While Star Wars hardly got involved with the big Disney+ Day celebration whatsoever, there was a new special that dropped, taking a behind-the-scenes look at the history of Boba Fett. “Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett” is a 22-minute documentary looking at Fett’s story and how he came to be a beloved Star Wars character.
The documentary goes into his creation as a character, spending significant time on how he was created, where he first appeared (first on-screen in The Star Wars Holiday Special but even before that in a Marin County parade), as well as the evolution of the character into Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars. From there, we see the legacy of the character left by Jeremy Bulloch, as well as the prominence in merchandising shown at Rancho Obi-Wan. At the end, there’s a bit of time devoted to Fett’s return in The Mandalorian and looking forward to The Book of Boba Fett, though this doesn’t get as much attention as the other segments.
As readers of this site well know, I am a big fan of Star Wars documentaries and behind-the-scenes looks like these, so I really enjoyed this. There’s not a whole lot of new information, but the point is to compile all of this history into one episode, featuring interviews with George Lucas, Dave Filoni, Ben Burtt, Daniel Logan, Kathy Kennedy, Temuera Morrison, Maureen Bulloch (the widow of Jeremy Bulloch), and others. This was really interesting, really well-done, and is a perfect introduction (or reminder) about the character in advance of The Book of Boba Fett dropping next month.
It’s so good that I hope Disney+ continues to release some specials like this about other Star Wars characters. This type of stuff stands on its own, but also can serve as promotion and marketing and reminding in advance of other shows and specials as well.
I will say that one part of the documentary that was interesting to me was how there was a section where several people spoke to how the mystery of Boba Fett was part of what made him so fascinating and made him stick. I certainly agree with that! He had just four lines and just six minutes of screentime (as this special documents) in the original trilogy, yet he instantly became a fan favorite. From George Lucas to the others working on the character and the films to the fans, there seems to be an almost universal recognition that part of the fascination with Fett is his intrigue and mystery. The reason I bring all of this up is that, with The Book of Boba Fett coming out next month, I wonder how that will change. Will the series delve so much into the character that it eliminates all of the mystery, or will it stir up the intrigue all the more? It’s essentially a no-win situation for Lucasfilm, since answering all the questions will eliminate a large part of what made Fett stick out in the first place, but not answering the questions will have people online complaining about their made-up plot holes. I say all of this because it just struck me as curious that this documentary highlighted that, considering what is coming. But I trust they will handle the character well in The Book of Boba Fett, so this isn’t a criticism; just an observation that I found interesting (but maybe it’s just me).
The other thing that I should mention is that this special did a really great job of honoring Jeremy Bulloch for his role in bringing the character to life. Bulloch passed away last December, and there was a considerable amount of time devoted to his legacy and interactions with the fans, which was really touching. I was glad that it was included in here.
Overall, this was fantastic. Though I know some Star Wars fans are disappointed that this is all we really got on Disney+ Day, that’s nothing about this special itself, because it was really well done and a very enjoyable watch. I hope there are more projects like this one to come.
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