Boba Fett actor blasts Disney for “idiocy” over ship name change

The other day, Disney employees revealed that the company was no longer using the name “Slave 1” to refer to Boba Fett’s starship, the one introduced in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. “Everybody is [dropping the old name],” said LEGO Star Wars Design Director Jens Kronvold Frederiksen. “It’s probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use anymore.”

The Empire Strikes Back came out in 1980, so the name “Slave 1” has been around for a while, emblazoned on pieces of merch for decades. Historically, genre superfans aren’t the best at accepting change in their favorite franchises, so I expected some blowback for this decision. And indeed, some fans aren’t pleased, most prominent among them Mark Anthony Austin, who actually played Boba Fett in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Now I know what you’re thinking: Boba Fett wasn’t in the first Star Wars movie. You’re right, but George Lucas did shove him into the background of a scene in the 1997 special edition version of the movie, the version where Greedo shot first. Austin, who has spent most of his career doing special effects work, played Fett in that version, which still counts.

Disney changed the name of a Star Wars thing and people are mad

Anyway, Austin has strong feelings about this. For example:

Disney hasn’t said why it changed the name of “Slave 1,” but I can venture a guess: Disney is all about maintaining its family-friendly image and not rocking the boat, so it probably didn’t want to associate a character as important as Boba Fett with slavery, or (and this is probably more important) sell toys with the word “slave” in them to kids. Maybe it’d be different if Boba Fett weren’t getting his own show in the form of The Book of Boba Fett, coming this December — he’s technically a hero now, so Disney has to clean up his image a bit — but I doubt it.

Personally, I don’t see this as a big deal and think Austin is coming off as kinda silly. Like when he tells Disney, “If you DON’T like it. DON’T buy it.” Well…Disney didn’t buy Star Wars because they “like” it; they bought it to make money, which is also why they’re changing the name. And then there’s this: “When I was growing up I loved #disney. No more.” That is dangerously close to “Disney ruined my childhood,” which…no it didn’t, it changed the name of a piece of merchandise. I think we’ll be okay.

Relatedly, I have a question for Star Wars fans: has any character actually called Boba’s ship “Slave 1” in a movie or TV show, or is it just what the ship is known as in the wider mythology? I don’t remember anyone saying “Slave 1,” but there’s a lotta Star Wars stuff out there and I haven’t seen it all.

If “Slave 1” has indeed never actually been said out loud in a Star Wars thing, this seems even less important. And even if the plan is to start calling it “Boba’s ship” or whatever onscreen, that doesn’t mean you can’t assume its real name is “Slave 1.”

Where do you fall on this?

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h/t Digital Spy