Boba Fett

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This article is about fictional character. For the Swedish pianist and guitarist Anders "Boba Fett" Lindström, see Anders Lindström.
Boba Fett
Boba Fet.jpg

A Boba Fett costume at the parade at DragonCon 2006
Position Bounty hunter
Species Human
Gender Male
Affiliation Mandalorians, Confederacy of Independent Systems, Galactic Empire
Portrayed by Daniel Logan (Episode II)
Mark Austin (Episode IV)
Jeremy Bulloch (Episodes V and VI)
Jason Wingreen (voice in V)
Temuera Morrison (voice in V DVD)
Don Bies (Episode VI SE)
Nelson Hall (Episode VI SE)
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Boba Fett is a character in the Star Wars fictional universe. A bounty hunter hired by Darth Vader to track down the Millennium Falcon, he is the "next major villain" after Vader in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980).[1] Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) establishes Boba Fett's back story as a clone of Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), a bounty hunter who raises Boba as a son. The Star Wars Expanded Universe expands on Fett's origins and career as a bounty hunter. Fett, the personification of "danger and mystery",[2] is a "cult figure"[3] and "one of the most popular characters in the entire Star Wars galaxy".[4]

Contents

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Promotional

Fett first appeared at the September 24, 1978, San Anselmo Country Fair parade.[5] The character appeared on television several weeks later, animated by Nelvana Studios for The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) as a mysterious figure who betrays Luke Skywalker (voiced by Mark Hamill), Chewbacca, C-3PO (voiced by Anthony Daniels), and R2-D2.[6][5] The character appears in Marvel Comics' Star Wars series.

[edit] Films

Boba Fett makes his first film appearance in the revised re-release "Special Edition" version of A New Hope, where he appears briefly outside the Millenium Falcon with Jabba the Hutt. He is then shown more extensively in The Empire Strikes Back, where, Hired by Darth Vader (James Earl Jones/David Prowse), he tracks the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City, where Vader captures its passengers and tortures its captain, Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Fett, who wants to collect a bounty on Solo from Jabba the Hutt, confronts Vader about whether Solo will survive. Vader's decision not to elevate the confrontation marks the only time a character other than Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) makes Vader "quail".[7]

Fett is at Jabba's palace in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983) when Solo's rescuers are captured, and he travels on Jabba's sail barge to the Sarlacc pit where they are to be executed. He attempts to intervene when the prisoners mount an escape, but Solo accidentally activates Fett's rocket pack, sending the bounty hunter crashing head-first into Jabba's ship, after which he tumbles into the sarlacc's mouth, in which he supposedly dies [6].

In Attack of the Clones, Boba Fett is a child clone of bounty hunter Jango Fett, who is raising Boba as a son. Boba helps the bounty hunter escape from Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and witnesses Jango's decapitation by Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson).

[edit] Expanded Universe

Boba Fett appears extensively in the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" of novels, comic books, and video games. The young adult Boba Fett book series released after Episode II depicts Fett taking his father's ship and armor to begin his own career bounty hunting. Some Expanded Universe stories released before Attack of the Clones depict other accounts of Fett's origins. These stories include him being a stormtrooper who killed his commanding officer; a leader of the fabled Mandalorian warriors; and Jaster Mereel, a "Journeyman Protector" convicted of treason.[6] Karen Traviss' novel Bloodlines (2006), published four years after Attack of the Clones' release, states that Fett seeded some of these "false" backstories himself.

Expanded Universe works such as Dark Horse Comics' Dark Empire series (1991–1992) describe Fett escaping from the sarlacc,[6] as do K. W. Jeter's The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy (1998–1999) and Kevin J. Anderson's Tales From Jabba's Palace anthology (1995). Video games and books depict Fett's work as a bounty hunter, for which he charges "famously expensive" fees and that he undertakes only when the mission meets "his harsh sense of justice".[8] Fett plays a prominent role in the Legacy of the Force series, with Jaina Solo appealing for his training to help her defeat her corrupted brother Jacen.

[edit] Concept and development

Boba Fett stems from initial concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter.[6] While Vader became less a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character.[1] Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized by and is credited to Joe Johnston.[9] Screentested in all-white armor, Fett eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black.[1] The character's armor was designed to appear to have been scavenged from multiple sources, and it is adorned with trophies.[1] A description of the character's armor in the summer 1979 Bantha Tracks newsletter catalyzed "rampant speculation" about the character's mysterious origins.[2]

After his image and identity were revealed in The Star Wars Holiday Special, costumed Fett characters appeared in shopping malls and special events, putting up "Wanted" posters of the character to identify him as distinct from the franchise's Imperial characters.[2] Despite two years of widespread publicity about Fett's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, script rewrites significantly reduced the character's presence in the film.[2] However, this may have made the character seem more intriguing.[2] Fett has a "distinctive" theme, composed by John Williams, that is "not music, exactly" ... but "more of a gurgly, viola-and-bassoon thing aurally cross-pollinated with some obscure static sounds".[7] Star Wars creator George Lucas considered adding a shot of Fett escaping the Sarlaac in Return of the Jedi, but decided against it because it would have detracted from the story's focus.[10] Lucas also said that, had he known Fett would be so popular, he would have made the character's supposed death "more exciting".[10] Lucas at one point considered having Vader and Fett be brothers in the prequel films, but discounted it as too "hokey".[3]

