CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR MANDALORIAN AND BOOK OF BOBA FETT

Disney Plus has made a lot of its money off of two sources: Marvel and Star Wars. Marvel comes in the form of shows like WandaVision and Loki. Star Wars, on the other hand, has had many shows and many more still yet to come. This new era of the Star Wars series began with The Mandalorian, one of the first original shows on their streaming platform. It told the story of a Mandalorian bounty hunter trying to protect a young alien with powers connected to the Force from a group of loyalists to the now fallen Empire. The Mandalorian has been well-received by critics and fans across the board for its clever writing, cinematography, special effects, and its groundbreaking cameos. 

In the second season of The Mandalorian, it brought back one of the most popular Star Wars characters of all time: Boba Fett. This time Fett is played by Temuera Morrison as he comes back from hiding after the Empire has fallen. He helps Mando defeat Moth Gideon who captured the young alien Grogu. After the end of that season, Boba Fett has taken over Jabba the Hutt’s original domain after his death. The Book of Boba Fett tells the story of Boba Fett fighting against a new crime syndicate trying to take over Tatooine known as the Pykes. 

Even though Book of Boba Fett has many interesting fight scenes and works as a fantastic redemption story for the titular mercenary, the show is ultimately a letdown, especially for people going from the now-iconic Mandalorian straight to this show. The special effects have taken a downhill since the last season of the Mandalorian and have much slower pacing due to the reliance on flashbacks in the first four episodes. These flashbacks are enjoyable to watch as we get to see Boba Fett escape the Sarlacc Pit and work with Tusken Raiders to take down the early invasions of the Pykes. 

The character of Boba Fett, outside of these flashback scenes, does not usually act out on his own accord and almost acts like a passive character to all of the situations until the final episode. Most of his action scenes are contained within flashbacks while in the present time, Fett is just negotiating with noblemen and making his new allies go after enemies for him. 

Then, after episode 5, it becomes nothing but cameos and ultimately becomes what should have been Mandalorian Season 3. The Mandalorian himself, played by the famous Pedro Pascal, returns to help Boba Fett take down the Pykes, as well as the mercenaries they have acquired. There are also major cameos from Ahsoka Tano from the animated Clone Wars (played by Rosario Dawson) and an appearance from the newly introduced Cad Bane, also from Clone Wars, played by Corey Burton. Even though all of these characters are great to see on screen again, it still felt like it took away from what could have been Boba Fett’s story. 

Also, Grogu, the adorable alien with Force powers, returns as well and reunites with the Mandalorian by the end of the show. Even though viewers were expecting this to happen at some point, it was very unexpected to see this happen in a miniseries spinoff of the original show. This also makes it harder for viewers who will be skipping Boba Fett and going straight back into Mandalorian whenever it comes back to Disney Plus. 

Overall, the Book of Boba Fett is a fun show with a couple of strange narrative and character decisions that sadly left a lot of viewers unhappy and disappointed. Fortunately, Star Wars fans will not have to wait long for more content from Disney Plus. On May 25th, Disney will be releasing Obi-Wan Kenobi which will bring back Ewan McGregor as the title character and also bring back Hayden Christensen to play Anakin Skywalker, otherwise known as Darth Vader.