Boba Fett has officially made his return to the new Star Wars canon. And he's being played by Jon Hamm. It may not be in a movie (yet) but the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy has returned in the new novel, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View. The book collects 40 shorts stories from all around the Star Wars universe, and one of those stories just so happens to be about Boba Fett. Now, a new excerpt from the book has been released, previewing Jon Hamm's performance.
USA Today revealed the clip, which comes from the story titled Added Muscle. This particular story was written by Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series). As it turns out, this story actually takes place during the famous scene that was added for the 1997 Star Wars special editions, which features Jabba the Hutt confronting Han Solo. In the background, Boba Fett appeared briefly in that scene. This story tells that event from his perspective. Dini feels that Jon Hamm was the perfect guy to bring Boba Fett to life for this particular story.
"As Don Draper, Jon excelled at playing a character who was ruthless, cunning, and yet undeniably charismatic. There's a lot of that in Fett. Boba is stopping over on Tatooine when he's called on by his old associate Jabba the Hutt to help collect a debt. Naturally this is the money owed to Jabba by Han Solo. The story is a monologue going through Fett's head while he backs up Jabba and stares down Han and Chewie."
Boba Fett is one of the more interesting characters in the Star Wars universe. Even with very little screen time, he's become one of the most enduring characters in the history of the franchise and fans have always wanted more from him, especially after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. This story gives us more, and it also answers an age-old question about why Darth Vader felt the need to warn Fett about "disintegrations" in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Here's the full excerpt from Added Muscle.
"Jabba had said to meet him at Docking Bay 94. Told me it was a collection job and he needed some insurance. One look at the duds he dragged along confirmed this. Not a pro in the lot. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the whispers of surprise when I walked onto the scene. That's right, boys. Fett's here. Do me a favor and fall to the side after you're hit. I really don't want to trip over your idiot corpses once the shooting starts. Sorry, if the shooting starts. No reason to get excited yet. Okay, Wook. There are two ways this is going down. One, we have a nice little chat, Jabba gets his money from Solo, and we all leave happy. Two, someone gets anxious, zip zip, Jabba's rid of one deadbeat, and I get a new scalp for my collection. No guesses which one I prefer. Originally, I wasn't supposed to be a part of this. That's what I get, I guess, sticking around Tatooine to snag some Imperial coin. I was supposed to be off this dust ball yesterday, but I picked up trooper buzz that Vader was looking for a couple of runaway droids. Figured I'd collect the bounty and square myself with the headman at the same time. He's still got a mad on over those rebel spies I crisped on Coruscant. Idiots came at me with ion disruptors. What, they thought I wouldn't carry a weapon accelerator? Flash, boom, three tiny ash piles. Tried to collect and Lord "No Disintegrations!" refused to pay without bodies. My word's not good enough, apparently. Reckoned I'd make up the loss by finding his droids and holding out for twice the reward. No go on that. Trailed one until its footprints were wiped out by a Jawa sandcrawler. Followed those treads a way until I found someone had wiped out the Jawas, too. 'Someone' meaning amateurs trying to fake a Tusken raid. Probably stormtroopers, judging by the random blast shots. Some might call them precise. Me, I say they can't hit the butt end of a bantha. At least they had brains enough to take out everyone who had seen the droids. Hard luck on the sizzled hicks I found at that torched moisture farm. Had a look-see and discovered there were three settlers living there, not two. Betting the third ran with the droids. I'll hunt around after I'm done here. Vader may triple the bounty if I bring him the fugitive along with the droids. Yeah, I know, intact corpse, 'no disintegrations.' Till then, here I stand, adding some credibility to the collection of bums and bugs Jabba calls muscle. Figures he'd want us to shake down Solo, the biggest loser in the galaxy. I could just pop him for target practice, but I never work for free."
Star Wars: A Certain Point of View is set for release on October 3 and, if you get the audiobook, it includes performances by Jonathan Davis, Ashley Eckstein, Janina Gavankar, Neil Patrick Harris, January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Carol Monda, Daniel José Older and Marc Thompson. Star Wars fans will recognize names like Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Janina Gavankar from the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront II. You can listen to Jon Hamm's excerpt from Added Muscle over at USA Today.
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