Star Wars: Return of the Jedi's Main Villain Was Supposed to be Boba Fett

Iconic Star Wars character Boba Fett met what looked like his demise near the beginning of Return of the Jedi, but according to fan relations director Craig Miller, the galaxy's deadliest bounty hunter originally had much grander plans in place for him.

In an interview with Inverse, Miller talked about George Lucas's original plans for the space fantasy series, which were much different than what actually came to be. Miller said that Boba Fett was originally intended to be the villain in Return of the Jedi and that Luke and Darth Vader's clash would happen in another trilogy.

"Originally Boba Fett was set up in Empire [Strikes Back] as a character, and the third movie’s plot was going to be more about Boba Fett rescuing Han Solo and all of that," Miller said. "Boba was going to be the main villain… That was set up, why he was taking Han Solo away, why there was a thing with him in the Christmas special.

"When George decided not to make a third trilogy, he completely jettisoned that story line, which is why in the first ten minutes, Boba Fett gets bumped into and falls into the mouth of a giant monster... So he took what was planned for the third trilogy, which was the confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader, and the battle with the Emperor, and that got squished down from three movies to one movie. And that became the plot of [Return of the] Jedi."

Miller added that Lucas had planned to make 12 movies but decided he'd only make one more (Return of the Jedi) after he felt fatigue from the series' popularity.

"I remember sitting in a mixing room with George, working on Empire, and he told me he was just going to make the third movie, which didn’t have a title at that point, and then stop," Miller said. "He was going to retire from making big movies and make experimental movies. And that’s why the whole plot of the third movie, what became Return of the Jedi, completely changed."

The Star Wars creator would eventually make more movies in the series, though it was 15 years until the next movie, The Phantom Menace, was released. He went on to make two more movies, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, before he sold Star Wars to Disney. You can read the rest of the interview over on Inverse.

Lucas confirmed last year that The Force Awakens strayed from his original vision for Episode VII. Despite the creative differences, Lucas "really liked" the new Star Wars movie and said, "[T]he fans are going to love it." The Force Awakens was well-received critically, garnering an 81 on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. It was also a hit at the box office and passed Avatar as the highest grossing movie in the US this past January.