Now, after decades’ worth of books, games, toys and other merchandise helped keep the Boba Fett cult alive, the character will be the protagonist of his own “Star Wars” tale.
After the runaway success of “Star Wars” in 1977, its writer and director, George Lucas, began preparing for a sequel.
Johnston, who later directed films like “Jumanji” and “Captain America: The First Avenger,” said that Lucas scaled back his plans over budgetary concerns.
At Lucas’s direction, Johnston fine-tuned the new character, taking inspiration from the nameless stranger played by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns.
A promotional offer aimed at collectors of “Star Wars” toys allowed them to send away for a Boba Fett action figure before he appeared in the movies.
That interaction alone was enough to stoke the imaginations of many “Star Wars” viewers.
In “Return of the Jedi,” a temporarily blinded Solo accidentally triggered Fett’s jetpack, sending the bounty hunter crashing into the side of a barge and then into the waiting mouth of a Sarlacc monster.
“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,” he said.
The studio’s initial efforts to create a Boba Fett movie did not come to fruition.
“I would never have had an actor underneath where he takes the helmet off and you see who it is.
