How Boba Fett’s Backstory Evolved from George Lucas to “Legends” to Present

Any recent or new Star Wars fans would have a very hard time grasping Boba Fett’s history even if they read his Wookieepedia “Legends” page, and all for one major reason: the retcon of Boba Fett that occurred with “Attack of the Clones.”

Even for us older fans who struggle with remembering how the lore developed into what became “Legends” (aka Expanded Universe) and Canon, you need to time travel in a way to revisit the old stuff. And maybe those who only think of Star Wars as just being about laser swords, blasters, cute puppetry, and CGI, they might not understand why the development of the mythology — and the psychology behind the creative changes — is really at the heart of this passionate fandom.

When I first became a fan in the mid-1990s, there was still a lot of mystery to the character of Boba Fett. The character had been around since the end of the ’70s and yet no one knew where he came from or his true destiny. I was a lot more aware of the Dark Horse Comics version of the character, where Boba was a gritty bounty hunter post-“Return of the Jedi” in comic book stories that had the edge of a Judge Dredd magazine. I also knew of the novels of that time, like the “Tales from Jabba’s Palace” and “Tales of the Bounty Hunters anthologies that added to the events of the original trilogy. And of course the multimedia project of “Shadows of the Empire,” right around the time the Special Editions came about. But what I wasn’t as familiar with were the old Marvel Comics tales of Boba Fett plus Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala, and where — outside of George Lucas’ contributions to the character and armor — the roots of Mandalorian lore began there.

In Marvel Comics Star Wars #68 (first on newsstands November 16, 1982), we see Fenn Shysa in the original Mandalorian lore was a Mandalorian Protector (aka Supercommando or Imperial Shocktroopers as noted in Bantha Tracks #5 from 1979) — along with his childhood friend, Tobbi Dala — and Boba Fett, who the chief officer of the group. When Emperor Palpatine formed the Empire he ordered the government of Mandalore to send a small army of 212 Mandalorians to fight on his behalf in The Clone Wars. Details of the original Clone Wars were unclear outside of who won. When they returned to Mandalore, after the war was “won,” they were only three Mandalorians: Fenn, Dala, and Boba. The other 209 Mandalorians were all killed in action. To their disappointment their homeworld had been turned into a slave camp, where people were made slaves (to do hard labor work) and sold off to the Empire. In a blatant act of disrespect to Mandalorian culture the slave distribution center that the slave-master (Suprema, who was chosen by Palpatine himself) used was within the skeletal remains of a Mythosaur creature.

Boba Fett, disenchanted with fighting for others, went independent, leaving Mandalore behind and becoming the elite bounty hunter that first appeared on the Star Wars Holiday Special animation and “The Empire Strikes Back.” Shysa and Dala chose to stay and fight for Mandalore and, with help from Princess Leia (who had been hunting Dengar on Mandalore), they helped liberate the slaves on Mandalore — mostly due to the actions, bravery, and self sacrifice of Shysa’s friend, Tobbi Dala, who blows up the Mythosaur-sized beast.

When Dark Horse Comics started doing Star Wars comics (including having him survive the Sarlacc as seen in Dark Empire #4 in 1992), the detail of Boba Fett being an ex-Mandalorian was changed to him being an ex-Stormtrooper in Dark Empire II #2, released January 24, 1995.

Not long after that in December 1996 that was retconned and Boba Fett became an ex-Journeyman Protector Jaster Mereel, a name coined by author Daniel Keys Moran for his “Tales” stories. (See our interview with him from 2007.) The Journeyman Protector was in a way a conceptual combination of Mandalorian and Stormtrooper. They were the law on Concord Dawn and Boba broke the law by killing a superior officer. Darth Vader cut him a break though and he became the most effective bounty hunter for years.

To be fair about the inconsistency, it was consistently keeping Boba Fett mysterious. It did not really matter a whole lot then if he were a true Mandalorian, a former Stormtrooper, or a journeyman of the law. What we knew about Boba Fett was that he was an elite bounty hunter who didn’t ever show his face, didn’t like taking orders from anyone unless he is getting paid a lot, and looked great in that battle worn metallic armor. That was seemingly enough for a following and cool “Legends” stories but character evolution is a necessary evil and thus comes “Attack of the Clones.”

