Tracks #5 from 1979) — along with his childhood friend, Tobbi Dala — and Boba Fett, who the chief officer of the group. When Emperor Palpatine formed the Empire he ordered the government of Mandalore to send a small army of 212 Mandalorians to fight on his behalf in The Clone Wars. Details of the original Clone Wars were unclear outside of who won. When they returned to Mandalore, after the war was “won,” they were only three Mandalorians: Fenn, Dala, and Boba. The other 209 Mandalorians were all killed in action. To their disappointment their homeworld had been turned into a slave camp, where people were made slaves (to do hard labor work) and sold off to the Empire. In a blatant act of disrespect to Mandalorian culture the slave distribution center that the slave-master (Suprema, who was chosen by Palpatine himself) used was within the skeletal remains of a Mythosaur creature.

Boba Fett, disenchanted with fighting for others, went independent, leaving Mandalore behind and becoming the elite bounty hunter that first appeared on the Star Wars Holiday Special animation and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Shysa and Dala chose to stay and fight for Mandalore and, with help from Princess Leia (who had been hunting Dengar on Mandalore), they helped liberate the slaves on Mandalore — mostly due to the actions, bravery, and self sacrifice of Shysa’s friend, Tobbi Dala, who blows up the Mythosaur-sized beast.

When Dark Horse Comics started doing Star Wars comics (including having him survive the Sarlacc as seen in Dark Empire #4 in 1992), the detail of Boba Fett being an ex-Mandalorian was changed to him being an ex-Stormtrooper in Dark Empire II #2, released January 24, 1995.

Not long after that in December 1996 that was retconned and Boba Fett became an ex-Journeyman Protector Jaster Mereel, a name coined by author Daniel Keys Moran for his “Tales” stories. (See our interview with him from 2007.) The Journeyman Protector was in a way a conceptual combination of Mandalorian and Stormtrooper. They were the law on Concord Dawn and Boba broke the law by killing a superior officer. Darth Vader cut him a break though and he became the most effective bounty hunter for years.

To be fair about the inconsistency, it was consistently keeping Boba Fett mysterious. It did not really matter a whole lot then if he were a true Mandalorian, a former Stormtrooper, or a journeyman of the law. What we knew about Boba Fett was that he was an elite bounty hunter who didn’t ever show his face, didn’t like taking orders from anyone unless he is getting paid a lot, and looked great in that battle worn metallic armor. That was seemingly enough for a following and cool “Legends” stories but character evolution is a necessary evil and thus comes “Attack of the Clones.”

It was inevitable. The enigmatic Fett needed to be more than just what’s on the surface and — now written by George Lucas instead of “Legends” writers — we got a completely new child version of Boba Fett, without his armor. We also got a surrogate of sorts for what Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala were in the Marvel Comics universe with Jango Fett, yet another Boba Fett-ish character, but one with slightly more … authenticity if you will, now that Lucas was directly involved. I would love to say George Lucas read those old Marvel comics and had any of that Mandalorian lore in mind but he probably did not.

With Jango Fett he stuck with the concept that worked: Fett as a mercenary/bounty hunter/assassin type. He had someone with the potential of being the perfect soldier for the Army of the Republic, although George left room for him to be a true Mandalorian as the film first introduced Mando’a, the Mandalorian written language in the Slave I’s cockpit, although I wouldn’t expect most to notice. Since the whole concept of Mandalorians is so engrained in the armor — made famous and pioneered by Boba Fett — it was hard for George Lucas to avoid giving Clone Troopers a helmet design that borrows from the Fett/Mandalorian helmet T-visor design. It was only fitting though, considering “prototype” Boba Fett’s armor in pre-production was originally meant to be special Imperial Commando armor. That was before George Lucas and his team realized it would be too expensive to make an army of Supertroopers and settled on making the armor that of a bounty hunter. From there, we got Boba Fett, the ideas of Mandalorians, Jango Fett, and then the “clone troopers” were born.

