Why ‘Book Of Boba Fett’ Is Filled With Surprise ‘Star Wars’ Cameos

This past week’s The Book of Boba Fett was full of fanservice and reveals, including being the second straight installment focused not on Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) but on Pedro Pascal’s The Mandalorian. And while the slew of buzzy cameos and plot turns may have been seen as a distraction from the general disaffection felt from the main narrative, the big moments (spoilers after this sentence) served another purpose. The implicit pitch was alerting viewers that every episode of every Star Wars show arriving on Disney+ was “Must See TV.” Any episode of any show could have vital continuity and major mythology elements. In an era where the very idea of a Star Wars television show is about to be business-as-usual, convincing fans that each show is essential to the mythology is of vital importance.  

My issue with the show is less about taking the focus away from its title character and frankly more about how the copious past-tense flashbacks (highlighting how Boba survived the events of Return of the Jedi) have taken time away from what was supposed to be the core narrative thread. We have just one episode to go, and we’ve spent almost no time seeing Fett trying to operate as a non-diabolical crime boss. The tease, that Jabba ruled with fear and Boba intended to rule with respect, was just that, a trailer-friendly hook. To be fair, this could be yet another darn streaming-era show that treats the entire first season as a glorified pilot, spending the first batch of episodes getting to the point where the show is finally about what it was always supposed to be about.  

It’s not that different from origin story movies that spend the running time turning their marquee characters into the ones you know and love. That’s not good storytelling, and it’s an easy way to kill a franchise in the crib, but it’s not an issue specific to Disney’s second live-action Star Wars show. More importantly, this random episode of The Book of Boba Fett reintroduced Luke Skywalker and Ashoka while offering link between the events of The Mandalorian and The Force Awakens. You want to know what happened to Timothy Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth or Baby Yoda/Grogu after the second season of The Mandalorian? Watch The Book of Boba Fett! If Vanth didn’t survive a quick draw against Clone Wars breakout baddie Cad Bane, well, a major Mandalorian character just got killed off on a different show.  

Any episode of Disney+’s Star Wars shows can be a “mythology episode.” Contrary to popular belief, most of the MCU movies and thus-far all the Marvel Cinematic Universe shows are relatively self-contained. You didn’t need to watch WandaVision to understand the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home (or, as implied in the trailer, the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness). You don’t need to have seen Black Widow to “get” Florence Pugh’s appearances in Hawkeye. Anthony Mackie’s Captain America 4 will likely be structured in such a way so that having watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be of value without being essential. Save for the four Avengers movies and the two Captain America sequels (especially Civil War), the interconnectivity has been seasoning rather than the main course. 

The difference in how these “cinematic universes” work is one rooted in specific fandoms. Audiences watch MCU movies and television shows because they like what they’ve seen. Even if there’s a new show (Moon Knight) or a new movie (Shang-Chi) based on characters they barely know, Marvel’s successes with everything from Iron Man to Guardians of the Galaxy to Black Panther affords them the benefit of the doubt and the assumption that they will enjoy these new adventures featuring these new characters that happen to take place in the MCU. As of now, the biggest hook for a new show or movie within the MCU is that it’s made by Marvel Studios. The Disney-era Star Wars movies and shows are more so rooted in audiences wanting to see what happens next in a previously established continuity.  

The appeal of Disney’s Star Wars stories was rooted in “What comes next?” in terms of a previously established continuity. The Star Wars sequel trilogy was successful ($4.475 billion in theatrical alone on a combined $750 million budget means something went right) partially because it was pitched as a direct continuation of the first Star Wars trilogy, complete with Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford reprising as Luke, Leia and Han. It wasn’t just “something entirely new but set within the Star Wars universe.” There was always going to be a risk in terms of audiences no longer caring once Star Wars just meant a sci-fi fantasy adventure sans any explicit ties to the Skywalker Saga. To an extent, Walt Disney is arguably trying to kick that can further down the road.  

If every episode of every Star Wars show might have major appearances from your favorite characters from any Star Wars show or movie, complete with major character or plot-specific events, then every series becomes essential viewing for those who like and devour Star Wars content. No, this doesn’t quite apply to the animated shows, at least not yet, as I don’t think anyone is yet expressing confusion over not having seen The Bad Batch or Resistance. However, even Solo: A Star Wars Story had a Darth Maul cameo, which only made sense if you saw his post-Phantom Menace appearances on Clone Wars and Rebels. Solo grossed just $394 million on a $275 million budget partially because, beyond audiences not caring about some random actor portraying a young Han Solo, it was considered inessential. 

The mere idea of a big-budget Star Wars television show is no longer an automatic event, and there is a risk of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?-style burnout. We’re getting new live-action shows centered on “young” Obi-Wan, Rogue One’s Cassian Andor, Clone Wars’ Ahsoka and Solo-era Lando show. The Acolyte which is notable precisely because Leslye Headland claims it will be set in a time and place generally disconnected from what we’ve thus far seen. Disney would prefer that everyone who watched The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett when they were the only game in town also “show up” for the next batch of Disney+ shows. If a plotline from Obi-Wan might get resolved in Andor, or if a de-aged Harrison Ford might show up, then casual Star Wars fans might watch everything. 

Judging by what ratings information we have, Disney+ may be living or dying by theatrical flicks like Encanto, supposed-to-be-theatrical movies like Luca and shows from the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe franchises. Whether you approved of what seemed to be a case of both Jedi masters (Skywalker and Ahsoka) reverting to anti-humanist dogma, and even if you recoiled as synthesized Luke spoke almost entirely in pull-string doll clichés, the message was loud and clear. Even the sixth episode of a seemingly toss-off Star Wars show could be partially centered upon Luke Skywalker and feature the return of “Baby Yoda.” Even if you don’t care about Boba Fett, it qualified as must-see Star Wars. And if every episode is a potential mythology episode, then every episode is essential streaming viewing.