DVD Commentary: Fett Escape!

Published • Written by • Categorized in Fettpedia

george-lucas

George Lucas tangled with the idea of letting Boba Fett escape in Return of the Jedi.

Matt, a visitor to The Boba Fett Fan Club, informs us about the Return of the Jedi revelation:

When watching Return of the Jedi on DVD with the commentary, Lucas mentions that he was contemplating shooting Boba Fett crawling out of the Sarlacc. I really wish he filmed that shot after changing the voice. He needs to make it up some way.

Marvel Comics continued where George Lucas left off when they were comissioned to do a series of Star Wars comics in the mid-1980s. Issue #81 featured an idea that Jawas, while scavenging the wreckage of Jabba’s ship, found Boba Fett in the sand, outside the Sarlacc pit.

In 1996, Tales of the Bounty Hunters, a book licensed by Lucasfilm, followed a storyline of Boba Fett escaping from the Sarlacc. Mark Austin’s novel, The Accursed One Lives, also chronicles a concept for Boba Fett post-Jedi, given the scenario Lucas left us all with in 1983, that Boba Fett fell.

In 1997, during an interview on MTV, which is available to watch exclusively from The Boba Fett Fan Club, George Lucas notes about Boba Fett being killed in the Sarlacc.

The Sarlacc, at the Pit of Carkoon, is the desert monster where Luke Skywalker and company is to be killed by Jabba the Hutt’s henchmen. We here at BFFC like calling the communal part of the site the Sarlacc Bar, which is non-alcoholic these days and open all the time without a cover charge.

Thanks again to Matt for contributing this important story.

Enjoy this post? Consider sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and Mastodon or adding a comment below.

Comments

  1. Katie says:

    I’m glad Lucas didn’t show Fett crawling out of the Sarlacc. It would have taken away from the feeling that you knew Boba Fett would escape and that you would see him again. If you have followed the books and have read “Tales of the Bounty Hunters” you know Fett’s still alive and how he got out. But in the end it doesn’t really matter. Boba Fett is still the greatest bounty hunter out there, Sarlacc escapee or not.

  2. Stormie says:

    I was shocked when i heard that. I did not think that Lucas came with a such idea. He said many times:”He doesn’t survive, he dies, that’s it”. But as he said:”it doesn’t fit” in the DVD, i agree with him.
    Many think that he died a pathetic death and many want him to survive, but I think he died an okay demise(who could die a dramatic death, in that chaos above the Sarlacc????? Who could not scream like a sissy when they fall into the Sarlacc????).
    In ROTJ every “bad guy” dies, The Emperor does so, Jabba does, Boba Fett too. Boba Fett is a bad guy throughout the saga, and he dies in the last film with the others. Maybe he survived and crawled out of the sarlacc, but let it be a mystery…..

  3. Mike says:

    I was hoping on the trioglys specail feature disk there were deleted scenes u could see , so if those were there it would be a good place to see him claiming out cuase it gives his true fans a voice there mind like – “HA! hes out..awsome” but i’ve read the bounty hunter wars or atleast im reading them and it did the same for me soo just knowing that GL now kinda agrees that he lived since he said him climaing out thing also lets us know hw did live GL owns boba although he said he did die i guess he likes the boba fett surviving and has given in soo i think that helps make up for changing the voice

  4. Jonny says:

    I think it is crazy that Boba dies.He should live and end up killing Mace Windu for revenge.Boba is my favorite carector in all the movies he is in. But the just is no reason to kill him.AT ALL!!!!!

  5. Taereal says:

    When first I heard George Lucas saying these things, I wasn’t really sure what to think of it. I am, and have always been, an avid lover of Boba Fett. I had seen him in the movies, and had a dread fascination with him always. When I first learned of the books available about him, I jumped at the chance to learn more of the character. I was never disappointed, and even now, I still love Boba Fett best. But, that’s not the point.

    The point is, rather simply, that I think it’s better that Lucas decided against putting such a scene in RotJ. Boba Fett is a mysterious character, let him remain that way. As Katie said, it retains that feeling, extra scene or not, that we knew we’d be seeing the Fett man again.

