Star Wars Insider – July 2019

52 / STAR WARS INSIDER

FINDING YOUR FETT

the unique vessel that would later
be named as Slave I. “I remember
seeing a radar dish and stopping
to sketch it to see if I could get
something out of it,” he once
revealed. “The original design I had
was round, but when you looked at
it from the side, it became elliptical.
For some reason when I drew it,
George thought it was elliptical, so
that’s what it became.”
While his ship was taking shape,
the bounty hunter’s iconic look
was still receiving some fi ne tuning.
One of the Fett costumes was sent
back to the U.K. for use in fi lming
at Elstree Studios, during which the
paint job was updated a fi nal time
before shooting. The red and yellow
gauntlets and the jetpack were
painted green to match the rest of
the armor, although for fi lming Star
Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) they
reverted back to Johnston’s colorful
original scheme for the jetpack, with

both gauntlets now painted red.

On April 25-26, 1979, Irvin

Kershner fi lmed the bounty

hunter scene aboard Darth

Vader’s ship with Jeremy Bulloch

as Boba Fett, and on June 21, the

pivotal carbon-freezing-chamber

scenes were fi lmed. Bulloch also

appeared as the Imperial offi cer

who used Leia as a human shield

on Cloud City, but this caused a

scheduling clash with shooting

of the scenes where Darth Vader,

Fett, and Lando Calrissian

negotiate the fate of Han Solo.

For those shots, second assistant

director Steve Lanning cast John

Morton (who played Dak Ralter,

Luke’s gunner in the Battle of Hoth),

to stand in as Boba Fett.

Bulloch fi lmed his last scene for

The Empire Strikes Back on August

23, 1979, working with the second

unit to fi lm the brief shot of Fett at

the controls of Slave I. In February

1980, during the post-production

phase—and only a few months

before the fi lm’s release—uncredited

actor Jason Wingreen added the

fi nal key component to Boba Fett

by recording his four imortal lines

of dialogue, which took just 20

minutes to lay down. The Star Wars

galaxy had fi nally found its Fett.

07 The “Super

trooper” was

envisaged as

an advanced

stormtrooper.

08 Jeremy

Bulloch as

Boba Fett,

on the set of

The Empire

Strikes Back.

09 Ralph

McQuarrie’s

“Super

trooper”

concept art.

07

08

09

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