THE MANDALORIAN SEASON 2 RECAPS
The Book of Boba Fett is the show that many Star Wars fans have been waiting for.
The return of Luke Skywalker was a massive deal, sure, but The Mandalorian season 2 finale saved its biggest surprise for the post-credits. As the twin suns of Tatooine shone over Jabba the Hutt’s iconic palace, we watched as legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett and his new associate Fennec Shand executed Jabba’s former maître’d Bib Fortuna – and took control of what was once Jabba’s criminal empire.
Then came the title cards: “THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT: Coming December 2021”. Has there ever been a cooler way to confirm the existence of a new TV show?
It’s not as if we’d been starved of major Star Wars announcements. Just a week earlier, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy had revealed numerous new Star Wars TV shows and movies – including The Mandalorian spin-offs Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. But when it comes to pure theater, it’s hard to top using a season finale to reveal your plans to the world.
“We wanted to hold this back [from Investor Day] because we didn’t want to spoil the surprise during the big Disney announcement,” The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau told Good Morning America. “They let me keep this one a secret.”
So as Fett prepares to return to the wretched hives of scum and villainy that made his name, here’s everything we know about the latest Star Wars spin-off TV show, The Book of Boba Fett…
Is The Book of Boba Fett actually the third season of The Mandalorian?
No. Although sections of Star Wars fandom speculated that The Book of Boba Fett might be a completely retooled third season of the parent show, shifting the focus from Din Djarin and Baby Yoda to Boba Fett, it’s now been confirmed that the two series are distinct entities.
“[The Book of Boba Fett] is actually separate from The Mandalorian season 3,” Favreau said in his Good Morning America interview. He also confirmed that the new show is currently in production, as well as revealing this Fett-styled logo:
StarWars.com added a little more: “Boba Fett is back. And his story is just beginning.
“As teased in a surprise end-credit sequence following the season finale of The Mandalorian, the legendary bounty hunter’s journey will continue in The Book of Boba Fett.”
The Book of Boba Fett release date
No need for speculation here. The Mandalorian season 2 finale’s big reveal confirmed that The Book of Boba Fett is coming in December 2021.
Favreau’s since told Good Morning America that the Fett spin-off will be the next show we see from that galaxy far, far away – landing before of The Mandalorian season 3.
“What we didn’t say in [the Disney Investor Day] announcement is that the next show coming up – Kathy [Kennedy] said the next chapter – [is] going to be The Book of Boba Fett,” Favreau confirmed. “And then we go into production right after that on season 3 of The Mandalorian, back with the main character that we all have known and loved. So that’s going to be pretty soon following that, we’re working on that pre-production now while we’re in production on Boba Fett.”
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The Book of Boba Fett is a TV spin-off from The Mandalorian, featuring Star Wars’ most iconic bounty hunter, Boba Fett, and his new associate Fennec Shand.
- Where can I watch it? Like all new Star Wars TV series, The Book of Boba Fett will be available exclusively on Disney Plus.
- When can I watch it? The first episode will land on TV screens in December 2021.
The Book of Boba Fett trailer: watch the post-credits teaser
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That exciting coda to The Mandalorian season finale ‘The Rescue’ functions as a quasi-teaser, setting up the world Boba Fett and Fennec Shand will be operating in.
But if Lucasfilm/Disney follow a similar promotion plan to The Mandalorian, we can expect to see the first The Book of Boba Fett trailer 2-3 months ahead of launch – September/October 2021 seems a reasonable prediction.
Don’t get your hopes up about learning loads about the new show before it streams, however – Lucasfilm traditionally play their sabacc cards incredibly close to their chests, and don’t even reveal the titles of episodes before they land on Disney Plus. Expect to see similar levels of secrecy around The Book of Boba Fett.
The Book of Boba Fett story: what can we expect to see?
Some have speculated that Jon Favreau’s comments on Good Morning America – that The Mandalorian spin-offs will be set “right after” Return of the Jedi – mean The Book of Boba Fett will kick off in the immediate aftermath of the second Death Star’s destruction. However, we believe it’s more likely that “right after” was just a figure of speech, and Favreau’s loosely referring to the time period where The Mandalorian already operates – some five years after Return of the Jedi.
We know, for example, that the Jabba’s Palace coda must have taken place after the events of The Mandalorian season 2, because Boba Fett is wearing the iconic armor Mando recovered from Cobb Vanth in Mos Pelgo in ‘The Marshal’ – presumably Fett and Fennec Shand jetted off to Tatooine after Din Djarin handed Grogu over to Luke Skywalker.
We’re guessing, then, that the show will focus on Boba Fett’s efforts to take control of the crime empire Jabba the Hutt left behind – the small number of hangers-on in Bib Fortuna’s court suggests business isn’t quite as good as it used to be.
