Boba Fett: The Bigger Story

With the popularity of The Mandalorian there has been a renewed interest in the mysterious character that introduced the infamous and iconic Mandalorian armour to Star Wars so long ago. 

Boba Fett has captured the imaginations of Star Wars fans since his animated on-screen debut in The Star Wars Holiday Special back in 1978. His appearance in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back was limited but had a huge impact on audiences. Suddenly Darth Vader wasn’t necessarily the coolest bad guy in the galaxy! That armour was just so cool, and he barely speaks but you know he means business. And he dares to talk back to Vader!

The 1978 Screen Debut!

While it may have appeared that the notorious bounty hunter died in the belly of the horrifying sarlaac creature in Return of the Jedi, there has always been speculation of how that armour could have saved him. Maybe he blasted his way out? Maybe he killed the sarlaac? Fans loved the character so much that many created their own storyline of how Boba Fett could have plausibly escaped.

Jango and Boba Fett

Knowing the ever-growing popularity of the character, Star Wars creator George Lucas made young Boba and his father Jango into key characters in 2002’s Attack of the Clones. That’s when fans learned for the first time that Boba is a clone of his father, that bounty hunting is the family business, and that Boba has a very good reason to dislike the Jedi.

What happens next for young Boba Fett was originally explored in a series of six middle-grade chapter books from Scholastic publishing. While entertaining and still fairly easy to find, these stories are not the official story of Boba Fett and are now out of print. 

When The Clone Wars was in its second season, young Boba Fett was introduced into the animated series in 2010. Once again Boba Fett was on the small screen, animated just as he had debuted almost 32 years earlier! Unlike the earlier novels, those seven episodes are part of the official Star Wars chronology, or “canon”, and expand on the story of the vengeful youth and his loathsome bounty hunter mentors.

Anyone wanting to know the whole story of Boba Fett would be well-advised to watch those episodes. Several of them were adapted by frequent Star Wars author Jason Fry (The Weapon of a Jedi) into the illustrated chapter book Star Wars: The Clone Wars Boba Fett: Bounty Hunter in 2010.

While not entirely in sync with the official Star Wars chronology, 2013's The Bounty Hunter Guide is also an excellent read for fans of The Mandalorian and Boba Fett.

More recently, some of Boba Fett’s young appearances on The Clone Wars were adapted into short stories in the 2020 collection Star Wars: The Clone Wars Tales of Light and Dark.

However you dive into the story of the fearsome bounty hunter Boba Fett, there may be more to the story than you realize. There’s probably plenty more to come too! Without spoiling too much, Boba Fett fans really need to check out The Mandalorian!

High Excitement for The High Republic Stories

In February, Lucasfilm announced a forthcoming new era in Star Wars storytelling to be known as The High Republic. This new series of stories would all take place approximately 200 years BEFORE any previous canon Star Wars stories we've seen so far.

This is the era of the Jedi in their prime as peacekeepers, long before the Clone Wars and the rise of the Empire. (Learn more here)

Now only weeks away from release, here are some more details about the first two High Republic stories of most interest to younger readers. Both are scheduled for release in North America on January 5, 2021.

A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland (256 pages 8-12 yrs)

"Vernestra Rwoh is a new Jedi Knight at age sixteen, but her first real assignment feels an awful lot like babysitting. She's been charged with supervising twelve-year old aspiring inventor Avon Starros on a cruiser headed to the dedication of a wondrous new space station called Starlight Beacon.

But soon into their journey, bombs go off aboard the cruiser. While the adult Jedi try to save the ship, Vernestra, Avon, Avon's droid J-6, a Jedi Padawan, and an ambassador's son make it to an escape shuttle, but communications are out and supplies are low. They decide to land on a nearby moon, which offers shelter but not much more. And unbeknownst to them, danger lurks in the forest?"

Justina Ireland is the author of Spark of the Resistance and Lando's Luck.

The Great Jedi Rescue by Cavan Scott (24 pages 5-8 years)

"Meet the noble and wise Jedi of the High Republic!

When a disaster strikes in hyperspace, putting the people of Hetzal Prime in grave danger, only the Jedi of the High Republic can save the day!"

Cavan Scott is the author of several of the Adventures in Wild Space novels as well as the Choose Your Destiny books.

Looking forward to this new era? Have a story in mind you hope to see? Comment below! 

Read, You Must: The Star Wars Book

DK Publishing has for been creating amazing guidebooks for Star Wars fans for nearly 25 years. From Star Wars Encyclopedia, to Star Wars Year By Year, each sounds like it’s the final, definitive book, THE book for Star Wars lovers.

In 2015 alone they published Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know AND Ultimate Star Wars!

All the above titles are wonderful, must-have books but Star Wars is an ever-expanding galaxy of stories and characters, planets and aliens, spaceships and droids, and a LOT of Star Wars has happened since 2015!