While young armor-less Boba Fett (portrayed by Daniel Logan) did not get the immediate attention and adoration that Jeremy Bulloch’s Boba Fett did, Young Boba did provide the character with a tragic background. It humanized the character that was once considered evil — much like how Fenn Shysa attempted to humanize Fett for Leia — and he even showed off some skill like operating Slave I to shoot at a combative Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Despite Jango Fett being a villain like Boba Fett, he was written as a villain with a heart, someone who just wanted to protect his son. George Lucas gave Fett fans a new way to look at the character. Instead of fighting in the Clone Wars on Concord Dawn with other Mandalorians, Boba became a Kamino native who became victim to the Clone Wars, along with his bounty hunter father who spawned the whole clone army. According to bonus feature audio commentary from the film, George Lucas originally considered having Boba Fett as simply a clone who wasn’t the son of Jango that broke away from the army to become a bounty hunter. However, Lucas felt that if Boba saw his father die at the onset of the war fighting Jedi that it would provide Boba further motivation to hate Jedi.

Along with the changes “Attack of the Clones” made also came changes to the history of characters like Boba Fett, Fenn Shysa, and others. After Jango Fett many more Mandalorians were created in the 21st century, along with notable Clones too. Boba Fett’s Mandalorian past was erased and remade into a Mandalorian future as written in several stories Karen Traviss (see our interview with her from 2006), while Jango Fett was given a Mandalorian past in works like “Open Seasons” comic written by Haden Blackman and the “Bounty Hunter” video game written/directed by Jon Knoles. (See our interview with him from 2024.)

Later, George Lucas provided his own vision of Mandalorians within “The Clone Wars” animated series. Fast forward even more and Jon Favreau with Dave Filoni created another version of Mandalorians (“The Way”/Children of the Watch). Ironically while Boba Fett prior to “Attack of the Clones” never removed his helmet, Jango Fett from the start had no issues holding his helmet by his side, a trend that continued in “The Clone Wars” animated series and it’s follow-up series. Eventually Boba himself took on the habit (on “The Book of Boba Fett,” but only after spending time with the Tuskens; whereas characters like Din Djarin, Armorer, and Paz Vizsla represent the way Boba Fett was written prior to the invention of Jango Fett, like in “Twin Engines of Destruction” (written by Andy Mangels). And lastly, Jaster Mereel became an actual character: Jaster became the Mandalorian who adopted the Concord Dawn native Jango Fett and made him a foundling.

While some criticize “Attack of the Clones,” most of the criticism really isn’t even on the retcon of Boba Fett — but that’s something to talk about another time. Most Star Wars fans enjoy Temuera Morrison as Jango and Daniel Logan as Young Boba Fett. Over time, fans have embraced George’s revision and the influence it has had on modern works. We can only to see more of them in Star Wars in the near future.

With just a comic mini series and a ton of collectibles boosting Fett fandom this year, we hit 188,533 followers this year when counting our website’s memberships alongside our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and Threads. (That’s also not counting our effort on up-and-comer platform Bluesky and we’re still test driving Mastodon and TikTok.)

Here’s a recap of our most popular content from January 1 to today, December 31.

Facebook | Instagram | BFFC News | YouTube | Twitter

If all social platforms were awesome, we could compare all things on the same metric, but unfortunately some stats we can get with ease are based on impressions/views and others are based on likes, the latter of which of course are harder to earn. We’ve noted that alongside each data set below.

Facebook

Here are our top 10 posts based on all of the year’s content, which clocked in 458,471 engagements (which Facebook boils together as Reactions, Comments and Shares) on Facebook, where we currently have over 79,045 fans:

#10: Same energy … #BobaFett #YusufDikec #StarWars #Olympics
6,613 engagements since 8/1

#9: #StarWars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones opened in theaters 22 years ago today
8,590 engagements since 5/16

#8: “Did you miss me?” – Jango Fett … Throwback to this 2002 TV spot for the original #StarWars: Bounty Hunter game by LucasArts, which we properly upscaled to 1080p back in 2016
8,969 engagements since 8/9

#7: Happy birthday to #BobaFett fan, Hayden Christensen!
10,923 engagements since 4/19

#6: On this day in 1978, the all-white “Prototype” #BobaFett costume was given a screen test plus formal introduction
10,953 engagements since 6/28

#5: Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan doing Maori haka at the recent Osaka Comic Con in Japan
16,530 engagements since 5/8

