First appearing in the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel film trilogies.

While seemingly killed in Return of the Jedi after falling into a sarlacc, he has since appeared in Star Wars media set after the film, confirming his survival within the new canon, portrayed by Temuera Morrison.

The character also appears in many forms of Star Wars media outside of the films, such as books, comics, television series, and video games, many of which depict him as an antihero rather than a villain, and explore his background, motivations, and morality.

During the development of The Empire Strikes Back, Fett was originally conceived as a member of a group of white-armored Imperial "supercommandos" before the idea was scrapped in favor of a solitary bounty hunter.

The character of Boba Fett quickly became a fan favorite despite his limited presence in the original Star Wars trilogy and is now a widely recognized figure in popular culture.

Star Wars creator George Lucas created Boba Fett in his April 1978 screenplay draft of The Empire Strikes Back, basing the character on Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) from the Dollar Trilogy.

[7] Screen-tested in all-white, Fett's armor eventually garnered a subdued color scheme intended to visually place him between white-armored "rank-and-file" Imperial stormtroopers and Vader, who wears black.

[11] At one point in Return of the Jedi's development, Fett was conceived as being a main villain, but he was finally replaced with the Emperor when Lucas decided to not make a third trilogy of Star Wars.

[23] He was cast as Fett because the costume happened to fit "as if a Savile Row tailor had come out and made it";[23][24] he did not have to do a reading or screen test,[25] and Bulloch never worked from a script for either film.

Fett appears as a mysterious figure who saves Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 from a giant monster, only to be revealed as a bounty hunter working for Darth Vader.

[40] The final three episodes of the second season of the series, entitled "Death Trap", "R2 Come Home" and "Lethal Trackdown", were aired on April 30, 2010, and attracted an average of 2.756 million viewers during the original broadcast.

[50] In the story arc, Boba infiltrates Mace Windu's flagship in the guise of a clone trooper cadet, hoping to exact revenge against the Jedi for killing his father.

When the bounty hunters discover that their cargo is a young woman destined for a forced marriage to the despot, Fett is indifferent to her plight and insists the team proceed with their mission.

Temporary member Asajj Ventress, enraged, turns on Fett; she strangles him with the Force, binds, and gags him, and shoves him into the container in the captive's place, whereupon he is delivered to the nonplussed client.

Boba Fett's presence in the original Disney+ series The Mandalorian was first hinted at in the first-season episode "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger", which ends with a mysterious figure wearing boots and seemingly a cape[51] approaching the body of assassin Fennec Shand on Tatooine.

In the second season's premiere, "Chapter 9: The Marshal", it is explained that Fett's armor was salvaged by Jawas after his supposed death, and then bought by Cobb Vanth, a character first introduced in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of novels, who used it to protect the Tatooinian village of Mos Pelgo from various threats.

[18][55][22] Fett's first full appearance in the series occurred in the episode "Chapter 14: The Tragedy",[51] in which it is explained that he saved Fennec's life after she was mortally wounded, leaving her in his debt and that he is looking to retrieve his armor from the Mandalorian.

A 1983 issue of the original Marvel Star Wars comic book set just after Return of the Jedi depicts Fett temporarily escaping the sarlacc pit.

In the Legacy of the Force series (2006–2008), set some 35 years after Jedi, Han and Leia's daughter, Jaina, asks Fett to train her to help her defeat her corrupted brother, Jacen.

The Emperor met with Darth Vader and Prince Xizor, where the latter revealed that it was he who planned for Fett to join the guild to eliminate its weakest members, leaving only the best for the Empire to exploit.

[84] The canceled LucasArts video game Star Wars 1313, announced at E3 2012,[85] would have told the story of Boba Fett's career as a young adult bounty hunter between the prequel and original trilogies.

In a December 2015 interview, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated that the concept art for the game was "unbelievable" and that, along with Underworld, it was "something we're spending a lot of time looking at, poring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further".

[92] A series of Western-inspired episodes would have featured Fett teaming up with Cad Bane to rescue a child kidnapped by Tusken Raiders on Tatooine; Aurra Sing would have appeared as well.

[95] In early 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the development of a Star Wars spin-off film written by Simon Kinberg,[96] which Entertainment Weekly reported would focus on Boba Fett during the original trilogy.

[78] Bissell credits Bulloch for giving Fett "effortless authority" in his first scene in The Empire Strikes Back, using such nuances as cradling his blaster and slightly cocking his head.

[116][117] Bissell adds that Boba Fett, along with other minor characters like Darth Maul and Kyle Katarn, appeals to adolescent boys' "images of themselves: essentially bad-ass but ... honorable about it.

[115] Boba Fett's popular following before the character even appeared in The Empire Strikes Back influenced Damon Lindelof's interest in developing Lost across multiple media.

[121] Between filming The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Mark Hamill pitched the idea that Fett was Luke Skywalker's mother to George Lucas, which "he didn't like".

[5] Fett was the first new mail-away action figure created for The Empire Strikes Back;[3][10] although advertised as having a rocket-firing backpack, safety concerns led Kenner to sell his rocket attached.

[137] In 2024, one of the only two existing hand painted missile firing bounty hunter Boba Fett action figures was sold for record breaking $525,000 at Heritage Auctions.