Boba Fett was popular before the prequels and before the controversy of whether or not he survived the Sarlaac pit, which a lot of fans believe he did. Much of the famed bounty hunter’s story is canon at this time since there’s no real way to just eliminate the prequels as some people still want to do, but anything past Return of the Jedi is at this point being called out as non-canon since it belongs to the expanded universe, or legends canon. If anyone’s read the many stories that have come from the EU it’s actually kind of interesting since not only did Fett survive and escape, but he went on to fight alongside the rest of the galaxy in the final days of the Yuuzhan Vong war that changed the landscape of Star Wars in a huge way in the EU. It’s amusing how so many people will stand up and say that the EU is disjointed and lacks continuity, but really the stories make better use of the core material than what we’ve seen so far and they tend to be a lot more entertaining than what’s been given at this point. But oh well, what do fans know, right?
Anyway, Boba Fett is one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the entire Star Wars universe for a reason and it’s because he’s one of the few that knows how to take down a Jedi, which isn’t an easy thing to do since those that have tried have often lost limbs or much more. Of course his chances of taking down the Jedi were curtailed thanks to Order 66 and afterwards he had nothing but regular bounties to go after. Still, he’s been seen to take on some of the toughest and most challenging assignments and manage to come away the victor namely because he’s one of the toughest and one of the most ruthless when it comes to the trade. The story of how he came to be is kind of hard to swallow since it means he’s a clone and has always been a clone. Until Attack of the Clones came around his origins were usually kind of hard to pin down since it was aid that he was at one point a journeyman named Jaster Mereel, though this would eventually be attributed to his father Jango as well. It’s even been said that Jango and Boba aren’t real Mandalorians but only wear the armor, though trying to verify this is bound to cause an argument that could on for a while. Eliana Docktermann of Time explained this in more detail.
The main point of Boba Fett’s story is that he’s a terror to those that are on the run and a legend to those that have heard about him. His defeat in Return of the Jedi was kind of hard to take since he was supposed to be a top of the line bounty hunter that knew how to fight and could take down a Jedi. Unfortunately the moment that he took on Luke Skywalker was almost a ‘like father, like son’ experience. Instead of losing his head as Jango did to Mace Windu though, Boba lost his weapon and eventually was knocked into the Sarlaac pit by a half-blind Han Solo out of pure, dumb luck that Solo was seen to have in abundance back in the day. This however is where canon tends to end, despite the rumor that many Fett fans want to believe that the bounty hunter could make an appearance in The Mandalorian. In episode five it is noted that a stranger, who we don’t get to see, makes their way over to the fallen bounty that Mando was helping with, and that there are a few striking similarities to Fett that are hard to deny. Who knows though, it could be an entirely different character, or it could be that Jon Favreau is just setting us up for a reveal that will shock a lot of people when the time comes. All that is known is the fact that Fett’s legend isn’t in any danger of fading away since he’s still one of the most well-liked characters in the Star Wars franchise.
It’s a big hope that Disney will see fit to include him and not change the character too drastically since people might actually become genuinely upset if Fett is changed around too much. The fan reaction to Luke Skywalker being turned into a crazy old hermit was bad enough, just think about what might happen if Boba Fett was changed to a degree that people could no longer recognize him. It might be time to do a little more cherry-picking when it comes to how Disney has been rounding out the current canon, as the EU has been giving up a lot of great opportunities that have been used in one way or another. Andrew Todd of SlashFilm had more to say about this.
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