The Book of Boba Fett: A Disappointing Detour in the Star Wars Saga

The Book of Boba Fett faced a challenging journey from the start. As the second live-action series in the Star Wars universe, all seven episodes are now accessible on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. It premiered in late 2021, right after two seasons of the highly cherished The Mandalorian. This included two full seasons featuring Grogu, commonly referred to as Baby Yoda, who captured our affection with his shareable moments. We watched a bounty hunter (Pedro Pascal) explore his paternal instincts, deal with his aversion to droids, and seek his identity amidst the stars. Following an emotional farewell between the two characters at the end of The Mandalorian’s second season, it was The Book of Boba Fett — developed by the same creators — that came next, resulting in a two-year interval between the second and third seasons.

To be honest, a faction of Star Wars enthusiasts has longed for more of Boba Fett. This demand is largely why The Book of Boba Fett was produced. Boba Fett’s (originally portrayed by Jeremy Bulloch in the 1980s) mysterious allure in the original trilogy — with only a few minutes of screen time before meeting his demise — sparked the audience’s imagination, spawning an array of potential narratives surrounding him. Regrettably, for many years, aside from books and comics that have been declared non-canonical, there was little opportunity for this expansion. The Star Wars franchise primarily revolved around the Skywalker lineage, relegating other characters to the background. In the prequel trilogy, Star Wars architect George Lucas introduced a bit more of Boba Fett by revealing he had a “father” in Jango Fett (played by Temuera Morrison, who now portrays Boba Fett in the Disney+ series), and, of course, he is a clone.

After Lucasfilm came under the ownership of Disney — acquiring it from Lucas for over $4 billion (approximately Rs. 29,896 crore) in 2012 — there had been plans for a standalone Boba Fett movie. It almost came to fruition, with Logan director James Mangold attached as director, but was shelved due to the critical and financial disappointment of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Because of this failure, the Boba Fett film — along with other planned “Star Wars Story” ventures, like Obi-Wan Kenobi — were canceled. The resurgence of The Mandalorian led Lucasfilm to reimagine these projects as series for Disney+. (Obi-Wan Kenobi, featuring Ewan McGregor reprising his titular role, is also slated for release in 2022 after The Book of Boba Fett.)

Temuera Morrison as Boba Fett in The Book of Boba Fett
Photo Credit: Disney/Lucasfilm

However, it turned out to be a significant miscalculation. The issues with The Book of Boba Fett were numerous. Firstly, the narrative was already explored — by the same creators, no less. It’s effectively The Mandalorian. After all, both focus on mysterious bounty hunters from the Mandalore race. Din Djarin’s (Pascal) storyline in The Mandalorian is essentially what a Boba Fett film could have portrayed. By introducing Grogu into the story and stepping away from the Star Wars mythos (at least for one season), The Mandalorian’s creator Jon Favreau — who also helmed The Book of Boba Fett — was able to navigate uncharted territories, both literally and thematically. With The Book of Boba Fett, he revisited familiar ground. Why revisit what he had already traversed?

This doesn’t mean it couldn’t succeed. Star Wars has demonstrated this, with writer-director J.J. Abrams replicating the narrative structure of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope for Episode VII – The Force Awakens. The bigger drawback of The Book of Boba Fett lies in its lack of depth and creativity. The initial four episodes aimed at fleshing out Fett’s character turned out to be largely futile. The backstory was quite dull — although it did enrich the narrative surrounding the Tusken Raiders — and the contemporary storyline progressed at a monotonous rhythm. Most of the series took place in Tatooine, causing The Book of Boba Fett to come to a standstill. It could have navigated through that if it had any substantial points to explore, but the episodes had little to present. And when the series exhausted Fett’s history and current situation, it simply shifted its focus to Din Djarin.

This led to the internal description during production labeling The Book of Boba Fett as The Mandalorian season 2.5, as it effectively became a bridge to The Mandalorian season 3. Honestly, it was a baffling choice — did no one notice the title of this show? More than a quarter of The Book of Boba Fett had nothing to do with its titular character. Disney+ and Lucasfilm would have been wise to merge those two Mandalorian-centric episodes into season 3. By featuring Mando in someone else’s series, The Book of Boba Fett inadvertently highlighted Boba Fett’s lack of engagement. The series noticeably improved the moment it shifted focus from its titular character, which isn’t exactly flattering.

