Disney Just Changed an Iconic ‘Star Wars’ Ship’s Name

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boba fett in slave I cockpit

Credit: Lucasfilm

When The Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm from George Lucas in 2012, Star Wars fans knew there were bound to be some changes to their favorite franchise. For the most part, the iconic characters and ships within the franchise — like the Millennium Falcon, plus Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) — have been left intact. Now, however, Disney has decided to permanently drop the original name of a famous Star Wars ship — Boba Fett’s Slave I.

slave-i jango fett
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: Lucas: Boba Fett Is “an Early Version of Darth Vader”

Per a report from Jedi News about an upcoming LEGO set called “Boba Fett’s Starship” instead of “Slave I”:

During LEGO Fan Media Days last month, CapnRex101 from Brickset.com and me asked the LEGO Star Wars team, Jens Kronvold Frederiksen (LEGO Star Wars Design Director) and Michael Lee Stockwell (LEGO Star Wars Lead Designer), about the name change as they showed us the set for the first time, and this is what they told us….

Jens: Then, the next one, also from The Mandalorian, is Boba Fett’s Starship.

Michael: Yes, I built another. We’re not calling it Slave I any more. This is Boba Fett’s Starship.

James: OK, why are we dropping the Slave I name?

Jens: Everybody is. It’s probably not something which has been announced publicly but it is just something that Disney doesn’t want to use any more.

grogu slave I
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Just Teased Grogu’s Existence Almost 30 Years Earlier

While Disney has not officially confirmed that they’ve decided to drop the Slave I name in favor of the more generic “Boba Fett’s Starship”, it is telling that the name of the iconic Star Wars vehicle was not actually mentioned when we last saw it in The Mandalorian Season 2.

The ship played a major role in the last few episodes of the second season, as Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) helped bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) rescue his “son” Grogu after Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) sent his Dark Trooper droids to kidnap the foundling — and subsequently destroyed Djarin’s ship, the Razor Crest, in the Battle of Tython.

razor crest destroyed
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: ‘The Mandalorian’ Just Connected Grogu to Ben Solo

Presumably, we will next encounter Slave I in live-action in showrunner Jon Favreau and executive producer Dave Filoni’s first Mandalorian spinoff series, The Book of Boba Fett.

The Mandalorian Season 2 finale episode post credits scene saw Fett and Shand arrive on Tatooine in the ship, kill Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter) in an unceremonious fashion, and take over Jabba the Hutt’s former palace. The Book of Boba Fett will pick up where this scene left off.

Fennec Shand (left) and Boba Fett sat on Jabba's throne (right)
Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney

Related: Live-Action Grand Admiral Thrawn Reportedly Done Filming First Series

It has finished filming and will debut on Disney+ in December 2021. It was recently confirmed that Mandalorian director Robert Rodriguez will serve as showrunner.

There is also a chance that the ship will appear in Filoni’s animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The show — a Star Wars: The Clone Wars spinoff that follows Clone Force 99 — just reached its midseason point.

omega (left) and cad bane (right) in the bad batch episode 9
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: “I Hear You”: Filoni Responds to Fans Call to Save ‘Clone Wars’

From the events our elite squad of clone troopers — Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and female clone Omega — have experienced in the past couple of episodes, it appears that a showdown between Boba Fett and bounty hunter Cad Bane (Corey Burton) is coming soon. The famed bounty hunter’s appearance has already been teased by a piece of Boba Fett’s armor hanging on Cid’s (Rhea Perlman) wall.

the bad batch episode 7 on bracca
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Just Unraveled Everything We Knew About Boba Fett

More on Slave I

boba fett's starship
Credit: StarWars.com

Related: Timothy Olyphant Teases Cobb Vanth’s ‘Mandalorian’ Return

It is worth noting that the official Star Wars Databank has changed its URL to read “Boba Fett’s Starship” instead of “Slave I”. The description of the vessel reads:

A powerful pursuit craft made famous by Jango Fett in the days of the Republic, this ship was inherited by Boba Fett for his career as a bounty hunter. The aged but effective ship is loaded with hidden defensive and offensive weaponry and equipment, and has a reputation earned from decades of successfully capturing fugitives.

jango fett attack of the clones
Credit: Lucasfilm

Related: Ahsoka Tano & Boba Fett Share a Wild ‘Star Wars’ Record

What do you think about Disney changing the name of Slave I?

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