Scrapped Boba Fett film could have been rated R

Director James Mangold recently sat down for an interview on The Happy Sad Confused Podcast. During the interview, Mangold spoke on many of his endeavors including one that never came to fruition. Though it was already made public that Lucasfilm reached out to Mangold regarding what might have been a Spaghetti Western Boba Fett movie, Mangold revealed more information about the scrapped film that has gotten many excited for a film that never happened.

“Well, at the point I was doing it, I was probably scaring the shit out of everyone. But I was probably making much more of a borderline rated-R kind of spaghetti Western… single-planet, spaghetti western. The world would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that because he didn’t really belong in the world that I was kind of envisioning.”

The likelihood of Lucasfilm and Disney greenlighting an R-rated film has always been slim to none. The reality is that most of the movies released by these studios need to be geared more toward kids as that’s how toys are sold. However, fans everywhere were bummed to learn about what could have been.

Mangold went on to say that although he was excited to direct such a film, he wasn’t sure if anyone over at Lucasfilm was remotely willing to greenlight his idea for the movie or not. While the limited series that was made instead, The Book Of Boba Fett contained an occasional Western vibe, the series was not at all R-rated.

“I’m not sure if it ever would have happened. I’m not sure if it was in anyone’s plans”

Mangold also mentioned another contributing factor to the cancellation of the film. He noted that however the decision to cancel his Boba Fett film was made, It had something to do with the box office performance of the 2018 film, Solo.

“Whatever happened with the Han Solo movie, they just suddenly decided they weren’t making pictures like that and I think the opportunities in streaming presented themselves.”

Solo’s underperformance seemingly shot down any remaining chance for Mangold to Direct his Boba Fett film. However, Lucasfilm is now giving Mangold another challenge. Mangold has been hired by Lucasfilm to direct another upcoming film titled Dawn of The Jedi. Mangold showed quite a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about the upcoming project, especially regarding where this new film falls on the timeline-25,000 years in the past!

“The reality for me was that feeling of space, ” he continued “was something that I really felt was important.”

Regardless of how Boba Fett turned out, Mangold seems driven and determined to bring the days of The Old Republic to life in cinema. Dawn of The Jedi is set to hit theatres in December of 2025 and has been said to “complement” Kathleen Kennedy’s upcoming untitled Rey Skywalker film.