Revealing Boba Fett’s Face Was the Wrong Call, Says Star Wars VFX Artist

Original Boba Fett designer Joe Johnston regrets that projects like the upcoming The Book of Boba Fett have decided to show the bounty hunter out of his signature helmet. Boba Fett, who first appeared in animated form in The Star Wars Holiday Special before hitting the big screens in The Empire Strikes Back, is a bounty hunter who wears Mandalorian armor, including an identity-obscuring helmet. The character supposedly died when knocked into the Sarlacc pit in the following film, Return of the Jedi, at which point he had never been seen outside of his armor.

The second Star Wars prequel, 2002’s Attack of the Clones, set the pieces in place to change this fact when they introduced the character of Jango Fett, played by New Zealand’s Temuera Morrison. Jango was cloned, and one of the clones witnessed in the film was a young Boba Fett, then played by Daniel Logan. In the timeline of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, the latter of which premieres on the platform on December 29, 2021, Boba Fett has now grown up and is also played by Morrison.

During their profile of Boba Fett and his history, The New York Times spoke with Johnston, the VFX artist who originally designed the armor for Boba Fett. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the stewards of the franchise deciding to eventually show Boba Fett’s face. He says that making that decision “eliminates a lot of the mystery” and that they would have been better off preserving that. He continued, saying that “before that helmet comes off, he can be anybody.” Read the full quote below:

I never would have shown his face. I would never have had an actor underneath where he takes the helmet off and you see who it is. I think that eliminates a lot of the mystery. Before that helmet comes off, he can be anybody.

Unfortunately for Johnston, the seeds of revealing Boba Fett’s identity have been too firmly planted for the Star Wars universe to avoid it. The closest they have gotten to achieving his goal is The Mandalorian, which follows another Mandalorian bounty hunter, Din Djarin. However, despite keeping his helmet on throughout the bulk of the series, they also couldn’t resist revealing the face of actor Pedro Pascal at least once a season.

Johnston is correct in that the new approach to Boba Fett fundamentally alters the character. However, revealing more and more about the people that populate the universe of Star Wars is exactly what the franchise has been most interested in doing for decades. The Book of Boba Fett is just the latest link in the chain that also includes comic books, novels, video games, and manifold other forms of media that have already explored the character and his adventures and origins.

Source: The New York Times

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