Something needs to happen in The Book of Boba Fett

By Huw Fullerton

Published: Wednesday, 19 January 2022 at 12:00 am

A familiar sight in the last few episodes of The Book of Boba Fett has been the titular ex-bounty hunter (Temuera Morrison) astride his shaggy Bantha steed, shuffling at a snail’s pace across the sands of Tattooine as he stares sternly ahead. I’ve been thinking about this image a lot lately – because compared to the pace of the series itself, the Bantha seems like it’s cracking the Kessel Run at less than 12 parsecs.

Let’s face it – The Book of Boba Fett has been a little slow. Before the series began, we knew that Boba had escaped the Sarlacc Pit, teamed up with Fennec Shand and taken over Mos Espa. The set-up, as revealed in trailers, was that Boba would face off with local rivals as he struggled to seize control of Jabba the Hutt’s power.

Four episodes later, and how has that story progressed? Boba is thinking he’ll soon face off with local rivals, any day now, and then maybe size control of Jabba’s power. Boba is still having first meetings with crime lords, wandering around Tatooine like he’s the Queen Vic’s new landlord in Albert Square and having warm baths several times an episode as he remembers his gap year with the Tusken Raiders. The basic set-up of the series has stayed exactly the same. The position Boba was in before the series even started is the same as the position he’s in now. There’s no movement at all!

I made some notes after episode three. It’s an episode where: Boba Fett listens to a dispute from a moisture farmer. Boba Fett hires some at-risk teens as interns. Boba Fett fails to get an appointment with a local official. How is this the fate of Star Wars’ original ice-cool breakout character? We’re over halfway through, and the story hasn’t started.

The flashbacks aren’t much better. When Boba Fett returned in season two of The Mandalorian we learned that he escaped the Sarlacc, picked up some tricks from the Tuskens and saved Fennec Shand’s (Ming-Na Wen) life, augmenting her body with cybernetics. Apart from fleshing out the Tuskens a bit more, the extensive Book of Boba Fett flashbacks have just… shown us what we already knew happened.

In other words, they’re pretty unnecessary – but somehow they’re still more watchable than the present-day Boba storyline. At least Tusken Boba has a bit of drive and direction, keen to survive and track down the trappings of his old life. Daimyo Boba doesn’t even bother to intervene when a rogue Wookiee bounty hunter starts maiming the citizens under his protection.

There may be hope in upcoming episodes. Episode four hints that Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin (aka The Mandalorian) might be coming to help Boba fight off the Pyke syndicate next week, and rumours persist of other existing characters making surprise cameos before the end of the series. Episode four also implies that the series is done with expositional flashbacks (given the level of granular detail we’d seen so far, I was surprised we didn’t get a replay of The Mandalorian season 2), which might leave more room for developments in the main storyline.

Still, I have my doubts. If in four episodes The Book of Boba Fett hasn’t been able to move the story a step forward, I’m not convinced it can advance and satisfactorily wrap up the story in just three more. So far, it feels like The Book of Boba Fett is still stuck in chapter one – and if something doesn’t change soon, some fans might not bother reading to the end.

Read more about The Book of Boba Fett:

The Book of Boba Fett releases new episodes on Disney Plus on Wednesdays. Sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 a year now. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.