I feel like we all knew this was coming, and if it wasn’t ever made official when it was originally Josh Trank’s project before he left, it sure is official now thanks to yesterday’s article from The Hollywood Reporter. Yes, it will be a thing, and it will be co-written and directed by (assuming no one gets replaced this time around) James Mangold!
On one hand, sure, Boba Fett is hardly a character. He never did anything particularly cool on screen, and he got killed by complete accident by Han while he was blind. Yeah, not a lot of material to mine here, and the fandom behind his character is a bit baffling.
Plus, this is yet another example of the folks at Lucasfilm, or rather specifically Kathleen Kennedy seemingly going out of her way to not hire a director who isn’t a white dude. It’s absurd that we’ve gone this far, and not one of these movies have been helmed by a woman or person of color.
But on the other hand, I do really like James Mangold, not just for the fanboy favorite, Logan, but also stuff like Girl, Interrupted, or Copland, which is one of my favorites, or Kate & Leopold, Knight And Day, both of which are pretty fun, or his incredible remake of 3:10 To Yuma. Granted, I probably would’ve rather see him do that Obi-Wan spin-off that Lucasfilm is apparently working on, but this is cool too. I’m assuming he has some angle that he really believes in, and if he wants to do it, then I want him to go for it.
It was also stated in an update on the article that Simon Kinberg is co-writing and producing the film, which was also the case when Josh Trank was the guy behind this. Granted, there wasn’t much more detail to that bit, so there’s also the possibility that Mangold is simply reworking the previous script, or maybe they’re actively working together on it, we don’t know yet. I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
The big question surrounding the whole conversation about this film is: why? Why Boba Fett? And…yeah, that’s valid. In my perspective, I think that presents an interesting challenge. How do you make a compelling film out of a nothing character? It may sound like a waste of time, but if done well, it could be a cool way to offer a different perspective on something we only thought we knew about.
Either way, we won’t be seeing this for a while. Mangold is currently prepping for Ford v. Ferrari, which begins principal photography this summer.
We’ll keep you updated as more info gets released.