The Book of Boba Fett: "How I’d" Have Written It.
The Book of Boba Fett: "How I’d" Have Written It.
Yep, how I would have written it, if I were Dave Filoni's best friend.
Orignially posted on March 29, 2022 on my Medium blog.
The whole idea of this ScriptDrPete.com is that if I had a shot at changing the scripts for various movies or TV shows, I’d be the last person who should need to touch the script. 😉 What that means is that I am taking the story they are already telling and changing it from there.
Since it seems to me that Disney and/or Lucasfilm didn’t want to let the Book of Boba Fett get too gritty or dark, my version will stay family friendly but show how they could have still made it fun for adults to watch. While I would have gone in a “Boba Fett is a bounty hunter” direction if I were writing this from scratch, I’m also assuming that Disney wouldn’t allow a title character for a Disney show to be a bounty hunter, so I’ll stick to the idea that he becomes a mob boss (not that this makes much more sense but the Force works in mysterious ways).
The opening teaser would establish that Fett suffered an injury aboard Jabba’s sail barge minutes before his confrontation with Luke on the skiff. The injury would be inflicted by Beilert Valance, one of two of his fellow bounty hunters that decided to pay him a surprise visit. The other being Cad Bane (who is also Fett’s former mentor). Bane is there to steal Solo back for the Emperor and wants Fett’s help. Valance is there because he wants to rescue Han as they were in pilot training together at the Imperial Academy. Valance wants revenge for Fett’s recent betrayal. Valance sneaks up behind Fett and places the tip of a blaster barrel against the back of Fett’s neck. Fett moves, Valance pulls the trigger, the blast grazes Fett’s neck. Fett sees things outside the sail barge getting intense and leaves Bane and Valance to do his job for Jabba.
We see the moments on the skiff from Fett’s perspective. His vision is blurry from the pain of the neck wound. He can’t focus. This helps explain why one of the most notorious bounty hunters in the galaxy went down as easily as he did. We see, from his point of view, falling into the sarlacc’s mouth.
After the titles, we jump straight inside the sarlacc and watch Fett going through all of his weapons and gadgets until he is able to basically murder the Sarlacc in the process of escaping it. He passes out on the sand and wakes up as Jawas attack him. He’s still out of it after surviving the sarlacc. He wakes up again, this time naked (the Jawas stole his armor). A dead Jawa lies nearby. He takes the Jawa’s cloak and starts to walk. After walking a long time, he passes out and wakes up in a Tusken encampment, on the floor, chained to a post.
From here, we enter the “Dances with Tuskens” portion of the story. At first, Fett is worried about his own safety. He struggles to escape, but is unable to. He tries to act “scary” to the Tuskens but they laugh at him. They bring him food, requiring them to unchain him so he can eat, Fett takes this opportunity to try to kill an elder of the tribe but is stopped quickly by the tribe’s strongest fighter. A female Tusken, Fett would come to call Warria. Through body language, Fett begins to realize that the Tuskens are not afraid of him and they keep giving him chances to escape, but they stop him every time. Soon he realizes it’s because he is not strong enough to make the trip back to “civilization.” They seem to *care* about his life (no one’s ever done that for Fett). We see Fett and the Tuskens form a mutual respect for each other by teaching each other things and eventually, he is accepted as part of the tribe. Warria takes him hunting baby krayt dragons. We also see Fett come to respect their ways. The key in this part of the story is to see how he slowly loses his brutality in favor of a way of life more respectful to each other. We see him stop being the bounty hunter and begin to see him become a human being.
Fett discovers that the tribe’s land is being used as spice smuggling route by the Pyke Syndicate. He convinces the tribe elders to let he and Warria lead a raid on a spice train. There is a training montage as Fett helps Warria and the rest of the Tuskens learn how to deal with “outsider” technology. They use banthas as stand-ins for the train cars. The raid is mostly successful, but through this process, we see that Fett is more and more connected to this Tusken tribe. While the raid was successful, the most senior member of the Pyke Syndicate aboard the train point out to Fett that there will be another train and it will be better armed. There is a lot of spice that will be transported through this sand corridor.
