Austin Gorton: It’s been over a year since the second season of The Mandalorian concluded with Grogu (nee Baby Yoda) flying off into the sunset with a CG Mark Hamill, but instead of following that up with the next round of Mandalorian adventures, Disney is giving fans the series teased at the end of that series: The Book of Boba Fett, which finds everyone’s favorite (?) bounty hunter trying to claim the deceased Jabba’s the Hutt’s criminal empire for himself.
Before we dive into the premier episode itself, what are your feelings about Boba Fett as a character, Matt? For me, he’s basically the Wolverine of Star Wars. Is he cool? Of course he is. Is it fun to watch him be effortlessly effective at kicking butt and taking names? Yes. Am I nevertheless consistently more interested in other characters? Also yes.
Matt Lazorwitz: Oh, I could not agree more! Fett is a character whose best stories are often like some of the best episodes of Batman: The Animated Series or Will Eisner’s The Spirit strips: he’s a story engine other characters work around to build an interesting narrative.
The most fascinated I ever was by Fett as a character on his own was in the now very non-canon “Last One Standing” from the Tales of the Bounty Hunters anthology, where he got his Legends origin long before Attack of the Clones, where he was Jaster Mereel, the fallen Journeyman Protector of Concord Dawn. It was a great origin, very Western, which I always felt worked with the Man With No Name vibe Fett had in those days.
Austin: Fett is definitely a character where less is more. Which makes centering a series around him, while understandable from a commercial perspective, somewhat questionable from a creative one.
Flashes Before Your Eyes
Austin: Reportedly, large swathes of the cast and crew of this show didn’t even know they were making it when it started filming – assuming, instead they were simply filming the third season of The Mandalorian. While certainly a testament to Disney’s spoilerphobia, at least in this first episode, it’s easy to see how they could make that assumption, as The Mandalorian’s DNA is all over this show. In addition to the general concept of a helmeted, armored warrior making his way through the largely lawless underbelly of the post-Empire Star Wars galaxy and familiar faces like Ming-Na Wen’s Fenec Shand, Ludwig Gorranson is here composing a theme song that riffs on his “Ennio Morricone by way of John Williams” work for The Mandalorian, creators Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez, who both worked on The Mandalorian, are here, and the episode concludes with the same “closing credits over concept art” sequences as the earlier show. While being presented as its own thing and absent the title character, the series definitely feels as much like, if not The Mandalorian Season 3, then at least Mandalorian Season 2.5.
One new thing it introduces to the narrative toolbox of the Disney Plus Star Wars shows are flashbacks, something we only ever saw fleetingly in The Mandalorian but which have become an increasingly common narrative tool across scripted shows in general over the last couple decades.
Matt: I’m not sure how I feel about the flashbacks as what looks to be a regular occurrence on the series. We’ve all probably watched at least one show that does that dual narrative thing, whether it’s Lost, Arrow, or This is Us. And it usually wears thin before the creators want it to.
I also don’t know how essential they are. Maybe we’ll see some key moments, like how Fett and Shand teamed up, but how will that inform the rest of the show? I hope the creatives are considering that, because while there was some cool stuff here (especially the Harryhausen monster), I’m not sure how long this device will fly on this show.
Austin: I have flashback concerns as well. For one, if they’re going to do them, I’d prefer they do them more like how Lost, Arrow, etc. used them, that is, to cut back and forth between the flashbacks and the present day throughout the episode. The way it’s done here, with the present day plotline bookended by the two flashback sequences, buries the present day material and doesn’t allow for the verve that comes when the flashback events lead into the present day (and vice versa).
My other concern is the same as yours: how essential are they, really? Sure, showing Fett escaping from the Sarlaac Pit is a cool Star Wars moment, the kind of thing that doesn’t need to be shown but is still fun to see actually depicted on screen, but I’m not sure if Fett winning the respect of a clan of Native Tatooiners (ie Tusken Raiders) is worth the time the show has invested in that arc so far. Time will tell, I suppose.
Another irritating thing about the flashbacks is that it brought us a fight scene taking place in the dark of a Tatooine night, which means we got another one of those increasingly common sequences in which its hard to tell what the heck is happening – I watched the episode in a pitch dark room on a relatively-current TV, and still had a hard time following things. Did that bug you too, or am I just an Old Man?
