Boba Fett - Concept and Development

Concept and Development

Boba Fett stems from initial design concepts for Darth Vader, who was originally conceived as a rogue bounty hunter. While Vader became less a mercenary and more of a dark knight, the bounty hunter concept remained, and Fett became "an equally villainous" but "less conspicuous" character. Concept artist Ralph McQuarrie influenced Fett's design, which was finalized by and is credited to Joe Johnston. Fett's armor was originally designed for "super troopers", and was adapted for Fett as the script developed. Screen-tested in all-white, Fett's armor eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black. This color scheme had the added bonus of conveying the "gray morality" of his character. The character's armor was designed to appear to have been scavenged from multiple sources, and it is adorned with trophies. A description of the character's armor in the summer 1979 Bantha Tracks newsletter catalyzed "rampant speculation" about the character's mysterious origins.

Despite two years of widespread publicity about Fett's appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, script rewrites significantly reduced the character's presence in the film. Fett's "distinctive" theme, composed by John Williams, is "not music, exactly" ... but "more of a gurgly, viola-and-bassoon thing aurally cross-pollinated with some obscure static sounds." Sound editor Ben Burtt added the sound of jangling spurs, created and performed by the Foley artist team of Robert Rutledge and Edward Steidele, to Fett's appearance in Cloud City, intending to make the character menacing and the scene reminiscent of similar gunfighter appearances in Western films.

Daniel Keys Moran, who wrote several novels featuring Boba Fett, cited Westerns as an influence on his development of the character. Moran said

The difficult thing with Fett was finding a worldview for him that permitted him to proclaim a Code — given the stark Evil that permeated the Empire, Fett pretty much had to be either 1) Evil, or 2) an incredibly unforgiving, harsh, "greater good" sort of guy. The second approach worked and has resonated with some readers.

Star Wars creator George Lucas considered adding a shot of Fett escaping the sarlaac in Return of the Jedi, but decided against it because it would have detracted from the story's focus, instead leaving the task of "reviving" Fett to Expanded Universe canon. Lucas also said that, had he known Fett would be so popular, he would have made the character's death "more exciting." Lucas at one point considered depicting Vader and Fett as brothers in the prequel films, but discounted it as too "hokey." In continuing to develop the character in the prequel films, Lucas closed some avenues for expanding the character's story while opening others.