Fett concludes that there is likely a spice mine on Tatooine that the Pykes have discovered. Using his skills as a bounty hunter, Fett is able to discover the location of the mine while chatting with someone in the Mos Eisley cantina (yes, THAT Mos Eisley cantina). However, before he leaves the cantina, he comes across Mando as he meets with Toro Calican. He follows them on their job to capture Fennec Shand. Fett finds Shand before Mando and Calican do, but he hangs back and watches how Shand works. He decides he likes her style. So, when she is shot by Calican, he takes her to The Modifier who will fix her for free, for now — her parts are programmed to fail in 15 rotations. The Modifier points to the company slogan on the wall of his lab: “Pay me now or pay me later.”
After Shand is fully functional again, they head back to the Tusken encampment on a single stolen speeder. On the way, Fett explains why he saved her. “I need some muscle for a raid on a spice mine. Plus I like your style. You remind me of someone. You’ll like her.”
They arrive to find the encampment is destroyed with bodies of the tribe laying around. Horrified, Fett begins to check every body, looking for Warria. He doesn’t find her. Shand asks if she was his wife. “No, nothing like that. She’s just the greatest warrior I’ve ever known.”
“I remind you of her? I’ll take that compliment! I’ll help you find the people who did this.” But Fett knows who did this — years of being the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy has given him the instincts and the skill to know who did this. It’s the Pykes. But to take them on, he’s going to need credits, a crew… and his armor. He knows where to go for that last part.
First, they take Shand’s ship to Nar Shaddaa where Fett has a safe house with a bunch of credits and weapons stashed. During this trip, Shand tells Fett about her childhood — her parents died when she was young and she had to learn to be tough to survive. Fett can identify with that. (In season 2, Fett discovers that she lied and is actually a princess on her home world but decided young that the royal life was not for her. She concocted the story to sound more legit. Every once in a while we see her doing something more princess-like than bounty hunter-like — admiring a dress or lingering on a piece of jewelry.)
After they’ve loaded up Shand’s ship with tech from Fett’s safe house, Fett heads to a watering hole he recently learned of called Valance’s Place. Shand waits for him on her ship while at Valance’s Place, he orders a “Mandalorian Surprise” from the bartender, who doesn’t know how to make one. The bartender asks the boss who makes it and delivers it to Fett. “You know the last time I had a Mandalorian Surprise, I spent a hundred cycles in cyborg rehab after having my torso reconstructed from the giant bristle brush some nerf herder turned it into. Dank farrik — is that you, Fett? Didn’t know you were a ex-clone trooper. Where’s your armor though — things must be serious.”
“I came to you without the armor because I want you to know that… this is… hard…” Fett says later, in Valance’s office in the back of the bar. Fett continues to have an awkward time admitting that he needs help and that he’s a new man. Fett explains that he needs Valance to convince Bossk, Zuckuss, 4-LOM, Black Krrsantan, and IG-88 to help him take out the Pykes on Tattooine. Mainly because they killed his people and probably have a survivor, who is very important to Fett, as a hostage. After telling him that Bossk and Krrsantan will never work together, Valance asks why Fett came to him. “We all talked about why Valance did the jobs you did. It’s for someone you care about, wasn’t it? Every job was for them. The guys’ll come together for you. Not for me.”
“You never were a people person, Fett.”
Fett assures him that this isn’t just a sympathy mission and that there will be plenty of credits for them, too. Valance agrees to get the crew together. They’ll meet back at the bar in twenty cycles. Fett and Shand head back to Tatooine where they use some of his formerly stashed tech to blast apart the hangar door at Jabba’s palace, allowing him to get his Firespray Gunship back. They then track down Mando and get Fett’s armor back. Mando agrees to help them when they come back with the other hunters.
20 cycles later, in Valance’s back office on Nar Shaddaa, the bounty hunters Fett requested, and Dengar, are there, but they are incredulous. They want to know why they should help Fett considering how many times he hung them out to dry. Fett takes off his helmet and explains that he had found a family with the Tuskens and that it was nothing he expected, nor was having them wiped out. His voice cracks a little as he speaks and they are all instantly convinced that this is not the Boba Fett they all knew and hated. Fett asks Valance why Dengar is here. “He begged to come — he was so excited, I couldn’t say no.”
