Star Wars Spin-Off Films Include Han Solo, Boba Fett

Looks like Joe Johnston may get to direct that Boba Fett feature film after all. Following hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement that the Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm were producing at least two and probably more films based on characters from the Star Wars universe, but not actually Episodes VII, VIII and IX comes news that two of those films currently planned are movies revolving around the origins of Han Solo and Boba Fett. According to Entertainment Weekly, both stories would be origin tales for the characters, set immediately before they joined the cast in the original trilogy, with the option for a bit of flexibility in that regard. Han Solo will reportedly be set between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, which will mean a new actor will have to be cast to fill Harrison Ford's shoes. The space smuggler will likely have directors lined up around the block to direct his installment; while saying he probably wouldn't take on a Star Wars movie, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez recently said,  "If there was something that somebody said, 'Here, Han Solo, his own adventures.' I'd go do that." Boba Fett's movie would take place in the space between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, although there's also a possibility it could take place between Empire and Return of the Jedi, during the time when he's working for Jabba the Hutt, having just captured Han Solo. Joe Johnston, director of Captain America and The Rocketeer, originally designed original look of Boba Fett. He has made no secret in the past of the fact that he'd like another crack at the character. Whether the two films are interconnected or not is unclear from the report, although it seems likely that the two films could work together to fill in some backstory between the two characters. EW points out that, in addition to the lead characters themselves, a return to the time period of the original trilogy would allow the filmmakers to use characters like Darth Vader and Jabba The Hutt while still in their "prime," rather than the fledgling versions seen in the prequels. Those characters (as well as Boba Fett) have been seen as valuable intellectual property and speculation has had them appearing somehow or another in the sequels; these spinoffs could liberate Episodes VII through IX from the need to use those characters while still keeping them vital in the minds of the fans.