Which leads us to the brand new guide book, simply titled The Star Wars Book. The subtitle “Expand Your Knowledge of a Galaxy Far, Far Away” holds true as even the most dedicated fans will probably find some new information in here.

As the Skywalker Saga has ended and The Mandalorian is the main new Star Wars story coming out right now, and before the launch of the High Republic era, this is a great time to capture the story so far, in so many facets.

The Star Wars Book looks at all aspects of the saga as they relate to the bigger story. Where the Visual Dictionary books simply look at one film at a time, The Star Wars Book draws connections between books, comics, tv and video games and how each aspect relates to the bigger picture. A topic like the Force might refer to moments from the movies, episodes of The Clone Wars and Rebels, novels and more.

Authors Pablo Hidalgo (Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide, The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary, and many more), Cole Horton (Absolutely Everything You Need to Know) and Dan Zehr compile each subject into easy to read but insightful segments.

Zehr (aka Dan Z) is a first-time Star Wars author here, but longtime host and co-creator of the popular Star Wars fan podcast Coffee With Kenobi, a teacher and a very positive face in the fan community. Its great to see him contributing officially!

The are many wonderful Star Wars books, but only one that bears this title. Do yourself a favour and get the book, The Star Wars Book!

I Know That Star Wars Voice! (Part 1)

Have you ever been watching an animated show and one of the characters sounds really familiar? Like they should be talking about the Force and the Empire? You're not imagining things!

Many actors who appear in the Star Wars movies also act with just their voices for animated TV shows and movies!

Mark Hamill (aka Luke Skywalker) probably has the most voice acting credits of any Star Wars performer. Nearly every animated version of Batman's The Joker has been played by
Hamill since 1992's Batman: The Animated Series. 

He has also appeared in many, many cartoons for kids and adults including The Simpsons, Scooby Doo, Hey Arnold!, Johnny Bravo and Clifford the Big Red Dog!

Hamill may be the Star Wars actor best known for also doing animation acting, but he is far from alone!

If you saw last year's creepy and kooky animated feature The Addams Family you might've noticed a familiar sound to Gomez Addams, the Dad of the family. That voice is none other than Oscar Isaac, better known to fans as Resistance pilot Poe Dameron!

In The Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019), you don't need the hearing of a dog to notice that gruff, annoyed voice of farm dog Rooster sounds a LOT like Han Solo in The Force Awakens. That's actor Harrison

Ford in a rare voice-over performance as the older, wiser Welsh Sheepdog who tries to teach Max the ways of country life.

Maybe rabbit-strength ears will help your hearing to notice Rey herself, actress Daisy Ridley, as the voice of Cottontail in 2018's Peter Rabbit. Cottontail, along with Flopsy and Mopsy are sisters to Peter Rabbit in this retelling of the Beatrix Potter
classic.

Fans of the incredible Disney/Pixar Incredibles movies may

certainly notice that Mr. Incredible's close friend and "Super" Lucious (aka. Frozone) sounds a lot like Jedi Master Mace Windu. He should, because they are both performed by the super Samuel L. Jackson!

In The Lego Movie, fans probably didn't need the Force to sense something familiar about Bad Cop/Good Cop. The dual-personality police officer with a double-sided head is voiced by Liam Neeson, better known as Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn.

There are plenty more examples but we'll save those for next time! Who is your favourite Star Wars actor you've heard in animation? Comment below!

Read, You Must: Complete Vehicles New Edition

A whole lot of Star Wars has happened since the last North American edition of Complete Vehicles!

Despite only being 7 years ago, this book was due for an update. Now available from DK Publishing: Star Wars Complete Vehicles Incredible Cross Sections (New Edition)!

For those of you not familiar with these lavishly illustrated, extremely detailed "Cross Sections" books, here's our previous reviews of The Force Awakens Incredible Cross-Sections and Star Wars Complete Locations.

This new "Complete" version is like a "Best of" of all the previous cross-section vehicle diagrams previously published in various DK books, with the addition of two brand-new spreads: The Knights of Ren's Night Buzzard ship and the massive Sith Star Destroyer, both from The Rise of Skywalker. It is a 264-page treasure trove of rich details, stunning images and tons of information about the vehicles of the Star Wars galaxy.

From the smallest one-person transport to the colossal Death Star, this book spans the entire Skywalker saga. This "New Edition" includes vehicle diagrams from The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One and Solo, all released after the previous 2013 edition.

Since this is a compilation of works from previous books, there is a whole team of authors and illustrators involved. Many of the biggest names in Star Wars books have been involved in this one!

Unlike many of the recent books about Star Wars, this one seems to solely focus on the theatrical movies. There doesn't seem to be any content from The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars Resistance or even the smash hit The Mandalorian. There could easily be a 2nd volume made to focus on the vehicles in those TV series!

Also a noticeable change from previous books is that there are no fold-out pages this time. 

For detail-oriented Star Wars fans, especially those who missed out on previous Cross-Sections books, this hefty compilation of amazing technical illustration is a must-have!