‘The Book of Boba Fett’ review: Wears its space western identity with flair

The series is greatly helped by an imposing performance by Temuera Morrison, who has created an effective man behind the mask

Boba Fett had a rather small role in the original Star Wars trilogy; he was the bounty hunter who handed the frozen-in-carbonite Han Solo to vile Jabba the Hutt. He met his supposed end in the sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi. However, instead of suffering unimaginable pain for 1000 years as the many-tentacled sarlacc slowly digested him, Boba escaped thanks to his beskar armour. Now five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Boba is seeking to take control of Jabba’s territories.

A spin off from The Mandalorian, (Boba appears in Season 2) The Book of Boba Fett is a fun excursion into the various acts of derring-do in the galaxy far, far away. Apart from the Mandalorian Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), others who reprise their roles include Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand), Amy Sedaris as the mechanic Peli Motto, Timothy Olyphant as marshal of Mos Pelgo, now called Freetown, Cobb Vanth, Rosario Dawson as Jedi master, Ahsoka Tano and a de-aged Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

And there is also Grogu cooing and looking to gobble up levitating frogs instead of concentrating on his master’s instruction on the Jedi way and the Force. Luke does not seem that good a Jedi master forcing Grogu to make terrible choices. He is a rather grumpy teacher; nothing like the all-conquering Jedi who rescued Grogu from evil Moff Gideon in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. Maybe that is why Ben Solo decided to go over to the Dark Side— Uncle Luke was no fun at all.