Well. Okay.
This week’s standalone rumor has Logan’s James Mangold writing and directing a Star Wars standalone featuring Boba Fett. This is from The Hollywood Reporter and quickly doubled down by Variety – both industry trades, aka pros – so their sources are likely fairly solid.
This isn’t the first time Fett has been knocking around – according to several unconfirmed reports, Fett was also the subject of the Josh Trank film that never came to be. There have been a few variations rumored (including the Dread Pirate Roberts and an ‘origin film’) but not a peep from Lucasfilm themselves.
I have no beef with Mangold – Logan was the best X-Men film in ages – but the prospect of yet another white, male director is stinging. Still, a Fett film could probably be the first in the franchise to star a man of color, if they bring back either Temuera Morrison or Daniel Logan to reprise the role.
Between this and the Obi-wan rumor, I have to wonder… Are they ever going to surprise us with one of these again? Will Rogue One be the forever outlier of these standalone films? Or are they going to continue to play these safe, and let the Episodes take all the risks? Of course, as with any unannounced project, any of this could fall through at any moment – and I certainly don’t blame Lucasfilm for playing it close after the well-publicized behind-the-scenes issues of Rogue One and Solo.
I suppose there is plenty that could be done with Fett – a bounty hunter ensemble has always been popular fan speculation, and there are some underworld strings from Solo that could be easily picked up – but I’m hardly the one to get excited about any of it. Maybe you’ll have better luck.
It would be cool if they keep the Solo story going but through Fett’s eyes, and then maybe Lando’s–basically a series of films about different characters that loosely connect together like a series.