The Star Wars universe is admittedly fascinating. There’s a certain amount of sense in expanding it, filling it with new stories. It’s also hard for any Star Wars flick to tank at the box office.
However, the newest standalone, Solo: A Star Wars Story, is set to have the worst opening at the box office of any Star Wars movie—though it’ll still be huge compared to anything else. And Thursday we learned a Boba Fett standalone is on its way, for some reason.
The Boba Fett movie is coming from the mind of James Mangold, who wrote and directed Logan. That gritty, R-rated take on a beloved Marvel character did well at the box office and earned fantastic reviews, so Mangold knows what he’s doing.
Still… Boba Fett?
The helmeted bounty hunter had a ridiculous introduction into the Star Wars storyline, first appearing in the legendarily stupid Star Wars Holiday Special—a TV movie Mark Hamill once said was “was a mistake from the beginning.” Though Hamill also admitted Fett’s introduction in the special made it “significant.”
The character then appeared in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and some of his back story was revealed in one of the hated prequels, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. He’s gone on to become a cult figure after appearing in numerous stories in animated Star Wars—related TV shows, books, and cartoons.
Even acknowledging the minor character’s cult status (there have been rumors of a Fett movie for 4-5 years) and the fact James Mangold is a gifted writer-director, it’s hard to not ask why?
Members of the Fett Cult will certainly show up for this film, but they’re not a significant chunk of the huge Star Wars fandom. And if Solo doesn’t turn out massive numbers, won’t that indicate that maybe we could do without a flurry of these extra tales from a galaxy far, far away?
Probably not.
And we’ll still be sitting in the theater when it premieres anyway, because pointless story or not, Boba does have the coolest armor and weapons in any of the movies.
[THR]