Star Wars finally does Boba Fett justice in The Mandalorian
At last, the coolest character in the franchise… does something cool. *CONTAINS SPOILERS*
Boba Fett is cool. So cool that for years fans have obsessed over a fictional character history for a glorified extra with a handful of lines. So cool, that everyone had to have his action figure. So darn cool that based solely on his neat armour and cocky persona, an entire planet, culture and creed was created to explain him, followed by a hit Disney+ series – The Mandalorian – following a character explicitly based on him.
Not to labour the point but… he’s a cool guy. But until the Mandalorian, there was very little evidence in the Star Wars franchise to prove it.
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In The Empire Strikes back, Boba Fett (played by Jeremy Bulloch) is introduced as one of many bounty hunters, who distinguishes himself with the aforementioned sweet Beskar threads as well as the oddly specific demand Darth Vader makes of him (NO disintegrations!!).
Later, he’s the only one of this pack who manages to track down Han Solo (Harrison Ford) et al using some sneaky tricks, and helps bring them in. He’s taciturn, menacing – implied to be one of the most fearsome bounty hunters in the galaxy, a fact only emphasised in later years in spin-off media. This guy, we’re told, is the real deal.
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But apart from flying after the Millennium Falcon and looking tough in corridors… he doesn’t really do anything! Boba is supposed to be a fearsome warrior, but the one time we see him in action he gets accidentally hit in the back and oopsie-daisies his way into the mouth of the mighty Sarlacc. Not exactly one for the poets.
For decades fans have noted Boba’s slightly anticlimactic ending, with spin-off media and (sometimes de-canonised) further adventures adding and building to his legend – but we’d still not really seen Boba Fett live up to his potential until now.
Because in Disney+’s The Mandalorian, Boba finally throws down. As played by Temuera Morrison (who was Boba’s clone “father” Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels) the character finally demonstrates what made him such an implicit threat in the earlier movies, battering his way through a troop of Stormtroopers with a ruthless efficiency in season two’s sixth episode (you can read our The Mandalorian review for full details).
Even without his trademark armour Boba shatters and tears apart his foes, and when he puts it on? Well, he even puts the titular Mandalorian to shame, handily seeing off Imperial forces in a matter of minutes.
Of course, it’s slightly juvenile to whoop that a returning Star Wars character is “good at fighting,” and for many it won’t matter at all that the Boba Threat is real. For some, it might be more interesting that a character portrayed as a villain to Han, Luke et al in the original trilogy is cast in a different light in this series, shown as a man of his word who pledges to help Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) track down the missing Baby Yoda/Grogu.
But to Star Wars fans, oddly, seeing Boba Fett actually do something cool is a moment of vindication. Now we know he was always cool! He was just holding back before – and isn’t that even cooler?
After becoming a bit of a punchline, The Mandalorian is adding new depth to Boba Fett and his corner of the Star Wars universe. We can only imagine they’ll be adding a badass redemption for Jar Jar next.
Want to know more about The Mandalorian cast, The Mandalorian release schedule or when is The Mandalorian set? Check out our suite of content on RadioTimes.com.
New episodes of The Mandalorian are available on Disney+ on Fridays – sign up to Disney+ for £5.99 a month or save 15% with the annual plan for £59.99 (savings based on 12 mo. of monthly subscription). T&Cs apply.
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Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
