Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 finale ofThe Mandalorian.
After the credits roll on the season 2 finale ofThe Mandalorian, we’re taken to a new scene at Jabba the Hutt’s palace. We know that Jabba and a lot of his crew died at the end of the first act ofReturn of the Jedi, but casualStar Warsfans may not know that there’s a whole Hutt Cartel. Jabba is basically a crime boss, so even though he died, his criminal organization would live on.
The Mandaloriantakes place after the events ofReturn of the Jedi, and in this scene, we see that Jabba’s assistant, Bib Fortuna, has taken over and started to put on some Jabba weight. But then Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) come in, shoot up the place, kill Bib Fortuna, and Boba takes the throne. The scene cuts to black with the title card “The Book of Boba Fett” and then says it’s coming in December 2021.
We were told at the Disney Investor Day thatSeason 3 ofThe Mandalorianwould arrive on Christmas 2021, and it’s unlikely that Disney would schedule twoStar Warsshows on top of each other, so the clear implication is that Season 3 ofThe Mandalorianis “The Book of Boba Fett”, and the focus of the show will shift from Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) over to Boba Fett and whatever he’s doing, which is why the show can still be calledThe Mandalorianeven though as we saw earlier in “The Rescue”, Boba Fett doesn’t really consider himself to be a Mandalorian.
Boba Fett—who, it should be noted, doesn’t have much of a character in his on-screen iterations (please take your EU books elsewhere)—has basically been established as not really existing in any world. He came back from the dead, he’s a bounty hunter, but he’s not a Mandalorian like his father, not is he a clone trooper like all the clones made from Jango Fett. He’s something else, and perhaps that’s whereThe Book of Boba Fettis headed—to show Boba Fett moving towards a real creed and code to where he’s accepted as a Mandalorian, or at least he feels like he can view himself that way.
The big problem and big opportunity with Boba Fett is that there really isn’t much there. He’s little more than a cool toy—a badass, taciturn fighter that became a cult favorite and then mainstream hit over the past four decades. This leaves a lot of space to carve out his own path, but theMandalorianwriters also have a challenge because they don’t want to simply do a repeat of Din Djarin without Baby Yoda.
Personally, I’m a bit dubious about making Boba Fett the focal point of the show, especially a show that’s shown far more reliance on set pieces than character development. Look at the first two seasons of the show, and Din Djarin’s arc is basically he goes from loner to a guy who loves Baby Yoda, and while that’s all well and good, that’s a long road for such a short distance. The show’s problem is that while it’s a series of adventures, those adventures don’t really change the protagonist beyond having him fight alongside other people.The Mandalorianis an excuse forStar Wars-y things to happen, but rarely to advance the mythology or craft complex characters.Sometimes that low-stakes approach is comforting, but after a while it grows tedious.
My fear is that a Boba Fett show would place into those weak tendencies and lean even further into “Here’s a badass doing badass things in aStar Warssetting.” However, I also acknowledge that I’m in the minority,The Mandalorianis a hit, and people are clearly happy to see a show that basically finds ways to create loose narratives around theStar Warstoys and video games they’ve been playing with for the past 40 years. It’s not difficult to seeThe Book of Boba Fettas simply more of that, and while I think that’s a missed opportunity in terms of good storytelling, maybe one of the tenStar WarsTV shows on the way will try to do more. And hey, maybeThe Book of Boba Fettwill surprise us all and manage to balance action with character development.