#4: Happy #BobaFett Day! Boba Fett’s animated debut was in the “Star Wars Holiday Special,” released on this day in 1978
19,440 engagements since 11/17

#3: Happy birthday to #TheEmpireStrikesBack, released on this day 44 years ago in 1980!
25,784 engagements since 5/21

#2: Happy 22nd anniversary to the best sound effect ever – the seismic charge
28,709 engagements since 5/16

#1: “On the May 22 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, guest Patton Oswalt says Jon Favreau told him he intentionally referenced the famous Parks and Recreation filibuster scene for a moment in “”The Book of Boba Fett””
36,902 engagements since 5/26

Stats pulled from Meta Business Suite (aka business.facebook.com) > Content > Export (button at the top) > Facebook > pull every 3 months (the max they allow) and merge the data in a spreadsheet…

Instagram

Out of the 181,373 likes on our 2024 posts, here were our top 10 posts based on likes in 2024 on Instagram, which has leveled off now to 38.6k followers:

#10: Happy birthday to #TheEmpireStrikesBack, released on this day 44 years ago in 1980!
1,316 likes since 5/21

#9: After the Polynesian Spa, #BobaFett goes for a run, greets a local fan in his district
1,457 likes since 1/29

#8: Since it’s been out for over two weeks now, let’s talk about that #BobaFett cameo in #StarWarsOutlaws
1,530 likes since 9/13

#7: Mando bros #BobaFett and #DinDjarin in the season one finale of #TheBookOfBobaFett, which premiered two years ago today on Disney
1,535 likes since 2/9

#6: “Did you miss me?” – Jango Fett … Throwback to this 2002 TV spot for the original #StarWars: Bounty Hunter game by LucasArts, which we properly upscaled to 1080p back in 2016
1,632 likes since 8/9

#5: On the May 22 episode of @JimmyKimmelLive, guest @PattonOswalt says Jon Favreau told him he intentionally referenced the famous Parks and Recreation filibuster scene for a moment in “The Book of Boba Fett”
1,829 likes since 5/26

#4: For Valentine’s Day today, share one thing you love about #BobaFett
1,841 likes since 2/14

#3: RIP James Earl Jones, the original trilogy voice for Darth Vader
1,858 likes since 9/9

#2: @Tem_Morrison and @InstaDanielLogan doing Maori haka at the recent Osaka Comic Con in Japan
2,218 likes since 5/9

#1: Happy #BobaFett Day! … Boba Fett’s animated debut was in the “Star Wars Holiday Special,” released on this day in 1978
3,026 likes since 11/17

Stats pulled from topnine.co for the top 9 and/or use this to get the 10th or more: Meta Business Suite (aka business.facebook.com) > Content > Export (button at the top) > Instagram > pull every 3 months (the max they allow) and merge the data in a spreadsheet…

BFFC News

Our News section has added more contributors and variety of contributions. From the 26 articles we published in 2024, these articles caught the most views.

#10: Review: “Star Wars: Jango Fett #2”
236 unique views since 4/30, written by Gustavo Perez

#9: Review: “Star Wars Insider Presents: The Mandalorian Collection”
269 unique views since 2/18, written by Gustavo Perez

#8: SDCC 2024: Guide for Boba Fett Fans
277 unique views since 7/17, written by Aaron Proctor

#7: Why “The Book of Boba Fett” Needs a Revision – And a Renewal
320 unique views since 10/24, written by Mosh Babilonia

#6: Exclusive Interview with Boba Fett Stuntman Eyad Elbitar
377 unique views since 3/26, written by Chelsey B. Coombs

#5: 2024 Black Friday / Cyber Monday Star Wars Sales Featuring Boba Fett
605 unique views since 11/22, written by Aaron Proctor

#4: What Fans Can Find in “Star Wars Outlaws”
612 unique views since 8/26, written by Aaron Proctor

#3: Review: “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter” Enhanced Edition
636 unique views since 8/5, written by Gustavo Perez

#2: Star Wars Day 2024: Guide for Boba Fett Fans
721 unique views since 5/2, written by Aaron Proctor

#1: What Temuera Morrison Actually Said at Fan Expo Chicago 2024
2,671 unique views since 8/19, written by Aaron Proctor

Stats pulled from our Google Analytics (GA4), using Engagement > Pages and screens > filtering by /news/, and then remove any non-2024 matches.