It was inevitable. The enigmatic Fett needed to be more than just what’s on the surface and — now written by George Lucas instead of “Legends” writers — we got a completely new child version of Boba Fett, without his armor. We also got a surrogate of sorts for what Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala were in the Marvel Comics universe with Jango Fett, yet another Boba Fett-ish character, but one with slightly more … authenticity if you will, now that Lucas was directly involved. I would love to say George Lucas read those old Marvel comics and had any of that Mandalorian lore in mind but he probably did not.

With Jango Fett he stuck with the concept that worked: Fett as a mercenary/bounty hunter/assassin type. He had someone with the potential of being the perfect soldier for the Army of the Republic, although George left room for him to be a true Mandalorian as the film first introduced Mando’a, the Mandalorian written language in the Slave I’s cockpit, although I wouldn’t expect most to notice. Since the whole concept of Mandalorians is so engrained in the armor — made famous and pioneered by Boba Fett — it was hard for George Lucas to avoid giving Clone Troopers a helmet design that borrows from the Fett/Mandalorian helmet T-visor design. It was only fitting though, considering “prototype” Boba Fett’s armor in pre-production was originally meant to be special Imperial Commando armor. That was before George Lucas and his team realized it would be too expensive to make an army of Supertroopers and settled on making the armor that of a bounty hunter. From there, we got Boba Fett, the ideas of Mandalorians, Jango Fett, and then the “clone troopers” were born.

While young armor-less Boba Fett (portrayed by Daniel Logan) did not get the immediate attention and adoration that Jeremy Bulloch’s Boba Fett did, Young Boba did provide the character with a tragic background. It humanized the character that was once considered evil — much like how Fenn Shysa attempted to humanize Fett for Leia — and he even showed off some skill like operating Slave I to shoot at a combative Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Despite Jango Fett being a villain like Boba Fett, he was written as a villain with a heart, someone who just wanted to protect his son. George Lucas gave Fett fans a new way to look at the character. Instead of fighting in the Clone Wars on Concord Dawn with other Mandalorians, Boba became a Kamino native who became victim to the Clone Wars, along with his bounty hunter father who spawned the whole clone army. According to bonus feature audio commentary from the film, George Lucas originally considered having Boba Fett as simply a clone who wasn’t the son of Jango that broke away from the army to become a bounty hunter. However, Lucas felt that if Boba saw his father die at the onset of the war fighting Jedi that it would provide Boba further motivation to hate Jedi.

Along with the changes “Attack of the Clones” made also came changes to the history of characters like Boba Fett, Fenn Shysa, and others. After Jango Fett many more Mandalorians were created in the 21st century, along with notable Clones too. Boba Fett’s Mandalorian past was erased and remade into a Mandalorian future as written in several stories Karen Traviss (see our interview with her from 2006), while Jango Fett was given a Mandalorian past in works like “Open Seasons” comic written by Haden Blackman and the “Bounty Hunter” video game written/directed by Jon Knoles. (See our interview with him from 2024.)

Later, George Lucas provided his own vision of Mandalorians within “The Clone Wars” animated series. Fast forward even more and Jon Favreau with Dave Filoni created another version of Mandalorians (“The Way”/Children of the Watch). Ironically while Boba Fett prior to “Attack of the Clones” never removed his helmet, Jango Fett from the start had no issues holding his helmet by his side, a trend that continued in “The Clone Wars” animated series and it’s follow-up series. Eventually Boba himself took on the habit (on “The Book of Boba Fett,” but only after spending time with the Tuskens; whereas characters like Din Djarin, Armorer, and Paz Vizsla represent the way Boba Fett was written prior to the invention of Jango Fett, like in “Twin Engines of Destruction” (written by Andy Mangels). And lastly, Jaster Mereel became an actual character: Jaster became the Mandalorian who adopted the Concord Dawn native Jango Fett and made him a foundling.

While some criticize “Attack of the Clones,” most of the criticism really isn’t even on the retcon of Boba Fett — but that’s something to talk about another time. Most Star Wars fans enjoy Temuera Morrison as Jango and Daniel Logan as Young Boba Fett. Over time, fans have embraced George’s revision and the influence it has had on modern works. We can only to see more of them in Star Wars in the near future.