'The Book of Boba Fett' plunges into the warm sands of 'Star Wars' nostalgia

Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in the Sarlacc Pit doesn't stay in the Sarlacc Pit, which is good news for Disney+ and "Star Wars" fans. Enter "The Book of Boba Fett," which has returned to where it all began on the sands of Tatooine with a spare, almost silent premiere episode filled with a dizzying arsenal of callbacks to the franchise's past.

Despite being presumed dead in "The Return of the Jedi," the armor-clad bounty hunter escaped that fate, a history recounted in a series of flashbacks that opened the episode. Indeed, executive producers Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez appear to have gleefully reached into the "Star Wars" grab bag and unearthed as many references as they could muster in 40 minutes or so, unabashedly catering to that fan appetite in much the way they did by incorporating the character into "The Mandalorian."