We now know it thanks to his remarkable appearance in the series. The Mandalorian, Boba Fett did not die on Tatooine, swallowed by the Sarlacc where Han Solo pushed him into Return of the Jedi. It would’ve been a pretty crappy ending for fan-favorite bounty hunter of Star wars.
And among those fans were more than certainly Jon Favreau and Robert Rodriguez. The first, creator and main screenwriter of the two seasons of the Mandalorian, pull the strings of his spin off, Boba Fett’s book (VF of The Book of Boba Fett); and the second will produce three episodes, the first of which is now available on Disney +. It will be followed by six others, which will be deposited on a weekly basis.
This first episode, Stranger in a Strange Land, is quite simply enjoyable by its action (this confrontation with parkour “ninjas”!) and its revelations. We discover what Boba Fett did between the moment he disappeared in the mouth of the monster and when, about five years later, he arrived on Tatooine with the mercenary Fennec Shand and took his place on the throne that was that of Jabba the Hutt (as we saw at the end of episode 14 of Mandalorian). The series thus follows the rise of the impassive antihero in the world of organized crime, over which he intends to reign “not by terror, but by respect”.
Without a line of dialogue – other than “exchanges” between Jawas and Tuskens – during the first 12 of its 38 minutes, the inaugural episode appears, in its realization as in its rhythm and its soundtrack (signed Ludwig Göransson), as the intergalactic version of a spaghetti western that Sergio Leone would not have denied.
Added to this are some irresistible nods to fans of the saga and lovers of these “old films” of adventure and fantasy. Doesn’t the way Boba Fett come to grips with the creature attacking him in the Tatooine Desert sound like the way Princess Leia rid the galaxy of Jabba in Return of the Jedi ? And this creature, precisely, does it not have the airs of kinship with those that the master Ray Harryhausen created in the past (Sinbad’s Seventh Voyage, Jason and the Argonauts)?
There is love and a long-standing knowledge in there, so much that it cuts through the screen to strike the viewer in the heart.
Women and the “old”
The New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison takes again of course, with the caustic humor, the hermetism and the restraint that we know him, the role he has lived for two decades: he played Boba Fett in The Mandalorian and in the remastered version of The Empire against-attack ; but he also played Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and in Revenge of the Sith. However, Jango, for the record, is the “father” of Boba… and of all the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic, his genetic material having served as the basis for the creation of now countless clones.
Beside him, Ming-Na Wen re-dons the armor of bounty hunter Fennec Shand, who appeared in The Mandalorian and heard in the animated series The Bad Batch. The character, now Boba Fett’s right-hand man, displays a delectable attitude which combines all the consideration she feels for her boss and a sidereal detachment in the face of everything else. The result is extremely cool and works wonderfully.
Naturally, any passage on Tatooine requires a detour through one of these ill-famed taverns where the worst representatives of a bunch of species rub shoulders. Here, it’s called Le Sanctuaire and it’s run by the enigmatic Madame Garsa Fwip. Played by Jennifer Beals (Flashdance), the character only makes one appearance, but we feel that he will have a lot more to do in the sequel. Perhaps completing a trio that innovates in unusual ways: Temuera Morrison is 61 years old; Ming-Na Wen and Jennifer Beals, 58. After the girl power, the elder power on the screen ?