In the years before the prequels were released, Boba Fett was the premier bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe. With his mysterious past, fans were free to speculate on the character’s origins before it was revealed he was a clone of his famous bounty hunter father Jango Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. But before the prequels revealed Boba Fett’s backstory, the Expanded Universe presented a different version of the famed bounty hunter – one that the recent Disney+ series should have drawn ideas from.
In the Legends continuity, Boba Fett was often identified as journeyman protector Jaster Mereel, beginning with “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett” by Daniel Keys Moran, a story that appeared in the 1996 Star Wars: Tales of the Bounty Hunters anthology. Boba Fett was also a frequent lead character in Star Wars Tales, an anthology title from Dark Horse Comics from the early 2000s. Now relegated to the Legends continuity, many aspects of these stories could have been used as the basis for the divisive Book of Boba Fett.
Boba Fett Takes Aim At What Disney+ Series Should Have Been
Appearing in Star Wars Tales #7, “Outbid, But Never Outgunned” is a story that features Boba Fett competing with another bounty hunter, a human woman named Sintas Vel, to retrieve a mysterious cannister from a gangster. Coming from the creative team of Beau Smith, Mike Deodato, Jr., Neil Nelson, Dave McCaig and Steve Dutro, the story features the pre-Attack of the Clones Boba Fett, whose past was still shrouded in mystery. As Fett and Vel keep trying to one up each other to retrieve the canister, it isn’t until the end until readers finally get a look at what the canister holds: a holographic image of Fett and Vel’s infant child.
Boba Fett’s Past Held Many Secrets In Legends Continuity
That infant seen in the hologram actually grows up to be Ailyn Vel, who resents Fett for leaving her and her mother. Following Sintas Vel’s death, Ailyn Vel spends much of her life searching the galaxy for her father, hoping to kill him in revenge for leaving his family behind. She eventually finds a suit of Mandalorian armor and posed as Boba Fett herself after the bounty hunter is supposedly killed on Tatooine during the events of Return of the Jedi. When she learns her father has survived the Sarlacc, she takes up the hunt again. But before she can enact her revenge, she meets her end at the hands of Jacen Solo, Han and Leia’s son in Legends continuity.
In retrospect, looking at Disney+ show, it was a huge missed opportunity not to mine Star Wars’ Legends for a story like this to bring to the screen. Having Boba Fett reckon with a long-lost daughter he left behind would have certainly given the story more emotional stakes that the relatively lifeless bounty hunter Star Wars fans encountered in The Book of Boba Fett.
