Boba Fett was introduced to Star Wars fans as a side villain in 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. After Darth Vader had to warn him about using excessive force, Fett tracked down the Millennium Falcon, confronted the Rebels, and took a frozen Han Solo to Jabba’s palace. With his gunslinger aesthetic and irresistible coolness, Fett quickly became a fan favorite. His action figures sold like hotcakes and the fan base looked forward to seeing the badass bounty hunter kick some ass in Return of the Jedi.
Unfortunately, George Lucas never got the memo that Boba Fett had become a fan-favorite icon, so he killed him off unceremoniously in the opening act of Jedi. A semi-blinded Han accidentally sets off his jetpack, sending him careening into the Sarlacc Pit to be eaten. The second season of The Mandalorian finally gave Star Wars fans the Fett action they’d been waiting 40 years to see – and it was worth the wait. The scene in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy” in which Boba puts his armor back on for the first time in years and decimates an army of Stormtroopers with a wide array of arms and explosives was everything fans had hoped for since the character’s tantalizing introduction in Empire.
After being teased to be lurking around Tatooine in “Chapter 5: The Gunslinger” and “Chapter 9: The Marshal,” Boba Fett was finally identified on-screen and introduced as a supporting player in Din Djarin’s adventures in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy.” While Grogu is communing with Luke Skywalker via the Force at the ancient Jedi temple on Tython, Slave I arrives. It’s unfamiliar to Mando, but plenty familiar to Star Wars fans. Mando confronts Boba, who tells him he just wants his armor back. Their negotiation is interrupted by Imperial forces arriving to abduct Grogu. The rest of the episode is wall-to-wall action as Mando, Fennec, and Boba desperately fend off legions of Stormtroopers.
Boba’s first fight scene sees him getting surrounded by Stormtroopers and beating up every single one of them in quick succession with his staff, but his real return to action is when he stumbles across the Razor Crest in the midst of battle, dons his armor, and arrives to save Mando and Fennec in the nick of time with his full arsenal of gadgets and weapons. Although it was overshadowed by Luke Skywalker’s Dark Trooper massacre in the finale episode, this was one of the most exhilarating action sequences of the entire series.
When Robert Rodriguez was hired to direct “Chapter 14: The Tragedy,” he was given the freedom to flesh out the action, and Boba’s triumphant comeback was the centerpiece. Rodriguez shot this sequence like it would be the first and last time Star Wars fans would ever see Boba Fett in action. Watching this scene play out is like being a kid with Star Wars action figures – which is exactly how Rodriguez staged it. In order to give the Mandalorian crew an idea of his vision for the sequence, he shot a test version in his backyard with his kids in Halloween costumes and a bunch of Stormtrooper action figures.
All throughout this scene, Temuera Morrison kept Boba’s cool-as-ice characterization intact with swift gunslinging, an imposing presence, and deadpan line deliveries. When the Stormtroopers retreat to their transports, Boba uses the giant warhead that’s always been sticking out of his jetpack to blow up one of them, which has a knock-on effect of blowing up the other one. As they both come plummeting to the ground, Mando says, “Nice shot,” and Boba quips, “I was aiming for the other one.”
Having scored a lot of his own movies, Rodriguez collaborated closely with Mandalorian composer Ludwig Göransson on the music for “The Tragedy.” The two developed a leitmotif for Boba Fett that was entirely distinct from the one John Williams composed for the original trilogy and perfectly captured this new incarnation of the character. In the rough edit, Rodriguez had already added some jarring sound effects over Boba’s action beats, and Göransson added distorted recordings of didgeridoo and human breath. The result acts as a war horn to highlight Boba’s most badass moments. This motif blares onto the soundtrack on the character’s initial reveal and when the Imperial transports crash and explode out of focus behind him (he watches them explode, then turns away before they crash).
The season 2 finale of The Mandalorian ended with a post-credits scene that saw Boba and Fennec storming Jabba’s palace and removing Bib Fortuna from the throne. A title card then announced a spin-off entitled The Book of Boba Fett for a December 2021 release. While no official plot details have been revealed, Rodriguez is attached as an executive producer alongside the dream team of Favreau and Filoni, so the series is in very safe hands.