Jon Hamm of Mad Men to lend his lungs to bounty hunter Boba Fett

Square-jawed chunk of hunk Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame is to play everyone's favourite bounty botherer from a galaxy far, far away – Boba Fett.

But before you get too excited at the prospect of Hamm's retro charm smouldering from beneath the taciturn killer's helmet in any of Disney's gazillion upcoming Star Wars films, this is for the audio version of From a Certain Point of View, a collection of 40 short stories commemorating 40 years since the release of the original picture. That's A New Hope for those under 30.

Also Fett fell into the sarlacc pit in Jedi and still has 966 years of painful digestion left to go, so a Hamm-fisted reprisal would probably be limited to a prequel spinoff in the vein of Rogue One or the untitled Han Solo film in production.

Publisher Penguin Random House summarises the anthology thus: "Each of the 40 short stories reimagines a moment from the original film, but through the eyes of a supporting character." So if you ever wanted a definitive answer as to whether Han or Greedo shot first, maybe one of the motley Mos Eisley cantina regulars can put that tedious debate to rest.

Contributing authors include Gary Whitta, who wrote the Rogue One story, and Wil Wheaton, who ruined Star Trek as precocious tween Wesley Crusher in The Next Generation. Let's hope he doesn't make it a double-whammy.

Another big(ish) name to star alongside Hamm on the audiobook is Neil Patrick Harris, best known as the annoying one from puzzlingly successful sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Harris plays an Imperial officer working on the Death Star so, thankfully, his storyline almost certainly involves being disintegrated.

Boba Fett was originally voiced by Jason Wingreen and portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch in the original films. However, in the 1999-2005 prequels, Boba was revealed to be a clone of Jango Fett, the galaxy's finest mercenary and template for the Republic's clone army, who raised Boba as his son. Jango is played by Maori bruiser Temuera Morrison and Fett in the revamped trilogy was redone by him, so whether Hamm will attempt the New Zealand drawl or that'll also be retconned to oblivion remains to be seen.

Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View will be available from October 3. ®