Boba Fett Concept Art Traces The Evolution Of A Bounty Hunter
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With the canon stripped down to its bare essentials, the Star Wars universe is about to expand massively under the aegis of Disney, this time with a much more tightly policed continuity. We’ve got Star Wars Rebels, and the new comics and novels, and of course the much-anticipated The Force Awakens due later this year. But next year we’ll get something possibly even more cool — the first standalone Star Wars spinoff film. We still don’t know what the movie will be about, but early rumors suggest Boba Fett may play a major role. So what better time to look back at the origins of one of the Star Wars franchise’s fan-favorite characters?
Star Wars fan site The Dented Helmet rounded up a ton of concept art tracing the evolution of the enigmatic armored bounty hunter who fascinated fans in spite of not actually doing that much during his Original Trilogy screen time. The art was all created by Joe Johnston, who worked with the legendary Ralph McQuarrie to design Fett. In fact, George Lucas has said that Fett actually had his origins in early brainstorming about Darth Vader. According to Lucas:
I wanted to develop an essentially evil, very frightening character. [Vader] started as a kind of intergalactic bounty hunter, evolved into a grotesque knight, and as I got deeper into the knight ethos he became more a dark warrior than a mercenary… I split him up and it was from the early concept of Darth Vader as a bounty hunter that Boba Fett came.
Whether you’re gaga about Fett or not, there’s no question that it’s a great costume design, from the the distinctive t-shaped visor on the helmet to the the Wookiee scalps the bounty hunter keeps slung around one shoulder. Even if all it would take is one drunken bender in Mos Eisley for that back-mounted rocket to become more of a danger to Fett than to anybody else. Take your goddamn head off, man.
Whether Boba Fett gets the spotlight in the 2016 Star Wars flick being directed by Gareth Edwards or not, there’s no question he’ll show up in the new Expanded Universe at some point. It’ll be interesting to see if they tweak his costume when that happens or not. After all, that stint in the Sarlacc belly has got to be murder on the armor. You can check out tons more images of Fett in the gallery below, and see even bigger versions over on The Dented Helmet.
