Boba Fett Was Meant To Have Distinctive Ambient Sound That Was Always Heard When He Was Around

As you know, when Darth Vader enters a room, you know it, with that classic breathing sound that he makes. Well, it turns out that Boba Fett was supposed to have his own distinctive sound as well. Whenever he was in a room, there was a certain behind-helmet sound that people were supposed to hear.

Legendary Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt talked to StarWars.Com about this, saying:

“[Boba Fett] first appeared in the cartoon made for the Star Wars Holiday Special. At the time he was introduced, we were trying to give him a distinctive ambient sound that was always heard when he was around. We had done that previously, of course, with Vader’s breathing.”

So, what did that sound entail? Burtt and his team settled on adding “some telemetry and soft electronic noises as if there were scanners or sensors onboard within him.” The sounds came with a problem, though… you couldn’t hear them! He explained, “Although we made those sounds, they were never heard because he never appeared in a quiet place.”

He went to say that, “The sound mix would finally get its moment to shine when Boba Fett was added back into the special edition of Star Wars: A New Hope, in a quieter moment in Docking Bay 94. For the years prior, the only other place it could be heard was emanating from a special Boba Fett costume that was fabricated for character appearances.”

They built a cassette recorder into his chest pack and the sounds played back on an endless loop cassette, just like they did for R2-D2 at that time, before digital technology. “When Boba walked around, he always broadcast his customized sound.”

If you want to listen to Boba Fett’s signature sound, you can listen to it here. You’ll just have to scroll down a little to find it.

I thought that this was some pretty cool insight! I had no idea that this was something planned for Boba Fett from the very beginning.