Kevin Smith’s Vision For Star Wars: Episode VII Involves The Bounty Hunter Boba Fett
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With a new Star Wars movie only three years away, many fans of the original films wonder what the new film will be about. There is probably not a bigger Star Wars fan in Hollywood than writer/director Kevin Smith. He has incorporated Star Wars references throughout a filmography that includes Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Red State. Smith was recently asked to write a guest column for the print version of THR where he wrote about his experience with Star Wars growing up in New Jersey, what the franchise means to his life, and what he hopes to see in Star Wars: Episode VII in 2015.
According to the piece, Smith wants to see a movie surrounding the bounty hunter Boba Fett, not only as an adventure through the Star Wars universe, but a journey through the space-time continuum. Smith explains:
If Disney wants to make another cool billion dollars like it did with The Avengers last summer, all it needs to do is make a Boba Fett time-travel flick. It would center on a character everyone digs and allow for a greatest hits of Star Wars while playing with an already-established timeline, a la Back to the Future. You could use every living (and dead) actor from the previous Star Wars films, no matter what their age — which means Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford can come and play as well. It’d be a dream come true for any Star Wars fan — particularly those of us who opted out of the boring-ass real world every summer for galaxies far, far away.
The guest column is quite touching. Smith is candid about his childhood best friend, their plans for Star Wars, and his friend’s untimely death in the early ’90s. But it seems like there’s a hint of pitching an idea to Disney rather than just a moving op-ed piece. Would it be too cynical to speculate that Kevin Smith wants to write the new Star Wars movie?
Kevin Smith would be an inspired choice to write Episode VII. His talent as a writer far exceeds his talents behind the camera. There is no question that Smith has a way with words, despite his lack of understanding of the visual language of cinema. Boba Fett is easily the most popular (and mysterious) character in the Star Wars universe. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to see him as the centerpiece of a new movie, but that movie shouldn’t be Episode VII. The new Star Wars movie should be a continuation of Return of the Jedi rather than a one-off story.
