Shortly after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, plans were put in place for a number of familiar characters to take centre stage in their own movies. Unsurprisingly, Boba Fett was among them, and a number of filmmakers were eyed to helm that project, including Josh Trank (Fantastic Four) and James Mangold (Logan).
Simon Kinberg was initially tasked with penning Boba Fett's screenplay, though Trank was dismissed after he clashed with the writer while working on Fantastic Four. That left Mangold to step in and we've since heard he approached the movie as a one-off spaghetti Western in the vein of Sergio Leone.
In fact, the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director has since said, "I was probably scaring the shit out of everyone. But I was making much more of a borderline, rated R, single-planet spaghetti Western. They probably would never be able to embrace Baby Yoda if I had made that."
"[It] didn’t really belong in the world I was kind of envisioning. I was just listening to Ennio Morricone all day, all night, and typing away. I’m not sure it ever would have happened, I’m not sure it was in anyone’s plans what I was thinking."
Sounds pretty awesome, right?
Kinberg, however, doesn't believe that Mangold's vision for the project would have ever moved forward at Disney. "I was gonna write the Boba Fett movie," he tells Polygon. "I mean, it’s all pretty sci-fi, but I think ['hard' sci-fi] is the right word. Tonally like Logan. On the edge of R-rated, though I don’t think you’d have a Star Wars movie that could be R-rated."
The Dark Phoenix helmer wasn't attached when Magold came on board, but he had been tasked with helping shape the direction Star Wars was heading in under Kathleen Kennedy's watch. As X-Men fans will know, it's for the best that didn't last but Kinberg says he was part of a "kind of mini writers room" tasked with "[coming] up and [breaking] ideas and stories."
"I think over time, my role morphed as a friend of the court. And so it ranged from being a consultant on the movies, give thoughts, notes, sometimes actual pages for scripts, and obviously co-creating Star Wars Rebels and really staying with that show that I loved."
Dave Filoni typically gets the lion's share of credit for Rebels and there's a good reason for that. While Kinberg played a significant role in the creation of the animated series, the Ahsoka showrunner was the one who ultimately shaped it into the beloved hit it's since become.
Do you think Boba Fett should have received his own movie in place of Disney+'s The Book of Boba Fett?