Starting with Rogue One next month, Disney and Lucasfilm are releasing Star Wars spinoff movies, officially titled "Anthology films," every other year to provide moviegoers standalone stories in addition to the main trilogy entries. At one point, one of those movies was supposed to be a Boba Fett adventure, but when Josh Trank exited as director, that project was put in limbo. As it turns out, Lucasfilm was further along on the Boba Fett movie than previously believed, to the point that they had an official announcement ready to go.
According to EW, Lucasfilm was preparing to announce that a Boba Fett movie was coming at 2015's Star Wars Celebration, and they even had a "teaser reel" prepared to air to the crowd. However, when Josh Trank departed, that reportedly "backburnered" the project, and there's been no public word on its progress since aside from mention of an unnamed writer being hired. Trank publicly stated he left the Boba Fett movie for "personal reasons," but there were rumblings that it was behind-the-scenes conflicts on the direction of the project that led to his departure. The Boba Fett spinoff was originally intended to be the second Star Wars Anthology film released, but now that honor belongs to the young Han Solo spinoff, which is being directed by 21 Jump Street duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
Given how Josh Trank's last big blockbuster movie, last year's Fantastic Four reboot, bombed both critically and commercially at the box office, no doubt many Star Wars fans were pleased that he didn't direct the Boba Fett movie as originally planned. Sure it may have thrown a wrench into the works in 2015 and ruined Lucasfilm's big presentation plan, but in hindsight, it was for the best. Now that Han Solo has snagged the 2018 release date, the soonest a Boba Fett adventure could be released is in 2020, but even then there's no guarantee it will see the light of day.
For now, Boba Fett is one of several subjects being considered for the third Star Wars Anthology film. Fans have also expressed interest in seeing Ewan McGregor reprise Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Lucasfilm is waiting to see how Rogue One performs before moving forward on deciding what that movie will be about. As far as Boba Fett goes, rather than take place after Return of the Jedi when he's freed himself from the Sarlacc Pit (just like he did in the pre-2014 Expanded Universe novels), it had been reported in 2013 that the spinoff would center on the bounty hunter sometime during the Original Trilogy before his untimely defeat on Tatooine. With Josh Trank's exit and a new writer on board, it remains to be seen whether that will still be the case if this story is green-lit.
It may be a while until we receive official news on the Boba Fett spinoff's development one way or the other, but let us know what you'd like to see from such a movie in the comments below.
