Boba Fett was originally planned as the main villain of Return of the Jedi

@M

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All Boba Fett fans now have validation for the awesomeness of the bounty hunter!

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If you want to thank someone for the fandom that is May the Fourth Be with You, the annual celebration of all things Star Wars that happens on May 4, then thank Craig Miller.

An unofficial adviser and Lucasfilms' first official fan relations officer, Miller was in charge of getting sci-fi fans in the late 1970s to fall in love with the Star Wars saga, which has now bubbled into a global obsession with the franchise.

In fact, Miller was responsible for many of the rumors that floated around leading up to the release of The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. He provided many stories to Star Log Magazine, as he recently explained to Inverse.

That we did in the final article, it ran that piece with the rumors, and then it had a sidebar, which was a response from me as a rep of Lucasfilm, Miller said. In it, I said some of the above was true, some wasn't, we wouldn't tell them which was which and here are some more rumors that we'd heard, that may or may not be true. At that point the only photo we released was Luke on the Tauntaun, but you only saw the Tauntaun's neck and top part of its head.

But Miller also knew a lot of truths. A big one about Boba Fett he revealed to Inverse:

Originally Boba Fett was set up in Empire as a character, he said, referring to the bounty hunter who shows up briefly in the movie. Boba was gonna be the main villain That was set up, why he was taking Han Solo away...

Boba Fett was primed to be a centerpiece in "Return of the Jedi," while Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader's head-to-head would extend to a future trilogy. But a major decision by George Lucas changed everything.

Then George decided not to make the third trilogy, he completely jettisoned that storyline, which is why in the first ten minutes, Boba Fett gets bumped into and falls into the mouth of a giant monster, Miller said. So he took what was planned for the third trilogy, which was the confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader, and the battle with the Emperor, and that got squished down from three movies to one movie. And that became the plot of Jedi.

According to Miller, the reason why we never saw Lucas-directed episodes seven, eight, and nine is simple: The filmmaker was burnt out.

And I remember sitting in a mixing room with George, working on Empire, and he told me he was just going to make the third movie, which didn't have a title at that point, and then stop, Miller said. He was going to retire from making big movies and make experimental movies. And that's why the whole plot of the third movie, what became Return of the Jedi, completely changed.

Boba Fett made out okay, since he's one of the most popular characters from the saga. But it would have been really cool to see a whole movie focused on him and Han Solo playing cat and mouse.


Original article
 

bloodycelt

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RoTJ might have been better if they had just begun it with the confrontation with the emperor and vader, finished that off, and during vader's funeral, plan out han's rescue and make that the focus of the film.
 

JoeAwesome

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Boba Fett made out okay, since he's one of the most popular characters from the saga. But it would have been really cool to see a whole movie focused on him and Han Solo playing cat and mouse.

Original article

Isn't he getting his own in film in 2020?
 

HDRchampion

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i was so sad when the mommy ewok died.
 

Wachenroder

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Damn that sounds like it would have been way better then what we got.

I loved Jedi as a kid but on rewatches as an adult, it does feel....off
 

xsq

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I loved Jedi as a kid but on rewatches as an adult, it does feel....off
I'm with you. ROTJ is so much worse than Star Wars (ANH) and Empire (which is the best in the trilogy imho). There are good parts, but it still feels rushed, incomplete, not dark enough (compared to Empire) and the whole "kiddy service" (Ewoks) is just too strong. Could've been great to see more of Boba Fett instead. And I would have loved a darker/open ending (along the lines of what Man behind the Mask has done in "War of the Stars II").
 

LoneSage

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Love the juxtaposition between the epic star fight outside and the vader/palpatine/luke fight inside. Best scene of the entire series when vader decides to kill palpatine. I cried fuck you if youbdidnt
 

xsq

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that whole scene is set up right also, very story driven. Reminds you of what movies used to be.
 

neojedi

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According to Miller, the reason why we never saw Lucas-directed episodes seven, eight, and nine is simple: The filmmaker was burnt out.
I'd have loved 6 movies with the original cast in their prime, but at least GL knew himself well enough back then to know that he couldn't pull it off. I think the prequel version of GL lost some of (ok, maybe a lot of) the know-thyself quality somewhere along the line. I don't think the prequels were a lost cause from the beginning, but GL was doing too much and needed some fresh eyes and talent doing some writing/directing/etc.
 

SouthtownKid

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Starlog is one word, idiots.

Star Log sounds like space fecal matter.


Also, I have a hard time buying that in a movie titled Return or Revenge of the Jedi, it wasn't always intended to feature the climactic confrontation between Luke as a Jedi and the Sith. Plus, we've already heard from multiple people in multiple commentaries and interviews that episodes 4-6 were originally one movie in treatment form, which is why we get two Death Stars. It was originally supposed to be destroyed at the end of the story, but Lucas wasn't sure he'd be able to make sequels, which is why it gets destroyed at the end of New Hope. Clearly, the story was always intended to end with Luke versus Vader & the Emperor.

So I'm calling full bullshit on that. I think either Miller is getting confused by his own false rumors he used to spread, or maybe he's trying to grab some faded fame in his old age for insider information he doesn't have. Either way, having been a reader of Starlog back in those days, this really does read familiar. It's nice to know who was starting all the bullshit rumors that used to swirl around that magazine and to hear he still hasn't retired from spreading bullshit. My favorite from back then was the rumor that it was actually Boba Fett who was going to turn out to be Luke's father. I bet that one was Miller, too.
 
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Lee Gray

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In countless interviews George Lucas has stated that if he had known how popular Boba Fett would become, he would have used him more in ROTJ and not given him such a weak death scene. Never mentioned anything else though to suggest the film was gonna be about him.
 

neo_mao

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guys spoiler tags plzzzz I still haven't seen this movie!!
 
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