Speaking with the Austin Chronicle and with The Book of Boba Fett just days away, Robert Rodriguez discussed his own relationship with the legendary bounty hunter, from his own early years as a Fett fan to the making of the show itself.
Boba Fett was a perfect fit for Rodriguez, whose movies are filled with antiheroes like Machete, El Mariachi, From Dusk Till Dawn’s Seth Gecko, and the vengeful bulldozer Marv in Sin City. But the pairing almost never happened, and the opportunity caught the filmmaker by surprise. He knew his old friend Jon Favreau was producing The Mandalorian, and when he saw the first few episodes of season 1 Rodriguez wrote the Iron Man director to compliment his work. “He wrote back and said, ‘Hey, thanks. Any time you want to come play, let me know.’ I wrote him and said, ‘Anytime, anywhere.’ So he wrote back again right away and said, ‘Can I call you tomorrow?’ He called me the next day and said, ‘I need you to bring some of that Alita magic, because I just lost a director for this episode, and we need to start right now. Could you come tomorrow?’ ‘Oh, yeah, I can come tomorrow.'”
The two friends had both left a little something out. Rodriguez was knee-deep in editing We Can be Heroes, “but I signed up anyway.” At the same time, Favreau omitted to mention that his episode, “The Tragedy,” was the full onscreen ass-kicking return of Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), last seen heading for a new definition of pain and suffering as he was slowly digested over a thousand years in the belly of the all-powerful Sarlacc.
But appearances can be deceiving when it comes to this merciless merc. “When I saw the script and saw Boba was in it, I didn’t know if he was going to stick around. It wasn’t until I finished that episode that [Favreau] said, ‘I’m doing a series, and I’d like you to be a part of it.'”
