Boba Fett Unchained: What Disney Can Learn From Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western

It goes without saying, Quentin Tarantino’s controversial Django Unchained is undoubtedly an inappropriate film to draw inspiration from for the family oriented “House of Mouse.” However, it does have some lessons to teach.

Disney is having trouble trying to write a Boba Fett movie that will keep the notorious bounty hunter’s reputation intact, while also drawing in a family audience. Disney has had their hit and misses with more mature-themed movies, like the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, but with Boba Fett, the demand for a great story is much higher, especially with how critical fanboys are of the properties they love. Tarantino has never been one to care what people may like, he just comes up with an idea, puts it on paper and follows through, making a movie he wants to make that he shares with the world, whether they want it or not. His most recent film, Django Unchained, was critically acclaimed, but also pissed off many people, who called the western about a slave racist, violent, and disturbing. While it may be those things, underneath, it is an entertaining adventure story about two bounty hunters, going undercover to save a woman one of them loves, and that underlying plot is what Disney needs to look at to find the inspiration needed to make a good Fett movie.

However, now that the Boba Fett movie, still unofficially, has a director and a writer, it may seem that there already is an idea good enough to push forward, and that’s fine. Not every Star Wars spin-off needs to be about fan-favorite characters. Once the Boba Fett, and possibly the Han Solo movies, prove there is a market for Star Wars spin-offs, I’m confident we’ll soon get all original Star Wars spin-off introducing new, memorable characters we know nothing about. Following in George Lucas’ footsteps when developing these “new” ideas, it’d be best to look at what other great movies have done, even one as recent as Django Unchained.

I mention Django Unchained because while everyone likes a good lightsaber duel, most Star Wars fans, especially the male demographic, love the bounty hunters. There’s just something about living by their own rules, their own code, and living a morally grey life that many people find appealing. So taking from Tarantino’s new “classic,” we can get a story about two new bounty hunters who meet under strange circumstances and discover they are working toward the same goal. They could’ve started as enemies, but with their common bond, they work together to overcome a greater obstacle and wind up becoming two of the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunters operating in Boba Fett’s absence between Return of the Jedi & Episode VII, until his inevitable return, in which he, or they, will have a new obstacle to overcome.

What I rely want to see taken from Django Unchained is the infiltration schemes Dr. King Shultz and Django Freeman come up with to get their marks. While Boba Fett is known for “hunting” in his iconic green Mandalorian armor, the two new bounty hunters will always be unrecognizable as they capture their prey. It would make for some very tense, sometimes comedic, scenes as they work together to get closer to that big mark they are both hunting for. Hell, their big mark could actually be hunting down a self-exiled Fett, who went into hiding after being humiliated during Return of the Jedi and is now, going by a different name. By the end of the movie, the two bounty hunters team up with a revitalized and vengeful Fett who wants to turn the tables on whoever hired the two new protagonists to hunt him down. Once the movie is over, Fett has reclaimed his badass reputation, the other two hunters acquired a rep of their own, and with that the stage is set for Fett to continue with his own ideas.

I know my little “fan-fiction” is sloppy and dumb, but the point I want to make is this: by utilizing the plot over everything else of Django Unchained, Disney could produce a great new adventure story that doesn’t need to be about any known Star Wars characters, but could be if they wanted to. Ironically, Django from Django Unchained and Jango from Attack of the Clones, are namesakes of the original 1966 spaghetti western Django, starring Franco Nero and directed by Sergio Corbucci, so it could work out. In fact, here’s my first casting suggestion: everyone’s favorite Firefly captain Nathan Fillion could play one of the new hunters!