Ever since more Star Wars movies were first announced, there has been a storm of speculation about what characters could return. This only intensified when we learned about the standalone Star Wars Story movies that will a look at that far, far away galaxy outside of the main Episode narrative. One character in particular that has been discussed at great length is fan favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett. He’ll reportedly get his own standalone movie, but there have been rumors he could show up elsewhere as well. A new picture that just hit the airwaves that could indicate that we’ll see him sooner rather than later, perhaps even in Star Wars: Rogue One later this year.
Toys have often provided spoilers about upcoming movies, especially in the Star Wars universe—that’s where we first learned about Tasu Leech in The Force Awakens, among others. This weekend there’s a toy fair going on in Nuremberg, Germany. We already saw some cool new looks at a few costumes from the film, but a new image of the upcoming Rogue One LEGO set shows something very interesting: Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1.
Granted, this doesn’t prove anything concretely, but it’s interesting to consider.
Sure, the paint job appears to be a bit different, but Slave 1 has been around for a while. It originally belonged to Boba Fett’s father (or clone DNA donor), Jango Fett, who stole it (you can see this in the video game Star Wars: Bounty Hunter), and they have both made substantial modifications to it over the years. Stands to reason it could have acquired a new coat of paint somewhere along the line, especially to disguise it.
It could be purely coincidental and just be another ship of the same make. That’s certainly possible. However, Slave 1 is Kurat Systems Engineering Firespray-class interceptor, which is an out-of-date craft. Basically, there aren’t many of these bad boys kicking around out there, and it would be a huge coincidence for one to just randomly show up in Rogue One.
It’s also possible someone else flies Slave 1 in Star Wars: Rogue One. As we saw in with the Millennium Falcon in The Force Awakens, there’s a criminal element out there in the galaxy, and sometimes ships get stolen. And Boba Fett certainly doesn’t run with the most law-abiding crowd. Rogue One is set between the events of the prequels in the original trilogy, just before A New Hope, and that leaves plenty of time for him to lose his ship and get it back before we see it in The Empire Strikes Back. Pity the fool who stole Boba Fett’s ship.
There have also been rumors that Felicity Jones’s character, possibly named Lyra Erso, is Boba Fett’s daughter. That speculation has largely been supplanted by claims that she’s Mads Mikkelsen’s daughter, but it’s something that’s out there. Perhaps she takes dear old dad’s ship out for a joyride. We’ve all done that.
Again, none of this proves anything. It wouldn’t be the first time a toy line for a movie includes something that isn’t actually in the film. That happens. But with the timeline, the persistent rumors that the plot involves bounty hunters, and now this, I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see Boba Fett show up in Rogue One. The plot revolves around the theft of the plans for the first Death Star, so it’s easy to envision a situation where Darth Vader or someone dispatches a gang of bounty hunters to get them back. We’ve seen Vader lean on their services elsewhere.
However this shakes out, we likely won’t find out until Star Wars: Rogue One opens on December 16.