They take 3 ships back to Tatooine. On the way they run into the fledging Guavian Death Gang who is trying to make a name for themselves by being tough and threatening to anyone they come across. They heard about this new job from the legendary Boba Fett from Bossk and want in but only if Fett is in a position to help them build their reputation — as a syndicate boss. To get the extra muscle, Fett tells them he’s taken over Jabba’s territory and that Fortuna has no idea, YET… the Guavians are impressed and excited to be part of the legendary Boba Fett’s crew.
“Everybody wants a piece of the Fett,” Valance says.
The first place they go is Jabba’s palace. They face little resistance and find Fortuna cowering in a corner. Fett drags him over to the throne and, in front of everyone, asks Fortuna (at gun point) if he will pledge his loyalty to him as the new Daimyo. Fortuna shrugs. “Of course!” Dengar and the Guavians are particularly excited.
Shand has sent out a drone/droid to scope out the mine. From the data gathered, the group of bounty hunters quickly comes up with a plan using their the 3 ships they have between them. Shand, Fett and Mando will go in early on speeder bikes, breach a poorly protected wall bordering the mine compound, and find Warria. Valance will lead the other two ships in Fett’s Firespray Gunship. The two other ships will lay down fire so the Firespray can get in, pick up Fett’s team and then all 3 ships will drop bombs on the mine. The job will go down the following night.
Late that night, Fett is visited outside the palace by Cad Bane, his old mentor. He tells him that he’s doing an unrelated job for the Pykes and he saw a communique come in to their office detailing “your crew’s little plan to wipe out the Pykes’ spice mine. Don’t know why you thought you could trust those guys. Especially that idiot, Dengar.”
Bane adds that the communique was signed Fennec Shand. “I can tell by the tilt of your helmet that you’re surprised.”
“Not surprised. Just disappointed. Someone betrayed me but it wasn’t Shand. She wouldn’t.” They have an intense exchange about how Bane thought he’d trained Fett better than to trust or care about anyone other than himself, just like Bane taught him. Fett admits that he has changed. “You can’t change! You’re Boba Fett! The legendary bounty hunter! People tell stories about you!”
Fett cuts him off but Bane goes onto explain that they are upgrading the mining compound’s defenses and will be ready for Fett’s crew before tomorrow night. “Just wanted you to know so you can scrap your plans and leave the mine alone.”
Fett thanks Bane for the heads-up but admits he doesn’t know why Bane is doing it. “You’ll understand when you’re older, kid.”
Fett tilts his helmet at Bane and then heads back into the palace to wake everyone up. “We’re doing the job tonight.”
Shand sends out her drone/droid again to discover that there is a lot of activity at the mine — more armaments and defense weapons going in but there will be so much activity that Fett should be able to sneak in unnoticed. As planned, Fett, Shand and Mando take speeder bikes to the mine and the others will wait a couple hours and then take 3 other ships, with Valance leading in Fett’s Firespray.
The bikes are left beyond the expected sensor range of the mining compound and Fett, Shand, and Mando continue on foot, using some of Fett’s special tech to avoid sensors as they approach. Fett takes off his armor and puts on his hooded cloak and approaches the poorly protected portion of wall and then uses his gaffi stick to climb up and over. Once on the ground on the other side, he just starts walking around until security catches him, arrests him and takes him to where they hold people, which turns out to be a bunker full of holding cells that are housing slaves the Pykes are using to work the mine. One of the slaves is Warria. Just as one of the older guards is convinced they know Fett from someplace (his face looks so familiar!) Fett just punches the guard and he and Warria start a prison riot. It erupts out of the bunker and before long, Shand and Mando join Fett and Warria just in time for them to find themselves surrounded on the roof of the prison bunker with Pyke thugs surrounding them. The roof is high enough to allow them all to see that three ships are flying low toward the mining complex with the Firespray leading them. “Our ride is here!” Shand says. Mando wonders aloud, “How are we going to fit all these people on 3 ships?”
“We’ll find a way,” Shand says, smiling.
Then, we see an explosion erupt from the Firespray’s left side. The explosion hits one of the other ships as the Firespray crashes into the other sending all three ships in into the sand. A chunk of one of the ship flies toward the compound punching a hole in the wall, taking out several of the Pyke thugs. Some of the ex-slaves jump down with Mando and Fett to snatch up the the thugs former weapons. The riot continues until once again, the Pyke thugs surround the Fett and friends. This time they are all on the ground and are sure this is the end. That’s when blaster fire erupts, taking out all of the thugs. When the smoke clears, IG-88 stands in the middle of the bodies. “You are welcome.”
