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Everything was going swimmingly for the revived Star Wars franchise – that is until the paltry performance of the first Star Wars standalone movie, Solo: A Star Wars Story.
In the aftermath of its failure, it has been confirmed that another project lined up has been cancelled. Premiere bounty hunter, Boba Fett, would no longer get his own full length feature as confirmed by Erick Web, an insider with direct connections to Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy:
“Kathleen Kennedy just confirmed to me Boba Fett movie is 100% dead, 100% focusing on The Mandalorian. #Star Wars” read Web’s tweet regarding the standalone film.
With the project dead, details about what the movie could have been has since surfaced. According to a report by Entertainment Weekly, the film was slated to feature not only the beloved bounty hunter, Boba Fett, but the rest of his gang as well. The article explains that the cancelled movie would have followed the adventures of Fett and the ragtag team that was seen with the masked hero in Empire Strikes Back.
The Boba Fett movie has been in developmental purgatory for a number of years. In 2015, Josh Trank, the director of the most recent iteration of Fantastic Four, was rumored to have been tapped to direct the movie. Unfortunately, Fantastic Four was a bomb and Trank was dropped from the list.
More recently, the original Boba Fett, Jeremy Bulloch, was asked in an interview whether or not he would be interested in appearing in a standalone movie. He wasn’t in on the plans. He was just happy to have been part of the franchise:
“I could play a baby Boba Fett! Maybe not *laughs* Rumour goes around. I’ve finished my bits in the films, thrilled to bits and I loved it. My grandchildren think I’m funny and it’s part of your life you never forget. Everyone comes up to me saying, he’s not dead, he’s still alive. If he is, then that’s great, if he isn’t then it doesn’t matter.”
Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars in 2012 – much to the trepidation and worry of long-time Star Wars fans. Nevertheless, the production company has done a great job resurrecting the Skywalkers and the rest of crew from a galaxy far, far, away. The first three Star Wars movies, A Force Awakens, Rogue One, and The Last Jedi, produced by them did well in the box-office – grossing over $4 billion worldwide.
Unfortunately, no one can say the same for Solo: A Star Wars Story. On a budget of $300 million, the first standalone movie made only $392 million. It doesn’t help that the movie was dragged by critics as well. Critics lambast the fact that the movie didn’t give justice to the character people have come to know and love.
For now, Disney is focused on developing the television series, The Mandalorian. According to reports, Iron Man’s Jon Favreau has been chosen to direct the series. At this point, no release date has been confirmed for the show.
