The incredible comic book artist and illustrator Phil Noto set our hearts aflutter when he drew Boba Fett modeled after one of our favorite men working in entertainment.
Taika Waititi’s quirky vision turned Thor: Ragnarok into a fantastically fun superhero movie—effectively giving Thor a new, vibrantly colored lease on life—and the multi-talented director is also an actor. He played Korg in Ragnarok, as well as Viago in his What We Do in the Shadows, and he’s appeared in a variety of movies and television for the past two decades.
Perhaps Waititi’s background as an actor was on the mind of Phil Noto when he drew Waititi in full Boba Fett gear. Disney recently announced a standalone Fett movie centered around the infamous bounty hunter, and Noto has now given us the Fett we deserve.
I’m not going to be able to picture anyone else in the role until official casting—psst, Disney, take notice:
As Stuff.co.nz points out in compiling a list of other Kiwi actors who could play Fett, “2002’s Attack of the Clones established the Kamino-born Boba and his ‘clone’ Dad Jango as very much Polynesian in looks and sporting our distinctive vowel sounds.” In Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett is played by New Zealander Temuera Morrison, who is of Māori descent. Actor Daniel Logan, also Māori, played a youthful Boba Fett in Clones at the age of 14. The Māori heritage that Morrison, Logan, and Waititi all share means that Waititi as Fett would stay true to the character’s cultural incarnation.
It’s essential that the Boba Fett film cast an actor of color as Fett, and he should be a Māori actor; as our Princess Weekes explained, this will be the first Star Wars movie with an actor of color leading an eponymous film. If Fett is whitewashed, we will riot in the streets, but I don’t think Disney or director James Mangold are stupid enough to make that kind of decision. I’m crossing my fingers and my toes for good measure.
Waititi would make a compelling choice for Fett. While we have no idea when in the Star Wars timeline the Fett movie will take place, it’d be nice if this wasn’t just another “young X” take on a character. Waititi, at 42, could embody Fett’s later adventures, especially since it seems that he may have survived that Sarlacc pit, and a contemporary Fett could potentially appear in other Star Wars properties. Who knows—maybe Boba Fett has a sly sense of humor as yet undiscovered.
Casting dreams aside, Noto’s depiction of Waititi as Fett is just stunning. Noto knows his Star Wars well, having worked on comics like Chewbacca and Poe Dameron, and I couldn’t love this more if I tried.
Oher Star Wars creatives are thumbs-upping Noto’s vision:
Oh, man.
I’ve written a fair amount of Boba Fett, and this really does kinda work.@philnoto drawing @TaikaWaititi as #BobaFett. pic.twitter.com/D9bbCUS79s— Tom Taylor (@TomTaylorMade) May 28, 2018
Just think of the pun potential, friends.
‘What We Do In The Sarlacc’ or ‘The Hunt For The Wookie People’.
— Dan Liles (@DanLiles78) May 29, 2018
From our lips to Disney’s ears, please.
(image: Phil Noto on Instagram, Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons)
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