Season 2 of The Mandalorian ended with plenty of big moments and seemingly marked the end of one chapter in Din Djarin’s saga and the beginning of something new. It also generated some big questions about the future of the Disney+ series after the final episode of The Mandalorian season 2 teased the premiere of a new series, The Book of Boba Fett, premiering in December.
This new, original series coming to Disney+ could shape much of what’s to come in the Star Wars universe, so here’s everything we know about it so far.
(Spoiler warning: There will be a discussion of plot points from the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian in this article.)
Premiere date, first poster
In September, Disney finally confirmed the official premiere date for The Book of Boba Fett. The new Star Wars series will debut on December 29 on the Disney+ streaming service.
Disney delivered the release date news along with the first official promotional art for the series, which depicts the titular bounty hunter reclining in Jabba the Hutt’s throne — much like the scene in The Mandalorian that first revealed plans for the show.
What is The Book of Boba Fett?
Several days after The Mandalorian season 2 finale, Disney confirmed The Book of Boba Fett as a new, original series via a post on the official Twitter account for the Star Wars franchise.
The Book of Boba Fett, a new Original Series, starring Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen and executive produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Robert Rodriguez, set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus Dec. 2021. pic.twitter.com/YT2zbLufI8
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 21, 2020
The series will star Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen as bounty hunter Boba Fett and assassin Fennec Shand, respectively, and will be executive produced by The Mandalorian team of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, as well as acclaimed director and producer Robert Rodriguez.
The story
Disney hasn’t revealed much about where The Book of Boba Fett will take its iconic bounty hunter, but it sounds as if he’ll start from familiar territory.
According to the official synopsis for the show released in September, The Book of Boba Fett will find Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand “navigating the Galaxy’s underworld when they return to the sands of Tatooine to stake their claim on the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate.”
It will be a bit of a circular narrative for Fett, as Tatooine was the site of his seeming demise in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, as well as our reintroduction to him in the season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian, titled The Marshal. It’s unknown how much of Jabba the Hutt’s criminal empire remains in the aftermath of Return of the Jedi, but Fett now seems poised to chart his own ascension to a place of power.
The announcement
In a post-credits scene featured in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian, Boba Fett is shown violently taking the throne once occupied by Tatooine crime lord Jabba the Hutt, assisted by the Fennec Shand. The scene ends with an announcement that The Book of Boba Fett will premiere this Christmas.
This announcement left fans speculating about what The Book of Boba Fett actually is since it wasn’t among The Mandalorian spinoff projects announced by Lucasfilm during the Disney Investor Day held just a week earlier. The events of the episode itself — in which Din Djarin finally finds a home for Baby Yoda (aka Grogu), his traveling companion — also suggest that Djarin’s saga could be nearing its end.
What else we know
During the Disney Investor Day presentation, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy indicated that the “next chapter in the story of The Mandalorian” would be available on the Disney+ service “for Christmas 2021.” She was initially thought to be referring to season 3 of The Mandalorian, but with The Book of Boba Fett now confirmed to premiere during that same period, it appears as if the announcement was intentionally vague, and The Book of Boba Fett will offer the next chapter in this particular Star Wars story.
The Book of Boba Fett joins the previously announced Star Wars spinoff series Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic, which Lucasfilm has confirmed will eventually crossover at some point for a story arc that brings all of the spinoff series’ characters together.
Will it replace The Mandalorian?
A third season of The Mandalorian is still in the works, according to various reports.
Shortly after the announcement of The Book of Boba Fett, Lucasfilm concept designer Paul Bateman indicated on Twitter that The Book of Boba Fett and season 3 of The Mandalorian are both happening and have two different production schedules (so the former isn’t replacing the latter).
Totally different shooting schedule BFFC ;)
— Paul Bateman (@PaulRMQ) December 18, 2020
In September, The Mandalorian actor Giancarlo Esposito — who plays the Imperial officer Moff Gideon — said the series will begin to answer some big questions in its third and fourth seasons.
“We’re living in a universe that is huge and [that has] so much to explore,” Esposito told People magazine. “So I think this show is going to start to lay the groundwork for the depth and breadth that’s going to come in season 3 and season 4, where you’re really gonna start to get answers.”
The cast
The brief scene introducing The Book of Boba Fett makes it clear that the titular bounty hunter and assassin Fennec Shand will be key characters in whatever story plays out in The Book of Boba Fett, but beyond that, nothing is certain regarding the series’ cast of characters.
The events of The Mandalorian season 2 finale suggest that Fett’s debt to Din Djarin has been repaid, so it’s unknown whether actor Pedro Pascal will portray Djarin again in The Book of Boba Fett. Similarly, many of the other supporting characters in The Mandalorian have their own quests to embark on, with Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) looking to rebuild Mandalore and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) taking on a new set of duties as a marshal for the New Republic.
Disney’s The Book of Boba Fett will premiere on December 29. All episodes of The Mandalorian are currently available to stream on the Disney+ streaming service.
