How Star Wars Redeemed the 1978 Holiday Special

Kashyyyk

One of the Holiday Special‘s biggest additions to the fledgling Star Wars saga was the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, a forest planet populated by massive trees on which Chewbacca and his people built whole cities. It’s a novel concept that fleshed out the Wookiee culture’s deep connection to nature, but the budget constraints of the special meant TV director Steve Binder couldn’t really capture the visual marvel of this setting. Instead, Kashyyyk was largely explored through the Lumpy and Itchy shenanigans going on inside Chewie’s house, which again, didn’t help matters. Regardless, the name, concept, and aesthetic of the luscious forest world, and the Tree of Life at the heart of the planet, became key elements of the planet’s later appearances in the saga. 

Fast-forward to the canon timeline and Kashyyyk has become an even bigger part of the galaxy far, far away. The planet was fully realized on the big screen in Revenge of the Sith as the site of one of the film’s big battle sequences, and has since appeared in many books and comics as well as the video game Jedi: Fallen Order, which allows players to explore the planet like never before. Despite its humble beginnings, Kashyyyk is now one of the most iconic planets in the galaxy. 

Boba Fett

Boba Fett was always destined to appear as one of The Empire Strikes Back‘s new and exciting rogues, but The Star Wars Holiday Special, released two years earlier, gave Lucasfilm an opportunity to get fans excited about the character before the arrival of the movie sequel. The result was the special’s animated segment, “The Story of the Faithful Wookiee,” in which Luke, Han, and Chewie meet Boba Fett for the first time. This is the cartoon that established Boba as a cunning bounty hunter, as he first pretends to befriend the heroes and later double crosses them. It’s here that we also learn that he’s an agent of the Empire, something that would be explored in more detail in the movie. And if you’ve ever wondered where that shot of Boba riding the dino-like ichthyodont came from, that’s from “Faithful Wookiee.”

This animated sequence is perhaps the best part of the special, although it has since been wiped from canon with the rest of the TV film. Of course, that didn’t stop Boba Fett from becoming one of the most instantly recognizable characters of all time, although most fans are more likely to credit that to his role in Empire than the Holiday Special. But when you dig into all the other bits of lore and iconography from the “Faithful Wookiee” that later made it into other parts of Star Wars canon, it’s impossible to ignore this cartoon’s impact…

Death Watch Design 

Intriguingly, Boba Fett’s initial design in The Holiday Special is not the final look that’s seen throughout the rest of the Star Wars saga. While the general feel of the Mandalorian armor is the same, it’s worth noting that the shape of the helmet is a lot longer upon the face, which is emphasized by Nelvana’s animation style. The colors chosen are also not the iconic greens and browns but instead a shade of blue that feels as if it might have played into the choices made for Jango Fett down the line. 

What’s most notable though is that the helmet design and choice of colors can be seen again in The Clone Wars animated series. There are clear visual parallels between the costuming of the Death Watch group of Mandalorians and that initial Boba Fett debut. Today, that inspiration lives on in Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze, a former member of Death Watch whose armor brings back the blues and browns Boba’s original look, this time in live action.