If Star Wars made a Mount Rushmore of characters, one could argue that it would be graced with distinctive visages such as Darth Vader, Yoda, C-3PO and, yes, the T-visor-touting helmet of Boba Fett. Yet, unlike the former three, the latter’s popularity was the result of an organic, fan-fueled surge for a movie character with minimal screentime. Consequently, the Disney+ TV series The Book of Boba Fett is giving fans all the (literal) facetime with the former bounty hunter they can handle, although to surprisingly controversial results. It invites reflection on the initial mystery that forged Boba’s legend, and, for a time, even made him a sex symbol amongst some of the franchise’s early fans.
The Book of Boba Fett has, on paper, delivered just about everything that would hypothetically grace the average fan’s wish list: A chronicle of Boba’s survival from his feckless fall—and long-presumed death—into the dreaded Sarlacc pit in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, scenes showing the armored bounty hunter actually applying his skills in a badass manner, and even a pathos-packed showcase of harrowing ordeals both past and present that clearly evolved the former amoral Imperial freelancer into an antihero with a heart of gold. Yet, while the series has been a spectacular platform for star Temuera Morrison and co-star Ming-Na Wen as assassin cohort Fennec Shand, it has, for some fans, exemplified the ironic result that often occurs when people get what they think they want. In this case, some believe that the developments have come at the expense of the character’s long-appreciated stoic mystique.
Pertinently, Boba’s original big-screen portrayer, British actor Jeremy Bulloch (who passed away back on Dec. 17, 2020, at age 75), was crucial in creating the character’s cult status with menacing movements and deadly demeanor hidden behind a helmet and armor. Tellingly, Bulloch often compared his role to that of Clint Eastwood, notably in his iconic performances in 1960s Sergio Leone-directed Spaghetti Western films such as the trilogy capped off by The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It certainly showed in his depiction of Boba in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, in which he was a menacing rogue who cleverly beat a bevy of bounty hunter competitors to the punch to claim a carbonite-captured Han Solo for delivery to Jabba the Hutt; a dynamic that resonated with audiences, some of which even turned the initial intrigue into unrequited amorousness. Indeed, as Bulloch told Starlog magazine back in 1981, there was a pheromonal phenomenon centered on Boba’s sparingly showcased voice—which wasn’t even his!
“I had a real letter from a girl which was quite funny,” Bulloch recalled to the print publication. “She wrote: ‘Is it your real voice? You send me into a deep swoon. Mind you, if it isn’t your voice, I won’t stop loving you.’” He added of his Boba Fett fan mail: “Quite a lot [are] from women, which is always nice. I replied to each letter. Several people have written to me three or four times via America and their letters get to me maybe two months later.”
The heart-stealing voice in question, however, was that of Brooklyn-born actor Jason Wingreen, who was best known for his recurring role on the groundbreaking 1970s sitcom All in the Family as Harry Snowden, Archie Bunker’s pal and eventual bar business partner on the subsequent 1979-1983 spinoff series Archie Bunker’s Place. The actor (who passed away back on Christmas Day 2015), was an unlikely audio element for Bulloch’s live-action performance, which not only added a necessary idiosyncratic layer to Boba Fett, but apparently made him a niche sex symbol for segments of the fandom during the era of the Original Trilogy’s initial run. While Wingreen’s Boba voice didn’t quite make everyone swoon, it was, nevertheless, an essential element for the character, and presented him in an identifiable crotchety, blue-collar manner that complemented his worn-out armored aesthetics and galactic-bounty-hunting profession. It’s a notion with which Bulloch himself agreed when it came to the erasure of his own voice.
“They [the Empire Strikes Back post-production team] went back to America to do a lot of the sound stuff,” he further explained on the swap. “I’m not going to stand and say ‘Why didn’t you use my voice?’ If I used my voice as it is now, it wouldn’t be right. They used a voice similar to the one I tried to do. As I see it, the character has his mask and his mystery. It doesn’t matter who does his voice.”
Interestingly enough, the closing part of Bulloch’s 1981 comment regarding the subjective nature of who does the Boba Fett voice wouldn’t exactly age well, thanks to the retroactive meddling of creator George Lucas. Having already made significant—presumably permanent—alterations to the Original Trilogy with the 1997 Special Edition release, the creator went back to the well for alterations in 2004 for the films’ first DVD releases, notably centered on Wingreen’s Boba Fett voice in the Irvin Kershner-directed Empire, which Lucas unceremoniously swapped for that of Temuera Morrison, who had already become the de facto Boba Fett by virtue of his role as Boba’s genetic-template-father, Jango Fett, in 2002 Prequel Trilogy middle act Attack of the Clones. While the move was likely designed to achieve consistency, it erased the initial (purportedly sex-appealing) nuance that helped build Boba’s legend. Gone was the delightfully dry insolence and cheekiness of Wingreen’s voice, which was replaced with a perfunctorily wooden delivery of newly recorded dialogue from Morrison—who, in his defense, eventually proved himself to be a worthy Boba on the small screen upon the character’s canonical resurgence on The Mandalorian Season 2.
For many fans, many of whom were still trying to cope with the shameful slapstick “death” of the still-beloved Boba’s Return of the Jedi fate, the replacement of Wingreen’s voice work was the pièce de resistance of a gradual nerfing of everything that made the character a legend. Despite that, the idea of the character’s stoic swagger managed to persist—and even continue to define—the legend, regardless of his treatment, and Boba became an A-list character in Star Wars: a status determined by the dominant metric of merchandising, which, as Spaceballs‘ Yogurt famously quipped, is “where the real money from the movie is made.” While the 2019 debut of The Mandalorian showcased a borrowed concept that seemed like the closest Disney/Lucasfilm would get to a proper canonical resuscitation of Boba Fett, the show’s 2020 second season would obviously dispel such a notion, even brandishing a post-credits scene in the frame’s finale revealing that The Book of Boba Fett was happening, to the ecstatic delight of fans.
Of course, as with most things, the gift that is The Book of Boba Fett has proven to be a mixed blessing. While the lavishly produced Disney+ TV show has been more than enough to satisfy nostalgia-hungry segments, its ongoing dynamic has created a divide between viewers who continue to appreciate the presentation and those who feel that it has transformed the once-mysterious, helmet-hidden Boba Fett into Boring Fett, a galactic goody-two-shoes who, despite his menacing demeanor and crime boss ambitions, comes across as more of a philanthropist than a rogue, with little explanation provided. Moreover, the mysteriously ominous presence that once defined Boba is being superseded by a more loquacious version who wantonly walks around without his iconic helmet. One person who agrees with the latter criticism is star Temuera Morrison himself, who recently told NME: “I speak far too much. In fact, in the beginning, I was trying to pass my lines onto Ming-Na. ‘Excuse me, director, I really feel like Ming-Na should say these lines because I want to stay mysterious. I want to stay quiet.”
Regardless, for a character who didn’t appear in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope (his retroactive inclusion in the 1997 Special Edition notwithstanding), debuted in animated form as part of the notorious 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, and famously experienced an embarrassingly ignominious (presumed) onscreen demise, Boba Fett’s enduring popularity has fared well, qualifying him as a certified A-list franchise founding father. Moreover, despite the show’s widespread criticism, The Book of Boba Fett will go down as a popularity-elevating platform for its resurgent eponymous antihero—even with Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin/The Mandalorian having abruptly made his way into the mix to steal the spotlight and set the stage for the inaugural season’s home stretch.
The Book of Boba Fett heads to its season finale, which hits Disney+ on Wednesday, February 9.