Matt: Maybe I’m old too, but I also found that scene muddy. Robert Rodriguez is such a well known director for his action/fight scenes, so it’s not like this is someone who doesn’t have experience with doing this, so I can’t even chalk it up to not knowing better. Maybe it was an experiment that didn’t go over, and I hope that sticks and we get some better lit action scenes in the future.
Before we get deep into the plot and such of the story, can we just call out Ming-Na Wen as Fett’s major domo/assassin, Fenec Shand? She is one of those actresses who has such a great screen presence that I am drawn to watch her whenever she’s on screen, and here she is phenomenal as ever. She’s this dry, cool voice that is trying to help Fett work in his new status quo, and I can’t wait to see more of that relationship over the course of the show.
Austin: Totally agree; even when she’s just standing over Fett’s shoulder, I’m drawn to her.
Putting In The Work
Austin: In terms of the present day events, there is an air of pleasing mundanity to this episode’s A-plot. It’s almost entirely just Boba Fett going about the business of becoming a crime lord: accepting tributes from vassals, surveying his business interests, fending off attacks from would-be rivals. The stakes were low and business-like, and while I don’t think that vibe can sustain a show for an entire season, it was an enjoyable swerve away from something more intense and high-octane at the start.
The one thing it didn’t (yet) provide is motivation. Why, exactly, does Boba Fett want to claim Jabba the Hutt’s empire for himself? To be his own boss for a change? To use the position to better people’s lives? Because Jabba stiffed him on a job one time and this seems like as good a payback as any? At this point, it is unclear (and this is a question that’s been hanging there since the end of Mandalorian Season 2 introduced the notion of “Boba Fett, the new Jabba the Hutt”). It’s possible the point of the flashbacks is to answer this question: maybe he has altruistic motives as a result of his experience with the Native Tatooiners (further supported by his reaction to the raiders he observed attacking a moisture farm). It’s a question the series absolutely has to answer, probably sooner rather than later.
Matt: It does seem out of character, based on Fett’s previous characterization. But then again, how much characterization do we have on Fett in an era beyond the Prequel era? The Boba we know best, as a character, is the angry kid who saw the Jedi kill his dad and is looking to become the best so he can get some measure of revenge for that death, the one from the Clone Wars cartoon.
And it’s not like those daddy issues have gone away, even with the Jedi Order long reduced to a fraction of its former self. He sought out his armor in the Mandalorian partially because it was his, but more because it was a connection to Jango. And one of the first flashes he has in the opening flashback is him kneeling with his father’s helmet in the arena at Geonosis. Me being me, I just can’t help but think that Boba has some real Bruce Wayne issues, never quite leaving the moment of the death of a parent in front of him.
Austin: That’s a great point: the most we know of him (canonically) as a character at this point is the fact that he fits into the proud Star Wars tradition of Characters Missing Their Dads (and speaking of those early flashes of Kamino and the arena from Attack of the Clones, while I wouldn’t say I love the Prequels, I do appreciate it when moden Star Wars engages with its past while not shunning the, shall we say, less sterling elements of it).
The other thing the present day sequence does well is showcase a Boba Fett who is far from the perfect badass bounty hunting warrior of legend. In the central fight scene of the present day material, we see Fett and Shand attacked by a group of goons using energy shields to contain their targets; while Fett is still capable of holding his own in a fight (once his Gamorrean bodyguards break the reverse-phalanx of energy shields and a more traditional melee breaks out), he’s not going to bounce back as quickly, as he immediately needs to get thrown back into his bacta pod afterwards, like someone who overdid it on their Peloton. And the actual work of becoming a crime lord is clearly not coming naturally to him: he needs Fenec not just to watch his back, or capture one of their attackers alive, but to help guide his actions and explain the ways of this new world to him. He’s certainly not inept, but neither is he invulnerable, and it makes for a far more interesting protagonist than the more legendary version of the character would be.
