A long time ago (last year) in a galaxy far, far away (Hollywood), Disney execs confirmed a never-ending slew of Star Wars shows, including multiple spin-offs of The Mandalorian (stop reading now if you’re averse to spoilers for season two of that show). Today, Disney released the trailer for the first of those, The Book of Boba Fett, which debuts on the Disney+ streaming service December 29. Have a look:
Fans of The Mandalorian will recall Boba Fett’s (Temuera Morrison) buzzy appearance from the sixth episode of the show’s second season, in which he and his travel companion, Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), open approximately 1,000 cans of whoop-ass on a bunch of stormtroopers. Despite their combat proficiency, agents succeed in kidnapping Baby Yoda. (This is The Mandalorian, after all, where literally nothing can go right for just one damn second.) The duo teams up with the main cast to rescue the little bundle of Starbucks beverage #inspo.
At the tail end of the season finale, Fett and Shand stage a coup on Jabba the Hutt’s old palace, a scene that was followed by an official announcement for The Book of Boba Fett. That show, as is clear from today’s trailer, takes place during Fett’s rule over the region.
Fett also says this line at one point in the trailer: “I am not a bounty hunter.”
Kotaku’s fact-checkers have determined that Fett’s claim is incorrect.
The Book of Boba Fett has had a long road to the small screen, even in terms of Star Wars productions, which are no stranger to turbulence. Back in 2013, Disney executives explored the idea of a film focusing on the fan-favorite character (who at that time was known for little more than tripping and falling into a giant pit of teeth). In 2018, following the middling performance of Solo: A Star Wars story, Disney slammed the brakes on its untitled Boba Fett film.
But The Mandalorian took off like a Millennium Falcon, spurring Disney to focus on Star Wars shows rather than films, as Deadline reported at the time. In addition to existing programs The Mandalorian, The Bad Batch, and Star Wars: Visions (a series of animated vignettes set in the Star Wars universe), Disney also has Ahsoka, Andor, and Obi-Wan Kenobi (with Ewan McGregor reprising his role from the films) in the pipeline.
Now we’re getting a Boba Fett show, one that will likely look a lot like the series from which it spawned. Robert Rodriguez, Bryce Dallas Howard, Dave Filioni, and Jon Favreau—all of whom directed episodes of The Mandalorian—have reportedly directed episodes of The Book of Boba Fett. Ludwig Göransson, the Swedish composer whose haunting soundscapes define The Mandalorian just as much as the visuals do, will do the score.