The Reason This Disturbing Star Wars Scene Is Misunderstood

It's taken just a few years, but we've finally gotten some clarification on perhaps the most messed-up moment in the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

The moment in question occurred in Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and it appeared to depict a young Boba Fett grieving over the death of his father, Jango — while holding his severed head. Actor Daniel Logan, who portrayed Boba in the film, recently took to Twitter to state that this was not exactly as it seemed.

You may remember that near the film's end, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) are captured by Jango (Temuera Morrison) as they're attempting to reach Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and prevent the deployment of the clone army by Supreme Chancellor, and later Emperor, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). To their rescue comes a phalanx of Jedi including Yoda and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), who engages Jango in battle.

The Master Jedi proves to be too formidable for the Mandalorian bounty hunter, who is decapitated by Windu and his sweet purple lightsaber. As the fight continues, a brief shot shows young Boba apparently picking up the helmet containing his father's severed head, looking appropriately traumatized and (presumably) silently vowing vengeance on every Jedi there will ever be.

The beheading and Boba's reaction stands as one of the most disturbing happenings in Star Wars history; sure, Jango is a ruthless mercenary and Boba is a clone, but the sight of a kid clutching his parental figure's decapitated noggin seems just a little bit intense for the series, which by design keeps its darker moments relatively bloodless. According to Logan, however, it was all a big misunderstanding.

The actor's revelation when Twitter user @writerchick3 posted side-by-side shots of George Lucas kneeling with Jango Fett's helmet, and Logan as Boba Fett doing likewise in a still from Attack of the Clones. All she wanted to know was, "who did it best?" — but a few other fans had a different question. When Boba picked up that helmet, they asked, was dear old Dad's head still inside it?

According to Logan, the answer is a resounding no. "You can see the shadow of Jango's head falling out just after Mace 'removes' it from his body and the helmet goes flying. So, no, no head in it when #BobaFett picks up the helmet," the actor said. "Thanks @SamuelLJackson!"

We're not sure why Logan would deign to offer thanks to the dude who lightsabered his dad's head off; he must just be one of those guys who is just really chill about everything. But at any rate, it's telling that despite the answer to the question being right there in the film, the shadowy image of Jango's falling head slipped by all of the fans to the degree that Logan had to set the record straight. (Well, not all of them; one replied, "Thank you. I have had to explain this for years.") Perhaps, even in shadow, the image was just too gruesome for director Lucas to linger on for too terribly long.

Of course, it's not like the Star Wars movies don't have their share of dark moments; even the original, PG-rated trilogy hit us with such scenes as the aftermath of the stormtrooper raid on the home of Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle in Episode IV: A New Hope, Darth Vader performing an impromptu amputation of Luke's hand in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and Luke's merciless torturing at the hands of Palpatine while screaming for his father's help at the conclusion of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, to name just a few. 

But, lest we forget, Disney has stewardship of the entire Star Wars series, having purchased Lucasfilm in 2012. A bloodless onscreen decapitation, while pretty hardcore, is one thing; a small child holding his father's head is quite another. What we're saying here is that if it weren't made at least somewhat clear within the film that Jango's head had fallen out of the helmet, Disney may have had to go back to do a little Lucas-style revision to make it so.

Of course, when you think about it, this raises another question: for the remainder of the battle, where exactly was Jango's head? Was it just kind of sitting there on the ground, and if so, was it somewhere that young Boba could see it?

Upon further reflection, we're thinking that it almost certainly was, and that Logan's explanation actually serves to make the tragic scene even worse. Well, nobody ever said that being the cloned son of a badass Mandalorian mercenary in a galaxy far, far away was easy.