A lot can happen in five years.
In the Star Wars universe, five years was the gap of time between Boba Fett’s presumed demise in Return of the Jedi, eaten by the sarlacc pit, and his return in The Mandalorian to retrieve his armor. But with his return in that show, which happens ahead of his starring in The Book of Boba Fett, there are also questions. One of the biggest questions is about what he’s been up to in those five years.
After all, it wasn’t until five years after Return of the Jedi that Fett retrieved his armor, and presumably that he even left Tatooine. What took him so long? What was he up to instead? Those are the questions that I’m hoping The Book of Boba Fett answers, and it sounds like it will.
The show was featured in the recent issue of SFX magazine, and PureBeskar on the Star Wars Leaks subreddit posted some pertinent quotes from the issue. In it, star Temuera Morrison says, “There will definitely be a number of answers” about what Fett has been up to. “Some long-winded answers. Some short and sharp answers. Some colorful answers. We’re filling a lot of gaps.”
If I had to guess, a lot of those answers will center around how Fett survived the sarlacc, how he was nursed back to health, and why it wasn’t for five years that he returned to the scene and retrieved his armor. And personally, I’m hoping all of this leads to some more Cobb Vanth in the series, if only in flashbacks, as I’d be thrilled to get more of him.
Here’s the thing, though: one of the biggest aspects of Boba Fett’s character throughout the years that has endeared himself to fans has been the intrigue and mystery. The recent Disney+ special, Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett, brought this out as well. So how do these showrunners balance giving the needed answers while preserving some of that mystery? In my opinion, that will be their biggest challenge, and I’m very curious to see how they handle it.
It’s not a secret to them, though, and Morrison acknowledges this as well. “Yes, and that’s where we kind of opened up too much of the can at times, I think,” he said, admitting what some of us have feared. But he continues, “I did have my reservations, but hey, I trust the people I work with. I was so lucky I had people like Dave Filoni, who has an ability to connect some of the dots – some of the ancient dots – and to keep that authenticity. I relied on him a lot, because I’m not one of these actors that reads every comic book and every bounty hunter book.”
Morrison is keeping with a theme that we’ve heard frequently from the set of The Mandalorian and now The Book of Boba Fett: that Dave Filoni has been an indispensable resource for the whole team, from the writers and directors and showrunners to the actors themselves. I trust Filoni more than anyone else to make a Star Wars project and tell a compelling story, so I’m glad he’s involved. It does sound like Morrison has the same concerns I do about giving away too many details about Boba Fett’s backstory, but I think The Clone Wars was able to do it in an appropriate way, so I trust this will be able to as well. And at the end of the day, there’s going to be some give and take. In order to make a compelling story about Boba Fett we have to learn more about him, and I’d much rather have a series like this give away some of the mystery than not have a series like this at all.
And in my opinion, the details surrounding his survival and return are ones that should be covered in a series like this, at least to some degree. I’m glad that it sounds like they will be!
Star Wars Thoughts 