  6. Jastel Mareel says:

    Letting Boba live would be nice. In a book (about boba) I read that a man (I forgot who he was) somehow helped boba get out of the saarlac. The story goes that this man landed at Jabbas old palace and made an excape through some underpasses in the lowest of basements at the palace… when walking through “tunnels” he realized that he was actually inside the sarlaac. Thats how he found boba. (I really wish which book I got this from) But let Boba live, he should come back to fight somehow…

  7. Mandalorian Gangsta says:

    I’m glad Boba Fett died in the Sarlacc, it would have destroyed the continuity of the movie if there was a scene showing him climbing out. Plus we would say to ourselves, “hey Boba wtf! you’re not even dead and you’re letting those bitches escape.” Boba didn’t die like some punk who let his enemies escape he met them full force- he battled a fucking jedi for chrissake. It took a sarlacc to take him down, Luke wasn’t even able to kill him. To die in battle is a great honor, to be live and be defeated by your enemies or let them escape is a humiliating shame. For all of you “Tales of the Bounty Hunter” fans out there, I know Boba didn’t really die, but it is implied, and thus we can say that Boba died with his boots on, even if it is only implied that he is dead. Fett’s like a mafia gangster, he died with guns blazing in some dark alley-way in Chicago. If he would have lived (in the movie) he would have been like some fat, out of shape cop who has to take a breather as his enemies flee. To have a shot of a defeated Fett struggling like a bitch out of the Sarlacc, would take the badass out of the Fett we know and love.

  8. Kuat of Kuat says:

    I like the story of Dengar finding Boba Fett on Tatooine half digested by the Sarlacc in part one of the bounty hunter series “The Mandalorian Armor.” (One would think that lucas would have to approve these story lines as offical before he allowed writers to publish them.)

    Killing Boba Fett’s character is a contradiction of his ability in being the galaxies most feared bounty hunter. He is to important to the Star Wars saga to be killed off.

  9. Jamari Lawson says:

    Im not gonna lie, i really do respect George Lucas. Im a die-hard Boba Fett-turned-Jango Fett fan since the 2nd Grade, and Lucas has never done anything that displeased me aside from Jango dying (he could have killed him off in the third movie…)

    The voice change was actually pretty cool i thought, and since Lucas is always going back to update his films (and admirable trait you all must admit) this was not a detail that was going to be looked over, not by a long shot.

    For all you Fett fans who’ve long argued about whether Boba died or not, right there is proof. The fact that Lucas was actually considering shooting that is proof enough.

    I agree Lucas should have shot that scene but…*sigh* maybe when the prequels and the original trilogy are released in some big set that scene may be added *shrugs*

  10. Go Fett says:

    Lucas can at least reedeam himself for the fact that he changed Boba Fett’s voice, by showing that Boba survives the Sarlacc Pit. But what lucas did by changing Boba’s voice will not be forgotten just by a simple seen of Boba crawling out of the Sarlacc.

  11. Wolfy says:

    ummm… boba fett did escape from the sarlacc pit. he blew himself out with a concussion grenade

  12. Fett Groupie says:

    in the words of Charlie Brown… : “Good Grief..”

    Guys.. seriously… what is so desprately horrid about fett’s voice being changed to Tem Morrisons?… Jango IS Boba… He’s a CLONE of Jango… he’s going to sound like him whether you like it or not. Lucas had respect enough for what he made to go back and constantly add and change things to improve the flow of the films. Normally if something didn’t corrispond correctly in two films, people would bitch and moan about it, but no one would do anything to change it. Lucas went back and made things just a TINY bit different to keep the flow of the timeline… but people are still gonna bitch I guess…Too bad people are never satisfied

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


About the Author, Aaron Proctor

Founder and editor of the Boba Fett Fan Club, established in 1996. Aaron curates all of the content for BFFC and also designs/develops the website. He works with a team of volunteers worldwide. When not volunteering here, he's a cinematographer and runs his own production company.

BFFC Member #2

View BFFC Profile