25 Greatest Characters in Star Wars History

20. Boba Fett

(Write-up by Kyle Warnke, Dork Side of the Force Assistant Editor)

Boba Fett’s kind of in an odd place right now. No, I’m not talking about the belly of the Sarlaac he fell into in Return of the Jedi. I’m talking about his existence in the new canon universe. The Lucasfilm Story Group has been coy about their plans for the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, and they skirted plenty of questions at Star Wars Celebration about the Mandalorian’s fate, offering only the cryptic statement, “Boba Fett is both alive and dead.”

Well, that’s actually sort of badass.

But it’s still unsatisfactory. There’s no way Disney will let Fett rot underneath the sands of Tatooine. Next to Darth Vader, he’s arguably the most beloved character of the entire franchise, and he has less than five minutes of total screentime in the films. But then again, that’s part of the character’s appeal. Our brief glimpses of him only deepened the mystery surrounding just who was behind that iconic visor.

The prequels undermined this aura when they revealed his backstory: a special clone created for Jango Fett to have a son and pass on his lineage. This didn’t really serve any apparent purpose to the story, so it felt like a cheap origin story that George Lucas threw to the fans to quiet them down.

But Fett still has plenty of potential, especially if Disney decides to build on the character’s roots in Western antihero archetypes. Regardless, Fett should be a crucial component of the universe going forward. He’s no good to them dead. This bounty is worth more alive.

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