Prior to The Mandalorian's debut on Disney+, there was speculation that the show would focus on Boba Fett. After all, a movie revolving around the character was once in the works at Lucasfilm, but when the studio parted ways with director Josh Trank, the project ended up falling by the wayside.
There are definitely ways Fett could have been revealed as the show's lead, but executive producer Dave Filoni confirmed in an interview with Deadline that ideas from that movie never found their way into The Mandalorian (despite a recent episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian revealing how much the series borrowed from previous Star Wars projects).
"There wasn't really any crossover with any previous development," he explained, referring to Boba Fett: A Star Wars Story. "The Mandalorian idea really starts with Jon Favreau coming forward saying he'd like to develop a concept and talking with Kathleen Kennedy about it."
Filoni explained that they made a conscious decision not to include too many similarities to Fett. "When we were kids, Boba Fett was a 'Man With No Name.' Even his publicity stills were evocative of the [Sergio Leone] Dollar trilogy." However, he notes that Attack of the Clones exploring his origin meant that "some of his mystique had been taken away."
"Jon [Favreau]'s idea was to reimagine that character as a straight-on bounty hunter and take that imagery of the lone gunfighter. The revelation was this idea of this child in a lone wolf cub sensibility."
Boba Fett is now expected to make an appearance in season two of The Mandalorian, and while the door has been closed on a movie featuring the bounty hunter, there are rumblings that he could get his own series. That's something fans of the Star Wars franchise would definitely welcome.