Dear Mandalorian Fans: Here's What You Missed If You Didn't Watch The Book Of Boba Fett
Who would've figured that the arrivals of a faceless original character and his impossibly adorable sidekick would end up defining a significant portion of the course of "Star Wars" media in the last few years? That's exactly what happened with the debut of "The Mandalorian" on Disney+ streaming. Headlined by the titular "Mando" Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and the puppet formerly known as Baby Yoda, Grogu, the "Lone Wolf and Cub"-styled duo quickly captured the hearts of millions of fans and served as the gateway for exploring an entirely new (and familiar) corner of the galaxy far, far away.
But something strange happened on the way to season 3 of "The Mandalorian."
The release of the new trailer confirms that our heroes are now set on a crash course with Mandalore, the only place where Din Djarin can atone for his unspeakable sin of removing his helmet (as seen in the season 2 finale) ... but hang on a second! For viewers who've only been following "The Mandalorian," the new footage may have inspired several pressing questions. For one thing, when exactly did Mando ever actually confess his armor-related faux pas? Also, where'd he get that fancy new Naboo starfighter ship? And most bafflingly of all: Why is Grogu with him again in the first place? After all, remember that heartbreaking conclusion in season 2 where a digitally de-aged Luke Skywalker took away the powerful Force-user for training?
If you assumed that these developments were simply teases of what's to come in season 3, guess again. Each of those concerns were addressed, for some reason, in another "Star Wars" show entirely — "The Book of Boba Fett." So for those who (very understandably) neglected to check out the series, here's a helpful explainer to catch you up to speed!
Atonement
For all the grumpy cynics among us who complained about the idea of casting a star like Pedro Pascal in a role that covers up his face 99% of the time (that's me!), season 2 of "The Mandalorian" finally threw us a bone ... though at great cost to the character himself. On two separate occasions, Din Djarin removed that pesky helmet for the sake of his beloved alien-child Grogu. The last instance, however, broke the hearts of fans everywhere. When Deux Ex Skywalker arrived on the scene at the last possible moment to save the day and whisk away his new trainee to parts unknown, Mando decided to say goodbye to his little green friend in the most personal way he knew how. But as had been firmly established beforehand, such actions could not come without grave consequences.
Yet rather than explore those consequences in the next season of "The Mandalorian," the creative team apparently figured, "Why wait!" Enter "The Book of Boba Fett," the spinoff series that was ostensibly about Boba Fett's (Temuera Morrison) struggle to ascend the throne as Tatooine's newest crime lord in the wake of Jabba the Hutt's death.
Instead, the series took a sudden detour into "The Mandalorian 2.5" territory and abruptly brought us back to Mando's journey after giving away Grogu. In "The Book of Boba Fett" episode 5, we return to Din Djarin tracking down the few surviving members of his clan and revealing to the Armorer (Emily Swallow) that he broke the Mandalorian Golden Rule: Thou shalt not remove thy armor. After narrowly surviving a duel with another Mandalorian over the Darksaber he acquired from Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Mando sets off in search of a new ship to replace his ruined Razor Crest so he can travel to Mandalore.
New wheels, er, wings
Ah, the joys of shopping for a used vehicle. Anyone who's been through the process can tell you what a time-consuming pain it can be, but luckily it helps to have a few connections up one's sleeve. After getting the table-setting out of the way, "The Book of Boba Fett" next showed Mando flying his way back to Tatooine and meeting up once more with everyone's favorite "Star Wars" mechanic, Amy Sedaris' Peli Motto. The plucky side character pointed Din Djarin to an old hunk of junk she conveniently had hidden away — a classic Naboo Starfighter lifted straight out of the prequel-era trilogy. With a little bit of elbow grease, some helpful droids, and a whole lot of patience, our heroes managed to get the ship back in working order and, after a quick test run in a very familiar locale, ready for space travel once again.
At this point, the episode finally deigned to connect the dots back to the Boba Fett of it all, enlisting assassin-turned-bodyguard Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) to pass along Boba's request to Mando for additional help in establishing his own little fiefdom. But hilariously enough, in a tacit admission on the writers' part that the Mando storyline was simply more interesting than Boba's, Mando promised to help ... but only after getting his affairs in order first. Of course, that meant delivering his parting gift of Beskar chainmail to Grogu and kicking off one of the more buzzy (and bizarre) tangents in the entire series.
I would like to see the baby (again)
It's likely that series creator Jon Favreau and lore master Dave Filoni never anticipated the firestorm of divisive reactions that would follow the choice to take "The Book of Boba Fett" and add Mando, Grogu, Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), and the distractingly de-aged Luke Skywalker (a returning Mark Hamill) to the proceedings. On one hand, this fulfilled the corporate mandate to invigorate even more interest in the various spin-offs to come and added a much-needed creative jolt to the stale story of Boba Fett. On the other, it instantly turned the "Star Wars" universe into something much more akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where every installment is now required reading (so to speak) in order to keep track of the larger story. Who doesn't love some additional homework!
For better or worse, "The Book of Boba Fett" featured Mando traveling to another previously-seen location to rendezvous with a bunch of familiar faces. If you thought the Mandalorian code was strict, well, the Jedi arrived on the scene to show just how much more stubborn they can be. With Ahsoka hesitant to even let Grogu know that Mando had arrived, Grogu was left to decide between the clash of ideals of Mando's fatherly influence versus the comparatively cold and emotionless path of the Jedi. The little Force-user thus abandoned his training and rather anticlimactically returned to Din Djarin, reuniting the beloved pairing ... but only by undercutting the boldest narrative choice that "The Mandalorian" ever made.
The season 3 trailer assumes everyone would be up-to-date on all these developments and I, for one, am curious to see whether that's truly the case. If not, well, hopefully this explainer helps fill in the gaps.
"The Mandalorian" season 3 premieres on Disney+ March 1, 2023.