The rest of the bounty hunters approach with their blasters poised for more thugs. Valance gives the all clear and we can see half of his face is torn off, revealing a chrome endo-skull. “Valance, you just don’t know how to take care of your face, do you?” Fett says.
“It’s this planet. This sand is so coarse,” Valance replies, smiling with the other half of his face, adding “Let’s get to work!”
They head to the explosives warehouse and find a lot of explosives still on their floating pallets. The bounty hunters and some slaves begin pushing the pallets from the warehouse toward the big hole in the middle of the compound that is literally the mine. As they get to the edge, Fett orders everyone to move far from the explosives and then launches the rocket from his jetpack. It hits the pallet in the middle causing a chain reaction explosion as they ground gives way. The ground around the mine starts to fall into the hole and begins chasing everyone even further way as the hole itself gets and bigger bigger. Finally, the hole stops growing and a huge cloud of spice rises up causing everyone to smile goofily. Fett takes off his helmet and is already smiling. He runs over to Valance and gives him a hug.
Later, after Mando calls in a favor, Peli arrives on a small cargo ship and begins loading everyone aboard. Zuckuss tells Fett, “Zuckuss is sorry for his slowness in predicting the bomb Fortuna placed aboard your Firespray. Also, according to the skills of Zuckuss, there is a ninety-six per cent chance Fortuna also sent the communique to the Pykes.”
Later, we see the same scene from the very end of The Mandalorian season 2, where Fett shoots Fortuna dead.
The next evening, everyone sits around a big table and are eating. Fett, at the head of the table explains that “You’re all welcome to stay and work for me. You know me better now than you ever did when we hunted bounties. Do as you wish, but know you’ll always have a place with me… except for you Dengar.” The table erupts with laughter. Fett smiles and mutters, “…and that’s about all the people time I can manage for today.” Warria punches him in the arm. Then Shand punches him in the other arm. He tilts his helmet. “This not a competition!”
Shand leans toward him. “We still need to get the man who ordered the hit on your people.”
Fett puts on his helmet and nods his slowly, as sinister-looking as ever.
END CREDITS SCENE
We return to the mine compound — the head Pyke in charge stands, staring out at the huge hole that now exists where the mine was before. Bane approaches him. “Whoa, what happened here? Have some structural problems or somethin?” The head Pyke shrugs and tosses him a big bag of credits. “ None of your business. You don’t have any archeological experience, do you Bane?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“Damn. We’ve got some excavating to do,” the head Pyke says as he looks down into the crater.
“I know an archeologist,” says a woman, behind Pyke and Bane, off camera. They turn to face her. Bane cracks a big grin as the head Pyke in charge speaks. “Lady Qi’ra!”
Bane smiles at her… “Well, well, you never fail to surprise.”
(Lady Qi’ra runs the Crimson Dawn syndicate, last seen in live-action form in Solo: A Star Wars Story and in comic book form in Star Wars: Crimson Reign. The archaeologist she refers to is Doctor Aphra—also from the Star Wars comics and she is an AMAZING character.)
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And that’s it. I tried to better establish a character arc for Fett and Shand that would leave things open for their relationship to open up more in season 2. I also thought the female Tusken was wasted and could have been a lot of fun to keep around. Mainly, I wanted there to be a lot more behind Fett’s actions—like his past and his past compatriots. I also wanted there to be a clearer, more fun way to establish why the Pykes would be on Tatooine. Along those lines, tying it back into the Sith at the end is my attempt to start to justify WHY WE KEEP GETTING STORIES ABOUT TATOOINE! Seriously, for a planet that is often thought of as the farthest from the center of any action in the galaxy, it sure sees a lot of action!! Having something from the Sith buried deep under the sands of Tatooine could explain why Palpatine dumped Anakin’s mom there in the first place.
Was The Book of Boba Fett a good show already? Well, my wife describes it as being a “Star Wars show” so on some level it was, but you have to admit, if they’d done it my way, it’d been a lot more fun.