Upcoming Disney+ show The Book of Boba Fett will further develop the titular bounty hunter's story, and it could return some Star Wars Legends stories to canon. The show promises to follow the journey of Boba Fett after his return in The Mandalorian season 2. Naturally, just as The Mandalorian brought a number of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels characters to live-action, The Book of Boba Fett has the opportunity to bring some no-longer-canon stories back into the greater continuity.
Though hundreds of Star Wars tales were de-canonized after Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm, the 1996 book Tales of the Bounty Hunters is a top candidate for reintroduction. This collection of short stories features the bounty hunters who were tasked to hunt Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back - namely, Boba Fett, Dengar, Bossk, 4-LOM, IG-88, and Zuckuss. The book spins exciting tales, expounds on Boba Fett's backstory, and brings depth to characters that have thus far only been glimpsed in live-action.
A clear potential source for The Book of Boba Fett would be Tales of the Bounty Hunters' final short story, The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett by Daniel Keys Moran. While it emphasizes Fett's relationship with Han Solo (something better suited for a Han Solo show), it does supply tons of backstory for Fett and paints the picture of a post-Return of the Jedi bounty hunter looking for a last job that could pay for his retirement. The Book of Boba Fett's official synopsis reveals he's seeking to claim control over territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt, and the story could be made to fit that narrative. This is an aged, weary Boba Fett, which not only fits nicely with The Mandalorian's portrayal, but would also make for an interesting protagonist.
Perhaps even more exciting would be the adaptation of Dengar's Tales of the Bounty Hunters story. Despite Dengar's brief cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he has been largely absent from Star Wars since The Empire Strikes Back. Dengar's arc in his short story Payback: The Tale of Dengar by Dave Wolverton expands on his longtime rivalry with Boba Fett as well as his cybernetic enhancement at the hands of the Empire. His story concludes with the head-wrapped bounty hunter helping to rescue Fett from the Sarlacc pit (something Star Wars canon hasn't yet shown). As viewers have already seen Fett fight the remnants of the Empire, it would be easy, not to mention satisfying, to re-purpose Dengar's story into one of the two bounty hunters coming together to continue their fight in The Book of Boba Fett.
The stories centered around Bossk, Zuckuss, and 4-LOM in Tales of the Bounty Hunters have little to do with Fett, but Kevin J. Anderson's IG-88 story Therefore I Am: The Tale of IG-88 could be adapted. After establishing IG-88 as a human-hating murder machine, Anderson's story sees the droid creating three copies of itself to seize power over the galaxy. Two copies end up confronting Boba Fett, with Fett defeating one at Cloud City and the other on Tatooine. The other two fare no better, with one integrating itself into the doomed second Death Star, and the other destroyed by Dash Rendar, a fan-favorite Legends character from the transmedia story Shadows of the Empire. IG-88 could easily be repurposed into a Big Bad for Boba's solo outing, and could be the only way to bringing Rendar into live action, thanks to difficulties making Shadows of the Empire canon.
Though The Book of Boba Fett is decidedly set after Return of the Jedi, many of the stories from Tales of the Bounty Hunters could easily be adapted to fit the later timeline. The likelihood of this happening is unclear, yet there is a spark of hope in the form of a 2018 quote by Daniel Keys Moran. Back when Logan Mangold was attached to a Boba Fett spinoff film, the author was quoted as saying, "I've had a guy at Disney email me a couple times over the years regarding Lucasfilm adapting Last One Standing into a Fett movie." [via Comic Book Movie]. The Book of Boba Fett is a different project, but it's clear Lucasfilm is keeping their options open.
