The Mandalorian‘s Din Djarin fulfills the image Star Wars fans always had of Boba Fett. First appearing in the oft-maligned Star Wars Holiday Special before making his full theatrical debut in The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett is one of several Star Wars supporting characters who rapidly developed a cult following among fans. An intergalactic man of mystery, Boba Fett was chastised by Darth Vader for being too trigger-happy with his disintegrations, and then succeeded in bringing the one and only Han Solo back to Jabba’s Palace in an embarrassing carbonite freeze pose. Little is seen of Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, and he features even less in Return of the Jedi, quickly being gobbled up by the Sarlacc.
Aside from a small arc as a child in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, that’s more or less the extent of Boba Fett’s role in cinematic terms, but the bounty hunter’s reputation among fans rapidly outgrew his limited screen time. Reading between the lines of his character, fans came to see Boba Fett as an unruly badass, roaming around the galaxy taking jobs, taking lives, but taking no prisoners. An antihero more than an outright villain, Boba rocked a cool design but largely remained an enigma, which only amplified his appeal, and it wasn’t long before the Star Wars Expanded Universe began to reflect this, with Boba Fett featured more here than he ever was on the big screen.
The curious thing about Boba Fett is that his official canon movie appearances don’t really correlate to his reputation within the fandom, while his Legends stories were mostly crafted after the bounty hunter became a cult favorite. Nevertheless, Star Wars fans would still see a genuine live-action version of their Boba Fett… just under a completely different guise. The Mandalorian‘s Din Djarin is a bounty hunter very much in the Boba Fett vein, but he also takes on the personality traits fans expected from the original article. Djarin is a loner who barely talks and (almost) never removes his helmet. He’s a law unto himself, with no real allegiance to good or bad; one moment happily taking on any dirty job that comes his way, and the next becoming a surrogate father to Baby Yoda. Mando is the brooding cowboy fighting to survive in a world of scum and villainy, all of which mirrors how many saw Boba Fett before his untimely introduction to the Sarlacc.
Perhaps the level of similarity between Din Djarin and the perception of Boba Fett derives from The Mandalorian‘s production origins. The Disney+ series was originally envisioned as a Boba Fett solo movie that was cancelled after the disappointment of Solo. Even after switching to TV, it seems that the angle wasn’t erased immediately, since the show’s lead, Pedro Pascal, claims he initially believed he would be playing Boba Fett. If The Mandalorian had been a series about Boba, it surely would’ve leaned into fandom’s image of the character, validating how the bounty hunter had already been painted, and this might account for Din Djarin’s close resemblance to that ideal.
Whatever your opinion on Disney’s Star Wars, this decision might’ve been a masterstroke by the studio. Part of Boba Fett’s appeal has always been the aura of mystery surrounding him, but there was evidently a hunger to see more layers to the character. The Mandalorian offers the best of both worlds; Din Djarin gives fans the Boba Fett they always wanted, while the intrigue of the original remains untouched. Of course, that could all change in The Mandalorian‘s second season, in which Boba Fett himself may finally appear, but for now, balance has been restored to the bounty hunting world.
The Mandalorian season 2 premieres in October 2020 on Disney+.
