The Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. Despite his relatively brief roles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Boba Fett quickly became a favorite among viewers, thanks to his enigmatic and dangerous qualities, distinctive armor, and mutual respect for the dreaded Darth Vader. Naturally, Boba Fett was also a major character in numerous Legends-era non-movie properties back when Legends was the official Star Wars canon.

2002’s Attack of the Clones and its adjacent Legends-era materials fully fleshed out Boba Fett’s origin. The Mandalorian bounty hunter (and Mand’alor) Jango Fett became the template for the Republic Clone Army, but requested one unaltered clone to raise as a son. Boba Fett’s existence is owed to Jango honoring the dying request of his mentor and friend, Rozatta, seeing his son as both his and the late Jaster Mereel’s legacy. Before Attack of the Clones, however, other Legends-era materials already explored Boba Fett’s backstory.

Boba Fett's New Backstory Caused Problems For The Expanded Universe

Marvel’s classic Star Wars comics were the first property to explore both Mandalorian culture and Boba Fett’s origins. The Mandalorian supercommando Fenn Shysa explained that Boba Fett was once his commanding officer during the Clone Wars, but after the disastrous mission to Norval II, Fett abandoned the Mandalorian Protectors he once led and became a bounty hunter. The Dark Empire comics would seemingly contradict this, however, with the Dark Side Elite Baddon Fass and Zasm Katth stating that Boba Fett was a stormtrooper who killed his superior officer.

The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett, a 1996 short story by Daniel Keys Moran, appeared to have contradicted Boba Fett’s established backstory yet again, establishing Fett as having once been a Journeyman Protector on the planet Concord Dawn, whose real name is Jaster Mereel. After killing his superior officer, Mereel became a bounty hunter who operated under the alias Boba Fett. This backstory did not necessarily contradict the Marvel and Dark Empire origins, but it was certainly incompatible with Boba’s Attack of the Clones origin – for a time.

How Star Wars Fixed Boba Fett's Backstory Problems

Boba Fett’s origin was left seemingly convoluted by two comics, a short story, and one of the saga films, yet Legends-era materials managed to make every story remain canonical within the then-Star Wars Expanded Universe. The Mandalorian Protector referred to as Boba Fett in Marvel’s comics was Spar – a rogue ARC trooper who deserted and became a Separatist and Jango Fett’s successor as the Mand’alor. Spar was known as the “son of Jango Fett,” leading many, like Fenn Shysa, to assume that he was Boba Fett.

Boba Fett would eventually succeed Fenn Shysa as the Mand’alor, with Shysa having succeeded Spar.

Boba Fett’s Last One Standing Backstory was preserved as well. Shortly after the Clone Wars, Boba Fett moved to Concord Dawn (Jango Fett’s homeworld) and became a Journeyman Protector (Concord Dawn’s law enforcement), but was exiled after he killed Lenovar, his corrupt superior officer. Boba’s Jaster Mereel alias, apparent leadership of the Clone Wars-era Mandalorian Protectors, and even the belief that he was a stormtrooper were all knowingly left uncorrected by Boba Fett to obfuscate his true background.

Continuity Problems Are Inevitable, It's How You Handle Them

Continuity issues are, unfortunately, inevitable in any massive, multimedia entertainment franchise, especially ones that remain active for decades, like Star Wars. The way that Legends-era creators smoothed out these contradictions, however, speaks to one of the old Expanded Universe’s best traits. Retroactive continuity – retcons – was frequently deployed in the Legends era to eliminate continuity snarls without removing stories from the canon. Similar retcons, for instance, were used to make the descriptions of the Clone Wars in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy coexist in the same continuity as the prequel films and original Clone Wars multimedia project.

By contrast, the modern Star Wars canon, which supplanted the Legends continuity in 2014, is also rife with continuity issues, but the new timeline deploys retcons differently. Rather than smoothing out the continuity while keeping every story canonical, the modern canon simply has newer properties superseding older ones. For example, the pilot episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch replaced Greg Weisman’s Star Wars: Kanan – The Last Padawan, giving Kanan Jarrus a completely different Order 66 backstory.

The Star Wars franchise’s original Legends continuity and modern canon each have fundamentally different approaches to continuity as a storytelling concept. The Legends continuity strived to keep all properties canonical while the modern canon allows (and even cultivates) continuity snarls, treating Star Wars as a folk tale of sorts. Thanks to the Legends continuity’s retcons, Boba Fett’s origin in Attack of the Clones and his three previous origin stories are all technically canonical parts of the original timeline.