[edit] Portrayals

Fett is played by Jeremy Bulloch in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, although Jason Wingreen provided his voice in The Empire Strikes Back. George Buza voiced Fett in the Star Wars: Droids episode "Race to the Finish" (1985). His brief appearance in the special edition of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1997) was performed by Industrial Light & Magic creature animator Mark Austin; Fett's appearance in the special edition footage of Return of the Jedi was performed by Don Bies and Nelson Hall. Daniel Logan portrayed Fett as a child in Attack of the Clones. For the 2004 DVD release of The Empire Strikes Back, Wingreen's voice was replaced by Temuera Morrison's. Morrison and other actors have also voiced Fett for several Star Wars video games.

[edit] Critical reaction

Susan Mayse calls Fett "the unknowable Star Wars character" who "delivers mythic presence."[11] Although Tom Bissell asserts that no one knows why Boba Fett has become so popular, nor cares why,[7] both Lucas and Bulloch cite Fett's mysterious nature as reasons for his popularity.[3] Bissell adds that Boba Fett, along with other minor characters like Darth Maul and Kyle Katarn, appeals to adolescent boys' "images of themselves: essentially bad-ass but ... honorable about it".[7] This tension and the absence of a clear "evil nature" (distinct from evil actions) offer Fett dramatic appeal.[7] Furthermore, Fett "is cool because he was designed to be cool", presenting a "wicked ambiguity" akin to Iago and John Milton's portrayal of Satan in Paradise Lost.[7] Bissell compares Fett to Beowulf, Ahab, and Huckleberry Finn: characters "too big" for their original presentation, and apt for "addition, subtraction, clarification" in other stories.[7] In developing the character, Lucas "closed down" some of these avenues while opening others.[12] Bissell credits Bulloch for giving Fett "effortless authority" in his first scene in The Empire Strikes Back, using such nuances as "cradling" — rather than "holding" — his blaster and slightly cocking his head.[7]

The San Francisco Chronicle described Boba Fett fans as "among the most passionate".[9] In his text exploring Star Wars fandom, Will Brooker calls "superb" a fan's campaign to have Boba Fett unmasked as a woman.[13]

[edit] Merchandising

Fett was the first new, mail-away action figure created for The Empire Strikes Back;[6][7] although advertised as having a rocket-firing backpack, safety concerns led to the figure being sold with his rocket attached.[6] Fett is one of the top five best-selling Star Wars action figures, and Hallmark has created a Boba Fett Christmas tree ornament.[3] Boba Fett-related products are "among the most expensive" Star Wars merchandise .[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Vilmur, Pete (2006-10-19). "Proto-Fett: The Birth of Boba". Lucasfilm. pp. 2. http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/bts/article/f20061019/index.html?page=2. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  2. ^ a b c d e Vilmur, Pete (2006-10-19). "Proto-Fett: The Birth of Boba". Lucasfilm. pp. 3. http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/bts/article/f20061019/index.html?page=3. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  3. ^ a b c d Pollock, Dale (1999). Skywalking: The life and films of George Lucas. Da Capo Press. pp. 287. ISBN 9780306809040. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZC2c40Bw-L4C&pg=PA287. 
  4. ^ Montandon, Mac (2008). Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was. pp. 55. ISBN 9780306815287. http://books.google.com/books?id=cSNgPMJ1p3IC&pg=PA54. 
  5. ^ a b Vilmur, Pete (2006-10-19). "Proto-Fett: The Birth of Boba". Lucasfilm. pp. 1. http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/bts/article/f20061019/index.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g "Fett, Boba". Databank. Lucasfilm. http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/bobafett/. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bissell, Tom (2002). Glenn Kenny. ed. Pale Starship, Pale Rider: The Ambiguous Appeal of Boba Fett. A galaxy not so far away: writers and artists on twenty-five years of Star Wars. Macmillan. pp. 10–40. ISBN 9780805070743. http://books.google.com/books?id=grAvkJhyz30C&pg=PA10. 
  8. ^ Reynolds, David West; James Luceno (2006-09-25). Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary - The Ultimate Guide to Characters and Creatures from the Entire Star Wars Saga. Ryder Windham. DK Children. ISBN 978-0756622381. 
  9. ^ a b c Hartlaub, Peter (2005-05-14). "Forget Anakin -- for die-hard 'Star Wars' fans, Boba Fett rules". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/14/DDG94CO3CN1.DTL&hw=fett&sn=001&sc=1000. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  10. ^ a b Return of the Jedi DVD audio commentary
  11. ^ Mayse, Susan (2000-06-08). "The Tao of Boba Fett". Space.com. http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/movies/boba_fett_tao_000608.html. Retrieved 2009-05-04. 
  12. ^ Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence culture: where old and new media collide. NYU Press. pp. 115. ISBN 9780814742815. http://books.google.com/books?id=RlRVNikT06YC&pg=RA1-PA15. 
  13. ^ Brooker, Will (2002). Using the force: creativity, community, and Star Wars fans. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 204. ISBN 9780826452870. http://books.google.com/books?id=80kB6JG1PVsC&pg=PA202. 

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