Things keep changing in the Star Wars universe faster than a certain smuggler popping through the Kessel Run.
Ever since a staggeringly mixed reception for the Last Jedi was followed by the disastrously poor box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story, many of the previous plans seem to have gone out of the window.
Fans were decidedly undecided about whether they even wanted a young Han Solo outing, but they have always been much more united in their desire to see one of the franchise’s greatest heroes and one of its most iconic villains both get their own spin-offs.
Unfortunately, the Lucasfilm boss has just confirmed that one of them at least is dead in the water (or the desert, to be precise.)
Industry figure Erick Weber has revealed the conversation he had with Kennedy at a special Black Panther screening last night. He tweeted: “Kathleen Kennedy just confirmed to me Boba Fett movie is 100% dead, 100% focusing on THE MANDALORIAN.”
It must be assumed that Weber also asked about the Obi-Wan project, so it looks like ‘Old Ben’ might still come back for his own origin story.
The Boba Fett news makes sense, since Disney has been announcing major plans for a whole range of new projects, Star Wars and Marvel, to help launch its upcoming streaming platform.
So, what exactly is the Mandalorian? Could this be about Boba or even Jango?
Fans know that Jango wore Madalorian armour but was not recognised by the government of that planet and was believed to have been born on Concord Dawn. His ‘son’ Boba, of course, was a clone.
Jon Favreau is currently casting the live-action series, and a brief teaser description was released earlier this month, which confirmed it is NOT the Mandalorian fans were looking for.
It said: “After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic,” Favreau shared in a post on his Instagram account.
Disney big boss, Bob Iger, meanwhile has confirmed there will be less movies in the upcoming future.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “You can expect some slowdown… We are just at the point where we’re gonna start making decisions about what comes next after JJ’s (Star Wars Episode 9). But I think we’re gonna be a little bit more careful about volume and timing.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not gonna make films. JJ [Abrams] is busy making [Episode] IX. We have creative entities, including [Game of Thrones creators David] Benioff and [D.B.] Weiss, who are developing sagas of their own, which we haven’t been specific about.”