If you thought the return of Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian would be the extent of The Book of Boba Fett’s cameos (or indeed, crossover with The Mandalorian series) think again – because Boba’s penultimate battle was absolutely stuffed with familiar faces.
From Jedi Knights and gunslingers to cute little frog-terrorisers, all your Mandalorian – and Star Wars – favourites were on hand, many of them set to play a part in next week’s big finale.
But who were these characters? Well, to kick off we got a surprise visit from Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth, last seen early in The Mandalorian season two handing over Boba Fett’s armour to Din Djarin (Pascal).
This time he was resisting the Pyke Syndicate’s spice-running ways and mulling over a favour for the Mandalorian, before running into trouble with a deadly bounty hunter.
And that was just for starters. Soon afterwards viewers were treated to the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, digitally de-aged once more as in The Mandalorian season 2 finale and with a much more significant presence this time around.
Of course, accompanying him was none other than Mandalorian breakout star Grogu, aka the Artist Formerly Known as Baby Yoda (and R2-D2, at his unhelpful best).
!["Luke]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/12/Mark-Hamill-Mandalorian-c4cc2b6.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Mark")
Luke and Grogu spent the episode training together at Luke’s nascent Jedi school, where Luke showed off some familiar moves (his entire parkour routine echoed one he did with Frank Oz’s Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, down to having Grogu in a backpack) and worried about his new student’s attachments to his Beskar steel-plated surrogate dad.
Also, hanging around the school? Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka, imparting some wise words before disappearing in a puff of spin-off. And just in case we’d forgotten this episode was helmed by Star Wars animated series boss Dave Filoni, the final big cameo came from the same place as Ahsoka – acclaimed series The Clone Wars.
!["The]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/12/Rosario-Dawson-Ahsoka-Tano-4b166fe.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Rosario")
Specifically, fans were treated to the sight of bounty hunter Cad Bane (Corey Burton) in live-action for the first time, apparently working for the Pyke Syndicate and taking no more prisoners in prosthetics than he did in CG.
Altogether it was an all-you-can-eat buffet of character callbacks and cameos, whether they were from The Mandalorian, the original Star Wars trilogy or Star Wars’ staple of animated shows.
!["The]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2022/02/Cad-Bane-then-and-now-f6ccc03.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Cad")
With one more episode of Boba Fett to go, it’s hard to imagine who else they could fit in – but somehow, we doubt this series is done with bringing back the Star Wars characters we know and love just yet. Watch this space…
The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes on Wednesdays. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.