STAR WARS: That Boba Fett Movie Was A Lot Closer Than We Imagined

When Disney and Lucasfilm first announced their ambitious slate of Star Wars flicks a few years back, it was revealed that they would be releasing saga films every other year, and in-between, they’d be releasing standalone spinoffs set in the Star Wars universe. The promise of saga movies were all well and good, but rather predictable. At the end of the day, the interesting draw were these spinoff films. Given that the world is an entire galaxy, the filmmakers could explore practically any time or any location to be the center of their next film. Yet, despite the expansive possibilities, the rumored stories remained relatively close to the current canon of films.

An Obi-wan film, a Boba Fett film, and a Han Solo film: these were the three most mentioned potential story springboards from fans. Sure, there were some that speculated a Seven Samurai remake with Jedi (I think we can see pieces of that idea in  Rogue One), and a few that went as far as a full bounty hunter movie, but more often than not, the ideas came back to these three. Time has passed, and in that time, we’ve confirmed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — which centers around a band of Rebels setting out to steal the Death Star plans — and the Han Solo movie — which will, of course, follow our favorite scoundrel in his early years. There is one film, however, that we never really knew too much about, and that was Josh Trank’s standalone film that he was set to direct.

Josh Trank has since gone down as infamous in the film industry. Rumors of a hostile set on Fantastic Four, a contentious relationship with 20th Century Fox, and ultimately a terrible movie to show for it, all culminated in a fall from grace for the young director that got him booted from this mysterious Star Wars film. There were rumors that it was a Boba Fett film, but there was no official confirmation from Disney or Lucasfilm. Of course, they instead focused their attention on the known entities they had on the horizon rather than their potential failures.

Now, ina recent piece from EW that delves into Lucasfilm’s plans for these spinoff films, we have our first real confirmation that Trank was, in fact, on board for a Boba Fett film. Additionally, the outlet went on to state that Lucasfilm was so close to officially announcing the project to the mainstream that they’d even prepped a teaser reel for it — a teaser reel that would have aired at 2015’s Star Wars Celebration. If you’ll recall, Trank was missing at that particular event, and it was stated that he was too sick to attend. Obviously, we now know that wasn’t the case, and with Trank now gone, the Boba Fett film was put on the backburner.

So will Lucasfilm revisit the Boba Fett idea? there’s always the possibility, but for the time being, they seem to be focusing on figuring out where to go after they’ve gone through their current slate.

Speaking with EW, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated:

“There are [possible movies] that we have been talking a lot about. But we are planning to sit down in January, since we will have had The Force Awakens released, now Rogue One, and we’ve finished shooting Episode VIII. We have enough information where we can step back a little bit and say, What are we doing? What do we feel is exciting? And what are some of the things we want to explore?” 

Call me a stick in the mud, but I think Lucasfilm can do much better than a Boba Fett film. Hopefully, with the impending success of Rogue One, they’ll gain the confidence to take things in a completely different direction — one that will interest us fans in a way we could never have imagined. No pressure, Lucasfilm.

What do you think of this revelation about the Boba Fett movie? Let us know down below!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hits theaters on December 16, 2016.

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SOURCE: EW