That setting opens up all sorts of possibilities for Fett to interact with characters old and new, good and bad. It’ll be interesting to see how many of Fett’s former associates are still in his orbit. While his former mentor Aurra Sing is apparently dead – Tobias Beckett said in Solo: A Star Wars Story that he’d killed her – Cad Bane, another former bounty hunter from The Clone Wars era, may still be business. And then there’s 4-LOM, Zuckuss, Bossk, IG-88 and Dengar, the bounty hunters Darth Vader hired to track down the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.
As a long-standing associate of Fett’s, Dengar is of particular interest. Not only was he voiced by Simon Pegg in The Clone Wars – Pegg told Collider that he’s open to returning to the role in live-action – it’s believed that he’s still alive three decades later in The Rise of Skywalker era. That said (according to SlashFilm) he’s radically different by then, a bizarre, grotesque cyborg who goes by the name of Rothgar Deng – Dengar’s journey to his new form could be a major part of the story.
Fett could easily pay a visit to Cobb Vanth to compare notes on that famous armor, seeing as they’re both based on Tatooine. And the show could also explore the various crime syndicates operating in that galaxy far, far away, like some interstellar Godfather saga. Indeed, the story of Crimson Dawn (the syndicate headed up by Darth Maul in Solo) was left unresolved – so maybe The Book of Boba Fett will pick up the dangling threads. And any trip off Tatooine will give us an excuse to see Fett’s similarly iconic ship, Slave I, in action.
Fett would be an ideal guide through these shady worlds, seeing as his The Mandalorian arc saw him evolve from villain to antihero. Remember, Fett was renowned as the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy, so the fact he helps Mando to rescue Grogu reveals a code of honor we never knew existed.
Flashbacks could also be a major element of The Book of Boba Fett. Possibly the biggest question on Star Wars fans’ lips is the issue of how Fett escaped 1000 years of pain and suffering in the belly of the Sarlacc. While at least one version of the story was told in the old ‘Legends’ version of the Expanded Universe, it’ll be cruel if the details of Fett’s survival aren’t enshrined in canon. It would also leave five years of Fett’s life unaccounted for.
And The Book of Boba Fett could go even further back in time, to explore Fett’s origins. Although The Clone Wars revealed his tentative first steps in the world of bounty hunting after his father, Jango Fett, died, we don’t really know how he became such a big player in Jabba the Hutt’s crime empire. And while Marvel comics have revealed that Fett helped Darth Vader look for Luke Skywalker after A New Hope – and that he and Skywalker duelled – there are still plenty of gaps in his timeline to fill.
Disney era Star Wars has also borrowed plenty of ideas from those aforementioned Legends stories, so don’t be surprised if we see Boba Fett acting as best man at Dengar’s wedding. Yes, that really did happen in one story.
Will The Book of Boba Fett cross over with The Mandalorian?
It’s not been officially confirmed, but we wouldn’t bet against it. For starters, Boba Fett, Fennec Shand and the Mandalorian himself, Din Djarin, have worked together before and operate in similarly morally ambiguous regions of the Star Wars galaxy, so it’d would be no stretch for them to cross paths again.
Also, at the Disney Investor Day, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that The Mandalorian and spin-offs Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic are “interconnected” and “will culminate in a climactic story event”. While The Book of Boba Fett wasn’t included in that announcement, it’s likely its absence was down to the fact the show hadn’t been announced at that point. Indeed, it would be weird if Boba Fett and Fennec Shand weren’t involved in such a major event, seeing as they’re going about their business in the same part of the Star Wars timeline.
The Book of Boba Fett cast: who will return
Unsurprisingly, Temuera Morrison is back as Boba Fett.
Morrison’s first Star Wars appearance came in Attack of the Clones, where he played Boba Fett’s bounty hunter ‘father’, Jango. (Jango Fett was the template for the Clone Troopers who fought for the Old Republic in the Clone Wars – as payment for his genetic material, Jango asked the cloners on Kamino to create Boba, an unmodified version of himself.)
And since the 2004 DVD release of the original trilogy, Morrison also voices Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, after Star Wars creator George Lucas decided to replace lines originally recorded by Jason Wingreen.
Morrison’s co-star in The Book of Boba Fett will be Agents of SHIELD/Mulan star Ming-Na Wen, who reprises her The Mandalorian role as bounty hunter Fennec Shand.
Behind the camera, The Mandalorian brains trust of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will executive produce, along with Robert Rodriguez. The Sin City/Alita: Battle Angel director has been brought into the Star Wars fold after helming Fett’s big comeback in The Mandalorian season 2 episode ‘The Tragedy’.
Every episode of The Mandalorian is available to stream on Disney Plus. The Book of Boba Fett comes to Disney Plus in December 2021.