The Book of Boba Fett comes out later this month!
Star Wars has recently ramped up the marketing for the series, including dropping two TV spots that give us several new shots! When the first trailer came out, I broke down what we saw, so for these spots I’m only going to focus on the new stuff we see here. There’s not a ton, but what we did get is quite interesting – including what I would call a couple of “money” shots that help build the hype for the series.
Let’s dive in!
There’s a new shot of the massive door to Jabba’s Palace opening, revealing Fennec Shand walking in with a prisoner of some sorts. It seems like this prisoner is connected with the Ithorian boss seen in the previous trailer (more on that later; if you’re interested now jump to the end of the article). This is likely Fennec bringing this person to report to Boba, but it’s also a shot that just looks really cool.
We get a couple different shots of Boba Fett riding away on a speeder bike, followed closely by several other bikes. There’s nothing here to suggest that they’re pursuing him, so it’s more likely that these are people aligned with Fett and this is how they’re traveling through the Tatooine deserts. Regardless, I’m excited to see more speeder bike action in this series!
We saw these men in the first trailer, as these are the ones who wind up surrounding Fett and Fennec Shand with vibro-shields and vibro-blades. Based on the setting we see them in, plus my assumption that most of what we’ve seen so far is from early in the season (I’m thinking the first episode), these men seem to work for the Ithorian crime boss seen in the trailer. Anyway, in these shots we see them running across the rooftops of a populated city. I speculated previously that this could be Bestine. We’ve never seen the city before, but it’s a significant city on the planet. In Legends it was the capital of the planet, and I’d certainly assume that’s still true. It would be a perfect choice for a brand new city to explore on a frequently-explored planet, one that could show us a far more urban look than we’re used to.
Here’s the first of the “money” shots that I mentioned: Boba Fett and Fennec Shand approaching Slave I. The ship is in a hangar at Jabba’s Palace, and we’ve actually seen this hangar in video games before – notably, in the Battlefront game that released in 2015, as it was available to explore in one of the later DLC updates. It was the hangar that housed Jabba’s Sail Barge and several other skiffs, so whether or not this is exactly the same hangar, it’s really cool to see that design and idea translate to a live-action series.
But also note in this shot that Boba is still wearing his Tusken robes as he walks toward the ship – the same look as when we first saw him in The Mandalorian, before he got his armor back. So piecing all of this together, my guess is that this is actually a flashback sequence that shows Fett returning to his ship before taking off to pursue Din Djarin and retrieve his armor. He’s rescued Fennec Shand, has tracked down his armor, and now is ready to retrieve his ship. Presumably he parked it there when arriving at Jabba’s Palace before the events of Return of the Jedi, and with Fett’s escapades with the sarlacc pit and the death of Jabba the Hutt, the ship may have sat untouched for years.
The point here is that it’s super cool to see them approaching the iconic ship, but it also clues us in to the fact that there will likely be flashbacks filling in some of the gaps. I hope they don’t explain everything (since part of Fett’s allure is the mystery), but one thing I really want to know is why it took him so long to go after his armor. I’m guessing we’ll get some answers for that.
We’ve seen plenty of shots from this dinner before, but these two are new. Basically, Fett calls together several of Jabba’s captains for a meal where he wants to bring them together, thinking they can be more profitable together. It’s a bit of a tense dinner, but one thing this new shot reveals is that the meal takes place right on top of the trap door to the Rancor’s lair. The Rancor is dead, but I wonder whether the image is purely symbolic or whether it’s a threat – or both. Boba using it as a place to eat could be a symbolic display that he intends to rule differently than Jabba, while keeping in the back of the others’ minds the threat of going against him. We’ll have to see, but I just find it interesting and notable that the table is set on top of this, while Fett isn’t sitting on the door at all. Maybe that will turn out to be something, or maybe not.
Right after these shots, we also get a shot of Fett sitting on the throne, saying, “I am Boba Fett.” Nothing huge, but it’s pretty cool – and it’s somewhat reminiscent of his first appearance in the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, where he introduces himself with that same line.
I won’t say much here since we’ve seen several glimpses of this fight between Fett/Shand and the Ithorian’s men, but these two brief shots are new. Of note here is that Fett uses his wrist rocket to fire, and one thing I really loved about his appearance in “The Tragedy” in The Mandalorian is that director Robert Rodriguez put Fett’s whole arsenal on display. I expect The Book of Boba Fett to continue that, showing just how many tricks Fett’s armor has and how many ways he has to fight.
Here’s the other “money” shot in these TV spots, though in a different way than the image of Slave I. Here we see Boba Fett in a bacta tank, presumably recovering from his wounds suffered in the sarlacc pit. Some have speculated that this is a flashback showing Fett being nursed back to health, and I’m on record as saying that I think we will see this happen (and I think that’s what the Tusken Raider shot in the previous trailer is from). So I do think we’ll see Fett’s recovery, but I don’t think this is as much of a flashback. The reason why is that Fett looks different than he did in The Mandalorian – it looks like he’s healed even more. And given the way he looks in other images from The Book of Boba Fett, it looks like he’s healed a lot more since the events of the other show, and that likely is thanks to bacta. Because it looks to me like he’s in much better shape here than in The Mandalorian, I’m guessing that this is a regular bacta routine that Fett partakes in as an ongoing way to heal his wounds.
Remember the shot we started this article with, of Fennec bringing a prisoner to Jabba’s Palace? Well, it looks like this is the same guy! It was hard to make out in the other image who this was, but this makes it a lot clearer and seems to match up exactly. Given that, then, it looks like this guy is wearing the same outfit as several of the other men seen fighting against Fett and Fennec, and who presumably work for the Ithorian. So considering these shots, I wonder if this is actually what prompts Fett’s meeting with the Ithorian. Did this guy get caught trying to spy on or sabotage Fett? Or are Fett and Fennec the ones going on the offensive in trying to gain leverage?
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