The Book of Boba Fett also provided minimal opportunities for its leads — Morrison as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen — to shine. Moreover, the decision to have Morrison remove his helmet didn’t enhance much; the New Zealand actor could have delivered the same impact while keeping it on. His range of expressions is somewhat limited, to put it bluntly.

Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in The Book of Boba Fett
Photo Credit: Disney/Lucasfilm

Even the standout episodes of The Book of Boba Fett were fraught with their own challenges. Some typical pitfalls of Star Wars narratives were present. After Grogu departed with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) at the conclusion of The Mandalorian season 2, I, like many others, speculated about how long Grogu would remain off-screen. After all, Baby Yoda had transformed into a major draw within The Mandalorian. However, we didn’t even make it to The Mandalorian season 3 without Grogu’s (predictable) return. The Book of Boba Fett also revived Luke Skywalker, this time in broad daylight. Not satisfied with granting him a few moments at the end of The Mandalorian season 2 finale, The Book of Boba Fett afforded Luke a principal role in its sixth and penultimate episode.

Star Wars grapples with a persistent issue regarding nostalgia. The nine-film Skywalker Saga concluded in a dismal manner, far too reliant on past events. Despite the saga’s conclusion, writers continue to unearth the Skywalker legacy. Over the last five years, Hamill has reprised his role as Luke — one way or another — in The Last Jedi, The Mandalorian, and now The Book of Boba Fett. Meanwhile, Hayden Christensen will return as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in two forthcoming Star Wars series: the aforementioned Obi-Wan Kenobi alongside McGregor, and subsequently Ahsoka — another spin-off of The Mandalorian, helmed by Star Wars veteran Dave Filoni — that follows Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, his former Padawan. Why can’t Favreau, Filoni, and others grant them some reprieve?

On one level, the crux of the issue rests with Lucasfilm itself — it desires to market toys and theme parks closely tied to the Skywalker era. This results in the Star Wars universe often becoming constrained. While George Lucas excelled at broadening the world, contemporary stakeholders in Star Wars continuously shy away from doing so beyond a certain limit. While Favreau successfully expanded horizons with The Mandalorian’s inaugural season, the second season came across as merely a series of backdoor leads for additional Star Wars content, ranging from Ahsoka to The Book of Boba Fett. This all aimed to culminate in the “grand” Rangers of the New Republic series, but due to Gina Carano’s dismissal, that project was abandoned — and its concepts may become incorporated into The Mandalorian season 3.

Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin, Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in The Book of Boba Fett
Photo Credit: Disney/Lucasfilm

Ultimately, The Book of Boba Fett was an unfortunate introduction to the expansion of — what I referred to two Decembers ago — the Star Wars cinematic universe on television. The Mandalorian thrived due to its minimalist approach; The Book of Boba Fett required Favreau to do more, which he unfortunately did not. This exposed the limitations of Favreau’s storytelling capabilities. Moreover, The Book of Boba Fett is a clear indicator that Lucasfilm must diversify its talent pool and not constrain its opportunities. The Star Wars universe is already mired in this issue, and the production of Star Wars must not fall into the same trap.

This isn’t the first instance of such a predicament for Star Wars in recent history. After facing behind-the-scenes challenges with Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm turned to Abrams due to his adept management of the franchise’s soft reboot with The Force Awakens. He faltered there. Similarly, Favreau has encountered the same fate following his success with The Mandalorian. Fortunately for Favreau, he can dismiss this miniseries as if it never happened — but that’s unfortunate for those mediocre episodes in between. Best of luck to Star Wars enthusiasts and creators as they determine how to weave The Book of Boba Fett into their recommendations — and hopefully, Favreau will return to focusing on what he does best with The Mandalorian season 3.

A portion of Star Wars enthusiasts expressed discontent with Boba Fett frequently removing his helmet in The Book of Boba Fett. However, that was hardly the most significant issue in a series where nothing truly progressed. At least Mando and Grogu have reunited — we even enjoyed some ultimately shareable Baby Yoda moments in The Book of Boba Fett’s conclusion — and they are seen flying away from Tatooine into a hopeful future. Good riddance.

All seven episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are available for streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar. In India, The Book of Boba Fett is offered in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.