How The Clone Wars Changed Boba Fett's Origin | Screen Rant
Boba Fett's Clone Wars-era adventures were depicted in a Legends-era book series, but Star Wars: The Clone Wars retold his story in canon.
Boba Fett’s experiences during the Clone Wars were the focus of the six-book Star Wars Boba Fett series, but Star Wars: The Clone Wars tells a different version of Boba’s bounty hunter origins. The Boba Fett books are part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which was the official Star Wars continuity before it was renamed Legends and made into an alternate timeline in 2014. The Clone Wars may have debuted before the Legends rebranding, but the beloved animated series often conflicted with other Legends material and was the only property other than the original six saga films to become part of the new continuity. Some fans consider The Clone Wars to only be part of the canon continuity because of this. The two different versions of Boba’s origins are one of many differences between canon’s The Clone Wars and the Legends-era Clone Wars multimedia project.
As shown in the Legends-era Boba Fett books, Boba evades Republic and CIS forces on Geonosis and Raxus Prime after witnessing his father’s death in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. After near-fatal encounters with deadly bounty hunters Aurra Sing and Durge, Boba manages to find a home on Tatooine in Jabba the Hutt’s palace. There, Boba begins his career as a bounty hunter, eventually re-sizing and using his father’s Mandalorian armor as well. Towards the end of the Clone Wars, the young Boba travels to Coruscant to avenge his father by killing the Jedi Master Mace Windu. Their intense battle is interrupted by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who privately assures Boba that Windu is a shared adversary. Though Boba’s revenge is unsuccessful, he proves himself to be a formidable bounty hunter and worthy of Jango’s Mandalorian legacy.
The Clone Wars introduced Boba Fett in the three-part season 2 finale. Working alongside fellow bounty hunters Aurra Sing and Bossk, Boba attempts to kill Mace Windu as he did in Legends. Here, Boba is less concerned with becoming a bounty hunter than he is avenging Jango. Boba’s attempted revenge is thwarted by Ahsoka Tano and Plo Koon, and Fett ends up in a Republic prison. In later appearances, Boba becomes a fledgling bounty hunter as he did in Legends, though he doesn’t use Jango’s armor quite yet. In an unfinished story arc, Boba was set to receive advanced training from Cad Bane, and the arc potentially would have ended with Bane’s death at Boba’s hands.
While they’re ultimately different iterations of Boba’s origin, there are some similarities between the two. Boba’s interactions with Aurra Sing in Legends are hostile while the two are allies in canon, but her prominence in both versions is notable. Unsurprisingly, Boba tries but fails to kill Mace Windu in both iterations, though spends more time honing his skills in Legends. In canon, Boba abandons his goal of revenge upon being incarcerated, while he allows Palpatine’s machinations to kill Windu in Legends. In either version, Boba manages to become a lethal and reliable bounty hunter by the end of the Clone Wars, where he’s only thirteen years old.
Unfortunately, The Clone Wars disregarding the six Boba Fett books was just one of many examples of the series contradicting established Expanded Universe lore. The Clone Wars had Anakin and Count Dooku duel numerous times during the war, retconned Eeth Koth’s death on Geonosis, turned Barriss Offee into a villain, and overhauled Dathomir and its Witches. The show’s positive reception by critics and fans is well-deserved, but the series is incompatible with Legends lore, especially the Clone Wars multimedia project. If the Boba Fett book series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars are treated as part of two different continuities, one can enjoy both iterations of Boba Fett’s origin without contradiction.