The words bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe tend to be synonymous with one character: Boba Fett. The character and his memorable armor have appeal, to be sure, but he's not the only being for hire in the galaxy. Droids, aliens, and humanoids have all taken credits for hunting down individuals from the heart of the Empire to the Outer Rim. They often fend for themselves in order to make the maximum amount of profit, but sometimes they team up Ocean's 11 style when the job calls for different talents and specialties... and also has a gigantic enough payout that it's still sizable when it's split multiple ways. That last part is key.
In the Star Wars movies, we've spent time around the Fetts, Zam Wesell, and 4-LOM to name a few. The animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars introduced the likes of the stylish hat-wearing Cad Bane and Sugi. Dengar keeps appearing in stories in the current storytelling universe for some reason. But in the days of the Expanded Universe/Legends books and comics, the plots mostly focused on the bounty hunters we met in the original trilogy.
More than a few of those tales are suited for the big screen. They featured adventure, capers, illicit hot spots and underworld environments; it's just meant to be. And yeah, though I'm still going to bring up Boba Fett, you could substitute in another bounty hunter we're familiar with with almost the same effect. Here are some bounty hunter stories we have in mind for possible Star Wars spinoff films...
What about a horror style standalone film about a bounty hunter? This one is Boba Fett-centric. Okay, maybe he is the only bounty hunter that matters. (Don't tell anyone I said that).
Published in 1995, Tales from Jabba's Palace by Kevin J. Anderson collected short stories about a number of the sketchy patrons of Jabba's home. One of the shorts focused on Boba Fett and his time inside the Sarlacc. "A Barve Like That: The Tale of Boba Fett" goes into what happened when Boba fell in and the over-a-thousand-year digestion process began. Since canon has hinted at Boba surviving his terrible accident on Tatooine in Return of the Jedi, a story demonstrating how he escaped would fit right in.
But it gets cooler and weirder. While Boba's stuck inside the guts of the Sarlacc in the Great Pit of Carkoon, he encounters the creature's previous victims – including the first ever person to have the misfortune of being swallowed. Susejo was being digested for about 4,000 years by the time Boba joined him. He sort of merged into the Sarlacc and his personality became one with the being's personality. Susejo communicated with Boba, telling him about what it was like to have his body absorbed. Eww. It's a terrifying and incredibly bizarre story. If it was framed like a natural disaster/survival style horror film, a la Open Water, it could hit the right mix of weird stuff.
Imagine the state of the galaxy just before the Battle of Endor. The Empire suffered a massive blow at the Battle of Yavin, but they tried to cover it up. They did bounce back a little with the Battle of Hoth. Citizens not belonging to either organization might not sense the enormity of the stakes (especially with the Empire controlling the media), but people like bounty hunters would be in the know. Being current on information and who has credits to pay for what is important for them to do their jobs and be profitable. The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy by K.W. Jeter, published in the late '90s, kind of explored that.
The story was told via flashbacks, as Boba recovered from his time in the Sarlacc and Dengar cared for him -- aww. The plot explores a bit about the time of the Bounty Hunters Guild (Boba was self-employed and operated outside the guild's rulebook), and that's the notion from this series that's prime for mining. What about using the flashbacks to see what the galaxy was like for the bounty hunters during the Galactic Civil War?
They could use the group of bounty hunters introduced in The Empire Strikes Back as the gateway into the Bounty Hunters Guild. The story would be heavy on action, underworld manipulation, and politics. Think about taking a deep dive into an assassin style guild in the world of Westeros in Game of Thrones. Let's see the Bounty Hunters Guild trying to operate and manage power struggles and members who want to go freelance in the midst of a galaxy-wide conflict -- it could work.
After Boba Fett left Cloud City with a frozen in carbonite Han Solo, what happened? We know he eventually delivered Solo to Jabba's doorstep, but the smuggler had a high price on his head. The Shadows of the Empire comic by writer John Wagner and artist Kilian Plunkett delves into how dangerous Boba's cargo was. Picture this: Take the idea and turn it into a comedy with someone trying to foil Boba at every turn. I particularly like the idea of someone trying to distract him while another group goes aboard his ship and tries to sneak off with the slab of Han.
Could a Star Wars spin-off actually go mostly comedic, and do so with a beloved character like Boba Fett at the center of it? There's only one way to find out...
Since I mentioned Ocean's 11, let's talk about the book which was in the vein of that movie. Timothy Zahn's Scoundrels from 2013 brought together an unlikely group for a heist. The focus of the story was on one Han Solo, who, let's be honest, was just a few steps removed from being a bounty hunter with his smuggling and pirating profession. There are differences, but they're similar enough to fall into the same class (O.K., maybe not according to a roleplaying game).
Anyway. Han assembled a team of rogues to help him crack a practically impenetrable safe in order to earn a pile of dollars and maybe actually pay off all his debts to Jabba the Hutt. Spoilers: That's never going to happen. Han goes more for thieves, electronics experts, and someone with a perfect memory rather than bounty hunters, but it's not hard to imagine his crew picking up cash on the side by going on the trail.
An ensemble crew following along with a plot like this is what I want to see in a spinoff film instead of a solo featuring Boba Fett or Cad Bane. Either character could take the place of Han in this story (never mind that there's a twist involving Boba near the end of the book) and call back members of their old crews from the Clone Wars days to help them with the burglary. The team would be older and more experienced, and their history could make for a more lighthearted and less gritty bounty hunter film. The big job could be set on a dusty planet like Tatooine for maximum Western effect.
If you could pick any bounty hunter to focus a standalone film on – putting the popularity of said character aside – who would you choose? Would you go back to the Expanded Universe for material? Tell me in the comments.
Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN. She likes Star Wars a little. You can follow her on on Twitter at @amy_geek.
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