Matt: Oh, this new role does not fit Boba as well as that armor does. He is not used to being a crime lord, and I think that is going to continue to be a big problem. And we can see he doesn’t have the respect of the people. When his helmet full of credits is knocked aside during that fight, at least a Jawa, if not some others, start scrambling to pick up the coins. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think they would have done that if Jabba’s litter had been attacked. They would have known there would be consequences, and they don’t yet feel like there will be for Boba.
I also couldn’t help noticing that Boba is dragged back to the palace not wearing the helmet. Maybe I missed it, but when I didn’t see it with him after it was cast aside, I immediately thought that this was a possible plot point. Jawa’s stole the armor to begin with, after all. If that helmet doesn’t immediately find its way back to Boba, woe be unto whoever took it, because that might again present the terrifying engine of death Boba Fett who wants that helmet back.
A Simple Man
Matt: So, that monster has a real Harryhausen/stop motion vibe, doesn’t it?
Austin: That monster, which is, as far as I can tell, wholly original to the series, is probably my favorite thing about the episode. I’m sure it was created entirely out of CG, but it looked stop-motion, which is quite an achievement. I particularly enjoyed the way it shifted from bipedal (with four arms) to quadrupedal (with two arms) throughout the fight sequence.
Matt: OK, I’m putting on my Old Man hat here. One of the things that I look for in Star Wars live action media is a lived in feeling. This comes from growing up with the original trilogy in its original form, I think: I didn’t have the tinkered with and shinier Special Editions until the end of high school, and I was a freshman in college when Phantom Menace hit. So the fact that this episode’s central creature effect looked practical, even if it wasn’t, worked well for me.
This extends even further throughout the episode. Tatooine should never look fresh and shiny; it’s the spot that is farthest from the galaxy’s bright center, after all. Fett’s armor looks cleaner than it has at any point in any film, almost as shiny as when it was Jango’s armor, but that is very intentional and I’m counting on that not staying that way, and that’s cool. We’ll see some battle damage to the guy who won’t stay on his litter and wants to show he can walk on his own two feet.
Austin: That lived in feeling is definitely a key component of the best Star Wars material, and while the fact that Tatooine is meant to be this backwater burg yet nevertheless important stuff keeps happening there has almost passed the point of absurdism such that I now kind of want them to just lean into it and make it, like, the new Galactic capital or something, in the here and now it does make a good rough-and-tumble setting for this show about Boba Fett redefining himself.
Boba Fett’s armor may look shiny and polished, but I love that he’s left the big ol’ dent in the helmet. It speaks to his appeal as a character: like Wolverine, Fett is appealing not when he’s invincible and unstoppable, but when he takes a beating and keeps on going, finding a way to achieve his goal no matter the odds. Hopefully, this series will continue to showcase a Fett who is less a kewl badass and more just a simple man trying to make his way in the universe.
Force Facts
- Episode title: “Stranger in a Strange Land”
- That’s Jennifer Beals, of Flashdance fame, playing Madame Garsa, and comedian Matt Barry as the torture-prone major domo droid 8D8, whose identity suffered some confusion, as IMDB and the show’s credits site him as UK2-B, but Wookiepedia said it was 8D8, one of the droids torturing other droids in Jabba’s dungeon in Return of the Jedi). Pablo Hidalgo has weighed in, saying it’s 8D8, and that’s good enough for us.
- Dokk Strassi, the Trandoshan, was played by episode director Robert Rodriguez. His tribute is seemingly a Wookiee pelt, which is a nice nod to the species’ long-standing history of Wookiee hunting.
- Boba Fett is spending his evenings in what appears to be a bacta tank, the same kind of subversive healing liquid apparatus used by Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back and Darth Vader in Rogue One.
- Max Rebo is back, which while great, begs the important question: Where is Droopy McCool?
- The symbol the raiders painted on the outside of the moisture farm wasn’t familiar, but presumably it’s tied to some kind of rival gang/syndicate.
- The tentacled Twi’leks have long served as the unfortunate sex objects of the Star Wars universe, but it is appreciated to see a himbo version alongside the traditional female sex object in Garsa’s club.
- Digging for rock-water-gourds by hand two slaves at a time seems wildly inefficent.
- With the difference in lead times being what they are, I doubt this is feasible, but with the Star Wars comics spending so much time with the underworld this and next year, it would be pretty cool to see some reference to Crimson Dawn in this series.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
