The Canceled Star Wars Epic That Led To The Mandalorian
Part of what made The Mandalorian such a breakout success is its aesthetic. It was fun to see Star Wars look like a lived-in universe again, especially after the gleaming artifice of the prequels. The title character’s design was also awesome because it balanced the familiar look of Boba Fett’s fit with the sleek look of a space cowboy.
Ironically, there is more Boba Fett in the design than most fans realize because The Mandalorian’s first season look is very directly inspired by Fett’s look in the canceled video game Star Wars 1313.
Boba Fett In Star Wars 1313
That game was in development for a very long time, with Lucasarts developers working with George Lucas himself before the title was officially canceled in 2013. Even the protagonist changed during development, and by the time 1313 was canceled, Boba Fett was going to be the main character.
The game would have had a mechanic where you could upgrade the character’s armor, and the concept art reveals that the default look for Boba Fett looks almost exactly like Din Djarin’s design in the first episode of The Mandalorian.
The Armor Inspired The Mandalorian’s Look
Originally, we imagine the game’s producers wanted an outfit that would let Boba Fett pay homage to his late father. It’s very easy to see how certain design elements of this armor were inspired quite directly by Jango Fett. After watching three seasons of The Mandalorian, though, Djarin’s armor is all we can think of when looking at the concept art for 1313.
More Designs Make Their Way To Disney+
In addition to the iconic armor design, it looks like Disney pilfered the canceled 1313 game for other ideas, some of which appeared in other shows. For example, TheGamer reports that some of Grant Parker’s designs for 1313 were later used in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. This included designs for a meat factory, and Parker was gratified to see a meat packing plant (complete with lockers filled with Tauntaun meat) made it into an episode of Boba Fett.
Level 1313
Beyond the direct game designs being used in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Level 1313 has been used in animated Star Wars media as a location. The name refers to a very dangerous lower level of Coruscant, and fans got to see this area brought to life in both The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch.
We almost got to see it in live-action, too. It was going to be the main setting for Star Wars; Underworld, an unreleased series that would have had the more mature tone of franchises like Deadwood and The Godfather.
Boba Fett Walked So Din Djarin Could Fly
All of this reminds us of the often-mocked line from George Lucas regarding similarities between the Original Trilogy and the prequels: “it’s like poetry…they rhyme.” Only in this crazy galaxy far, far away could we still be experiencing the legacy of a little-known video game canceled over a decade ago. Considering how iconic the character’s design is in The Mandalorian, we can now definitively say that Boba Fett walked so that Din Djarin could fly.
