Jabba ruled with fear. I intend to rule with respect.
I don’t know, maybe it was watching The Many Saints of Newark or the upcoming release of Woke Up This Morning: The Definitive Oral History of the Sopranos or maybe it’s the fifteen-year anniversary of The Departed but I have been craving some mob-like, shady underground stories. The type where Al Pacino is complaining about getting pulled back in. The type where someone owes a favor and can’t escape the mob’s chokehold. The type where people are getting whacked in fancy restaurants. Yeah, if October was Spooky Season then let’s make November Mob Season.
The thing is, I didn’t know how badly I wanted these mob-like, shady underground stories in the Star Wars Universe until the first teaser of The Book of Boba Fett dropped early this morning.
The Star Wars underground has always been something that’s fascinated me. From the Hutt’s control of the Outer Rim to the latest Marvel Comic Star Wars event, War of the Bounty Hunters which contains the return of a certain Solo character, all the way to Darth Maul’s involvement with Crimson Dawn to the Pikes spice running. The underbelly of Star Wars is something that I’ve wanted to explore for quite some time. There are stories upon stories here with shady dealings, bounty hunters, snitches, and characters you just love to hate waiting to be explored. You know, typical mob-type stories where you’re rooting for the bad guys. I don’t think anyone truly liked Tony Soprano… or at least didn’t think he was a good person. I mean, I liked Tony. Not that I would do business with him or anything but I’d definitely go out to eat or drink with him. Maybe listen to him complain about the Jets? I’m getting sidetracked here…
There have been plenty of EU books written about the Star Wars underground and there was even a game planned once upon a time. You guys remember 1313, the video game that was supposed to be this gritty take on Star Wars focusing on Boba Fett and the shady level of Coruscant Level 1313, hence the title, which I also think is the location we find Ahsoka at the start of those final Clone Wars episodes. But the EU is no longer canon and 1313 never happened so the Star Wars underground has only been explored in glimpses. The Mandalorian, Solo, Clone Wars, Rebels, and some of the new canon books have all dipped their toes into the murky waters of the Outer Rim but none have fully immersed themselves.
Until Boba Fett, fresh out of the Sarlacc Pit and with a fancy paint job on his returned armor, shot fat Bib Fortuna and took Jabba’s throne in the season two post-credit scene of The Mandalorian thus thrusting us into the upcoming Book of Boba Fett.
I found the release of this teaser a bit strange, though welcomed, considering Disney+ Day is coming November 12th and is supposed to have an entire feature on the show but who am I to deny new Star Wars content?! The reality of it is, this teaser didn’t give much away but was enough to get me to board the Hype Train to Tatooine. It appears that Boba is looking to unite the underground to make one large Outer Rim family which I’m sure will go over well considering the type of scum these guys are. I did enjoy hearing Boba’s variation of the giving them an offer they can’t refuse speech at the dinner table and seconds later (in trailer time) telling everyone to speak freely which just reeked of Lucy Liu’s scene in Kill Bill. The one where she cuts that dude’s head off. We see that Fennec Shand is a badass worthy of the consigliere title, and at some point, Boba is going to hulk out and kick some ass much like he did in “Chapter 14” of The Mandalorian.
Also, it appears that Jennifer Beal is a Twi’lek, whether or not she dances is yet to be seen.
Other than that, well there is still a lot we need to learn about this story. Will Mando be showing up at some point to help bridge the gap to season three? We’re on Tatooine so it’s within the realm of possibilities that handsome Timothy Olyphant shows up as handsome Cobb Vanth. He did have Boba’s armor so I’m sure there’s some resentment there. While I’m a few issues behind on War of the Bounty Hunters is it possible that that certain Solo character could be running around the galaxy still and if so, what kind of problems could they cause for Fett’s attempt to unite the clans?
We’ll have to be patient since The Book of Boba Fett won’t be hitting our screens until December 29th but we do have November 12th to look forward to! This just allows us plenty of time for theorizing and a quick re-watch of The Mandalorian and probably the original trilogy too. You know, just because.
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