YouTube

We just hit 7,650 subscribers now on YouTube, which has 192 videos now.

#10: SDCC 2024: Day 3
141 views since 7/28, by Chelsey B. Coombs and Aaron Proctor

#9: SDCC 2024: Day 4
158 views since 7/28, by Chelsey B. Coombs and Aaron Proctor

#8: SDCC 2024: Day 2
180 views since 7/26, by Chelsey B. Coombs and Aaron Proctor

#7: 10 Years of Daily Fett
190 views since 3/11

#6: SDCC 2024: Day 1
215 unique views since 7/25, by Chelsey B. Coombs and Aaron Proctor

#5: SDCC 2024: Our Exclusive Interview with Hasbro
222 unique views since 7/31, by Chelsey B. Coombs and Aaron Proctor

#4: Tribute to Boba Fett Stuntman Bob Yerkes
246 views since 10/2

#3: The Book of Boba Fett: Special Edition (Teaser Trailer)
430 views since 4/1 (April Fool’s Day)

#2: Review: “The Vintage Collection” Deluxe Jango Fett from “Attack of the Clones”
1,025 views since 6/12, by Chelsey B. Coombs

#1: How Patton Oswalt Influenced “The Book of Boba Fett”
11,180 views since 5/29

Twitter

Since Elon blocked the free access to analytics.twitter.com, we can no longer report on our “best of” here.

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What were your highlights in BFFC coverage this year? Let us know in the comments so we can do more of that — as you wish.

Curious what made the cut in prior years? See 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020. (Our news coverage also goes all the way back to 1998.)

Here’s our 11th annual Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale breakdown, focusing on Boba Fett and friends.

Shopping for yourself or a friend/fan/lover? This round-up can help. We also have a separate holiday guide and holiday ornaments list.

Updates: Disney Store, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Acme Archives, Star Wars Outlaws, Regal Robot

Jump to: Toys and Figures | Video Games | Print | Apparel and Accessories | Books | Other

Toys and Figures

Amazon

Monopoly Boba Fett Edition
2021

Up to 50% off select products between 11/15 and 12/2 on their site. Jazwares Micro Galaxy Squadron vehicles are also discounted up to 30% between 11/21 and 12/2. There are also several Boba Fett items:

• Funko Pop! Comic Cover: Star Wars – Boba Fett
• Hasbro Gaming Monopoly: Star Wars Boba Fett Edition Board
• STAR WARS The Vintage Collection Boba Fett (Tusken)
• Funko Something Wild! Star Wars with Boba Fett Pocket Pop! Card Game

Skip the bootleg “Tensegrity” set which isn’t the official LEGO.

Entertainment Earth

Black Series "Prototype Armor" Boba Fett Electronic Helmet
2020

Several sales happening on their website, including 30% off the recently re-released Hasbro Black Series Electronic Boba Fett Helmet (Prototype). At checkout through our link, you’ll also see another 10% get taken off the top too, so 40% off.

Target

Funko POP! #537: Boba Fett Mega Sized POP
2022

Select sales on their website. Most of the Fett items on sale are t-shirts — and a little bit off the giant 18″ Funko Boba Fett.

Hot Topic

Star Wars Villainous Scum and Villainy
2023

Get up to 60% off on select items on their website between 11/22 and 11/30. Fett items on sale include Star Wars Villainous: Scum And Villainy Board Game.

Sideshow Collectibles

Hot Toys 1/6 Scale Boba Fett ("The Mandalorian")
2021

Get a select up-to-$300 figure free after a qualifying in-stock purchase on their website. One deal included their Jango Fett Sixth Scale Figure and Boba Fett (Deluxe Version) Sixth Scale Figure Set (also on sale individually). See all Fett items currently on sale.

Sideshow also has a deal for a free figure if you already are doing a $300+ purchase on their site. As of 11/26, the 2-pack Hot Toys Boba Fett set is offered up as the freebie, for example.

Hasbro Pulse

The Vintage Collection Boba Fett's Throne Room
2023

If you’re a Hasbro Pulse member, use code CYBER35 for 35% off on their website between 11/25 and 12/4. If not a member, use code CYBER25 for 25% off.

