The Real Reason We Didn't See Boba Fett In Solo: A Star Wars Story

Out of all the "Star Wars" movies to come out over the years, 2018's "Solo: A Star Wars Story" served as one of the best opportunities to explore the character of Boba Fett more on the big screen. But, for some reason, Lucasfilm chose to leave the iconic bounty hunter frozen in cinematic carbonite. Now, thanks to a recent interview with "Solo" co-writer Jonathan Kasdan and others close to Fett, we finally know why.

"With Boba Fett, less is more," explained Pete Vilmur, head of fan relations at Lucasfilm, to The New York Times for a recent Boba Fett-focused feature. "Things are hidden and unknown. We fill in the shadows with our own ideas of who he might be and what he's capable of."

The character of Boba Fett, while super popular, has always been shrouded in mystery. It's this mystique that has also allowed him to become one of the biggest names in the "Star Wars" franchise, despite uttering just four lines of dialogue in "Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi." Boba later appears as a younger version of himself (played by Daniel Logan) in "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones" and then again in the animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" before eventually making his way onto Disney's "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett," with Temuera Morrison taking over the character.

With "Solo" taking place between "Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope," the movie could have easily featured a younger Fett in some capacity. According to Kasdan, the "Solo" creative team would have liked to, but Lucasfilm and Disney felt differently. 

As the character of Boba Fett became more and more popular over the years with newer generations of "Star Wars" fans, Lucasfilm apparently decided to put the kibosh on major cameo appearances in hopes of saving the galaxy's most notorious bounty hunter for future standalone projects.

"Boba was always off-limits because he was in development elsewhere," said "Solo" co-writer Jonathan Kasdan while speaking to The New York Times. According to him and other "Star Wars" content artists, Lucasfilm wanted to hold the studio's Fett cards close to their creative chest for years on account of all the room they had to grow the character. The intent was to save Boba for something much bigger. 

In 2018, Variety reported that Disney was developing "A Star Wars Story" anthology film about the character to be helmed by "Logan" director James Mangold. As we now know, the plans were eventually scrapped, per an October 2018 tweet from Awards Ace editor-in-chief Erick Weber, as well as an abysmal box office showing from "Solo." Instead, the Mickey Mouse company chose to take the character to the small screen. After subtle teases in "The Mandalorian" Season 1, Temuera Morrison's Fett made a full-blown appearance in Season 2 and is now starring in his own series, "The Book of Boba Fett."

"There are characters who we have seen a lot of, and it's hard to find the places where there's much capital still left," explained Charles Soule, author of the current "Star Wars" comic book series, to the New York Times. "Then there are characters whose bank accounts haven't been drawn down very much. There's a lot of capital left in Boba Fett's account."