The Book of Boba Fett

Disney+ premiere: Dec 29, 2021 K-12 38 – 56min

(or Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett)

The series is a direct The Mandalorian series spin-off, featuring the iconic Star Wars bounty hunter Boba Fett and his life after the events of the second The Mandalorian season.

Have never joined the Boba cult, so this wasn’t necessarily a hotly anticipated spin-off series for me. But of course I couldn’t help watching – and boy, was I totally positively surprised! Thrilled after episode 2, giving me goosebumps even the second time watching …

The plot: After Boba Fett conquered the former palace of Jabba the Hutt on Tatooine from Return of the Jedi (1983) together with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) at the end of the second The Mandalorian season, Fett now rises to become the supreme crime lord (“Daimyō”) in the criminal underworld of this planet, trying to peacefully unite all the previously hostile crime syndicates.

The relationship to westerns and samurai films (as with Star Wars itself) becomes obvious once again, after The Mandalorian – the plots channel classics such as “Dances with Wolves”, wonderfully translated into the Star Wars universe: You learn a lot more about the Tusken Sand People …

It’s also great fun to identify various characters from Star Wars subplots or cut scenes (e.g. Toshi Station) who appear in the series. An inexhaustible source for “Easter Egg” hunters – not yet been mentioned in various forums are Boba’s boots – the same design as the  young Luke Skywalker’s footwear…

Great actors – especially Temuera Morrison’s charismatic presence as the main character, powerful and convincing all along the line. This New Zealand actor previously portrayed Boba Fett in The Mandalorian, as well as his father Jango Fett and various clone warriors in Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005). He is joined by Ming-Na Wen as master assassin and partner Fennec Shand. In other roles: David Pasquesi as Mok Shaiz’s Majordomo and Jennifer Beals as Garsa Fwip.

Great cool music (just like The Mandalorian) – in short, the series is an overall success. I’m already looking forward to the next episodes.

(The series is produced by director and screenwriter Jon Favreau, who previously worked as showrunner on The Mandalorian. He is joined by Robert Rodriguez and Dave Filoni as executive producers. And as with The Mandalorian, different directors work on the individual episodes – the great 2nd episode had Steph(anie) Green as the lead. Ludwig Göransson, who had already composed the music for The Mandalorian, returned as composer).