Exclusive excerpt: Boba Fett rides again in 'Star Wars' short story

Not many in the Star Wars galaxy have the cool factor of Boba Fett. His Western gunfighter look and mysterious aura, like an armored Clint Eastwood, hooked writer Paul Dini from the start. 

"The narrow, T-shaped visor gives him a look of constant scrutiny, as if he's always sizing up a target just before he draws on him," Dini says of the infamous bounty hunter he writes about in the new 40th-anniversary anthology book Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View (Del Rey, out Oct. 3). 

"You're always guessing who he really is under the helmet, simply a hired gun for the highest price, or is there something more to him? What's going on inside his head? Do we even want to know?"

It's those questions Dini, a lifelong Star Wars fan, loved exploring doing the Fett tale "Added Muscle" for From a Certain Point of View, featuring 40 tales by 40 different writers. The collection is filled with iconic moments starring sideline players who drift in and out of the original 1977 Star Wars. You can read an exclusive excerpt from Dini's story below or listen to the audio version read by Mad Men's Jon Hamm.

"As Don Draper, Jon excelled at playing a character who was ruthless, cunning, and yet undeniably charismatic. There's a lot of that in Fett," Dini says.

Fett technically first appeared in 1980's The Empire Strikes Back but was later digitally inserted by George Lucas into the 1997 special edition of the original Star Wars.

"Added Muscle" is a "wink to that," Dini says, a day in the life of the galactic bounty hunter that happens to be the same day Luke Skywalker joins forces with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Boba is stopping over on Tatooine when he's called on by his old associate Jabba the Hutt to help collect a debt. Naturally this is the money owed to Jabba by Han Solo. The story is a monologue going through Fett's head while he backs up Jabba and stares down Han and Chewie."

Fett shares similarities with another fan-favorite supporting character Dini knows well: Harley Quinn, whom Dini and Bruce Timm introduced in a 1992 episode of Batman: The Animated Series. "They were both later additions to ongoing pop culture mythologies, yet they each wound up fitting seamlessly into their respective universes," the writer says. "They were also wild cards, not heroes, but maybe not entirely villains either. It's a lot of fun to identify with a character who lives by their own rules."

Read an exclusive excerpt from Paul Dini's "Added Muscle" short story in Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View:

Jabba had said to meet him at Docking Bay 94. Told me it was a collection job and he needed some insurance. One look at the duds he dragged along confirmed this. Not a pro in the lot. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the whispers of surprise when I walked onto the scene. That’s right, boys. Fett’s here. Do me a favor and fall to the side after you’re hit. I really don’t want to trip over your idiot corpses once the shooting starts. Sorry, if the shooting starts. No reason to get ex­cited yet.

Okay, Wook. There are two ways this is going down. One, we have a nice little chat, Jabba gets his money from Solo, and we all leave happy. Two, someone gets anxious, zip zip, Jabba’s rid of one deadbeat, and I get a new scalp for my collection. No guesses which one I prefer.

Originally, I wasn’t supposed to be a part of this. That’s what I get, I guess, sticking around Tatooine to snag some Imperial coin. I was supposed to be off this dust ball yesterday, but I picked up trooper buzz that Vader was looking for a couple of runaway droids. Figured I’d collect the bounty and square myself with the headman at the same time. He’s still got a mad on over those rebel spies I crisped on Coruscant. Idiots came at me with ion disruptors. What, they thought I wouldn’t carry a weapon accelerator? Flash, boom, three tiny ash piles. Tried to collect and Lord “No Disintegrations!” refused to pay without bodies. My word’s not good enough, apparently. Reckoned I’d make up the loss by finding his droids and holding out for twice the reward.

No go on that. Trailed one until its footprints were wiped out by a Jawa sandcrawler. Followed those treads a way until I found someone had wiped out the Jawas, too. “Someone” meaning amateurs trying to fake a Tusken raid. Probably stormtroopers, judging by the random blast shots. Some might call them precise. Me, I say they can’t hit the butt end of a bantha. At least they had brains enough to take out ev­eryone who had seen the droids. Hard luck on the sizzled hicks I found at that torched moisture farm. Had a look-see and discovered there were three settlers living there, not two. Betting the third ran with the droids. I’ll hunt around after I’m done here. Vader may triple the bounty if I bring him the fugitive along with the droids. Yeah, I know, intact corpse, “no disintegrations.”

Till then, here I stand, adding some credibility to the collection of bums and bugs Jabba calls muscle. Figures he’d want us to shake down Solo, the biggest loser in the galaxy. I could just pop him for target practice, but I never work for free.