Fett wise, they have their recently re-released Black Series Electronic Boba Fett helmet, The Vintage Collection Boba Fett’s Throne Room, Retro Collection Episode II & Episode III Multipack, and more.

Gentle Giant

They have several kinds of sales on their website. If you’re in their Premier Guild, your sale begins 11/22 at 12am Eastern and ends 11/26 at 11:59pm Eastern. If you’re not a member, the sale begins 11/27 at 12am Eastern and ends 12/2 at 11:59pm Eastern.

Disney Store

Power Force Boba Fett Talking Action Figure
2022

Their 10″ scale “Power Force” Boba Fett Talking Action Figure is on sale ($22.99) plus you can also use code GIFT for 25% off to get the total down to $16.50 on their website. (The previous code MICKEY no longer works.)

Video Games

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
2023

The game, which includes a Boba Fett scene, is on sale at multiple retailers for Black Friday:

• PS5: 65% off on Playstation Store
• PS4: 60% off on Amazon, 50% off on Playstation Store
• Xbox One: 60% off on Amazon

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws
2024

The game, which has a Boba Fett cameo, is also on sale specifically for Black Friday:

• PS5: Amazon
• PS5 Gold: Amazon
• Xbox Series X: Amazon

Print

Acme Archives

Get 25% off starting 11/27 on their website. Ends 12/2 @ 11:59pm (time zone not specified, but likely Pacific or Eastern). The deal includes their re-release of Bounty Hunters by Ralph McQuarrie that’s slightly smaller, cheaper, and has a larger edition size than the 2018 one.

Star Wars Insider Magazine

Get 40% off by subscribing to the official Star Wars magazine on their new subscriber form between 11/15 and 12/3. That ends up being 6 issues for just $34.99, saving you over $24. Fett appears in a handful of issues in any given year.

Apparel and Accessories

Cotton Bureau

Our “BFFC” shirts for charity get free shipping with code EXTRAGRAVY on our shop site. Ends Monday 12/2 at midnight (time zone unknown but likely Pacific or Eastern). If you pick up one, shoot us a pic to be included on the fan photos wall!

BoxLunch

Get 30% off on their website, but get an additional 25% off in store 11/29 to 12/1. The deal includes their newer Boba Fett Icons Woven Button-Up, which is also sold at Her Universe.

Loungefly

Up to 70% off on their website starting 11/22. Boba Fett appears on the Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi Jabba’s Palace Mini Backpack.

Her Universe

Get up to 60% off select styles on their site between 11/19 9pm Pacific and 11/22.

Denuo Novo

Boba Fett / Jango Fett Jetpack Kit
2023

Their wearable jetpack is on sale on on their website: choose assembled Boba Fett or assembled Jango Fett.

Books

Abrams

The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two)
2022

Use code JEDI2024 between 11/22 and 12/5 for up to 50% off select titles on their website. Boba Fett appears in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season Two), Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie (100 Postcards), Star Wars Art: Posters (Star Wars Art Series), Star Wars Storyboards, The Moviemaking Magic of Star Wars: Ships & Battles, and more.

Chronicle Books

Star Wars Crossword Puzzles (And Other Word Games from a Galaxy Far, Far Away….)
2024

Get 35% off on their website between 11/27 and 12/1. Boba Fett appears in Star Wars Crossword Puzzles, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter Code, and others.

Insight Editions

Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers
2024

Get 40% off between 11/27 to 12/6 on their website. Fett appears in Star Wars: The Secrets of the Clone Troopers.

Things From Another World

Their bigger 50% off select items sale begins on 11/28 at 9pm Pacific / 11/29 midnight Eastern on their website. They have several sales with Fett already going too.

Other

Regal Robot

Their Black Friday sale takes up to 66% off items on their website. It unfortunately does not include their Boba Fett Prototype Armor Skull Mini Sculpture, but there are some Mythosaur items.

JoyJolt

Get 30% off select products on 11/29. Fett appears on a few items including their newer Cosmic Color stemless drinking glasses.

More

The official Star Wars site has their own list, which we combed through already to assist this list, but you might enjoy what we skipped over.

Are we missing something cool? Let us know in the comments.