While fans continue to count down the days until Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a decades-old mystery from A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back has finally been solved. Starting today, October 3, fans can purchase the new 40th-anniversary anthology book entitled Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, which features 40 stories from 40 different writers that all celebrate the colorful characters within the Star Wars universe. The solved mystery in question revolves around Boba Fett, who, we reported last week, would be voiced by Jon Hamm in the audiobook version of the anthology.

Boba Fett was first introduced to fans in 1980's Empire Strikes Back but when George Lucas released his Special Edition cuts of the entire Star Wars trilogy in 1997, he included a scene with Boba Fett in the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, where he's seen standing alongside Jabba the Hutt when Jabba confronts Han Solo (Harrison Ford) about his unpaid debt. That tiny scene explains why Boba is included in this Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View story entitled "Added Muscle," written by Paul Dini, which not only sheds some light on the added scene from A New Hope, but also explains another scene in Empire Strikes Back, where Darth Vader was meeting with a number of bounty hunters to bring back the rebels alive, before turning to Boba Fett specifically and stating, "No disintegrations." That line was never explained, until this book was published, which reveals that Vader was still mad about an earlier disintegrating incident. Here's an excerpt from the book below, which goes into the New Hope special edition scene and also the "No disintegrations" scene from Empire Strikes Back.

"Jabbathe Hutt 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."

Paul Dini explained in an interview with USA Today that the entire story, which is set during the events of A New Hope, is told as, "a monologue going through Fett's head while he backs up Jabba and stares down Han and Chewie." While this story is told during the events of A New Hope (at least the Special Edition version), it was never exactly confirmed when Boba Fett disintegrated those rebel spies on Coruscant, but it seems that Vader never forgot it. In case the reader might think it's just a coincidence, the story goes on to mention "no disintegrations" in the next excerpt as well, which you can see below.

"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."

The excerpt debuted on USA Today, but fans can pick up the full anthology starting today, featuring this story and 39 more that gives fans a new perspective on certain characters and story lines. We still have a few months left until Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15, so it's possible there will be even more books released between now and then that solve even more obscure mysteries from this galaxy far, far away.