Sorry, Boba Fett fans, but that rumored Star Wars solo movie looks like it’s not going to happen.
Just five months after Logan filmmaker James Mangold was attached to direct a solo feature focusing on the sci-fi saga’s popular bounty hunter, that project now appears to have been dropped from the studio’s plans.
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy reportedly told a Critics Choice journalist that the Boba Fett movie was off the studio’s calendar, with the focus now on Jon Favreau’s live-action series The Mandalorian. That series will follow a character sporting armor similar to Fett’s iconic suit, and is being developed for Disney’s upcoming streaming video service.
Kathleen Kennedy just confirmed to me Boba Fett movie is 100% dead, 100% focusing on THE MANDALORIAN #StarWars
— Erick 𝕄𝕄𝕋 Weber 🎥 (@ErickWeber) October 26, 2018
Plans for a Boba Fett spinoff movie were initially reported back in May 2015, and the film was expected to be the next solo feature in the studio’s “anthology” series after Solo: A Star Wars Story. Mangold was attached to direct the film three years later, in an announcement made just as Solo was about to hit theaters. The poor performance of Solo — which reportedly cost more than $300 million to bring to the screen, and earned just $392 million worldwide — prompted the studio to reevaluate its plans.
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In the original Star Wars trilogy, actor Jeremy Bulloch portrayed Boba Fett, the bounty hunter clad in Mandalorian battle armor who was tasked with apprehending Han Solo for Jabba the Hutt. The three-part prequel series then explored Boba’s early days, and revealed that he was a clone of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, who raised Boba as his son. In a climactic scene from Attack of the Clones, Boba witnesses Jango’s death (via lightsaber) at the hands of Jedi master Mace Windu.
Boba Fett has appeared in four films in the series so far (including an appearance added to the “Special Edition” cut of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), and also played a featured role in the animated, canonical series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
The next film in the Star Wars franchise to hit theaters will be the still-untitled Star Wars: Episode IX on December 20, 2019. That film brings back Episode VII – The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, and will conclude the latest trilogy of episodic installments of the Star Wars franchise.
Updated on October 29, 2018: Added a report that the Boba Fett movie won’t happen.
