In a competition of nostalgia, it looks like time itself is the ultimate deciding factor in at least one particular instance. Disney Plus seems to be capitalizing on memories of old favorites as pretty much their entire marketing strategy at this point, as The Book of Boba Fett and Hawkeye prove, and audiences are all too eager to play along. That's not to say it's necessarily a bad thing. It's just interesting to see what happens when popular takes on popular when the biggest difference between the two is time.

That's what appears to be the case with The Book of Boba Fett, which premiered on December 29th to an uncertain but intrigued reaction from fans and newcomers alike. As the current major Star Wars production (at least until the next one), this series was pretty much guaranteed to enjoy some enviable viewership numbers. But how did it end up comparing to another recent offering from Disney Plus?

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That's where the surprisingly festive Hawkeye comes in. According to Deadline, while both shows sported some impressive ratings for their premiere episodes, it was The Book of Boba Fett that edged out the competition by pulling in 13% more viewers for its debut than the Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld-led holiday romp. 1.7 million households were confirmed to have been checking out the new show during its pilot, while Hawkeye wrangled 1.5 million, which is still nothing to sneeze at. This isn't entirely surprising, especially given how Star Wars fans seem to get more and more excited for more of their favorite series the longer they have to wait for a new entry. It looks like nostalgia for a movie from the '80s rather soundly beat out the same feeling for a film from 2012.

Boba and Fennec walk through a Tatooine town in The Book of Boba Fett

It's worth noting that, while The Book of Boba Fett enjoyed some impressive numbers on its own, it still trails behind the most popular Disney Plus premiere so far. That honor still goes to the surprisingly deep Loki, which blew them both out of the water with an imposing 2.5 million households entranced by its intriguing debut. Still, anything Disney-related is on a whole other level than most other properties out there. Even 1.5 million households would turn any random obscure series into a smash hit. So it's interesting, and possibly a bit morbid, to see that divide.

It will be worth checking how things go from here, since viewership can pretty easily drop off after a premiere. The Book of Boba Fett is a bit different from The Mandalorian, which could easily go either way in terms of popularity. On one hand, audiences absolutely adore The Mandalorian. But on the other, that show is still running, so having 2 series with similar premises could end up hurting both.

Either way, it will probably be a long time before audiences have to go as long as they used to between Star Wars projects. The Book of Boba Fett looks to be one of the most grounded stories in that universe so far, so it will be interesting to see how that ends up panning out as the series progresses.

The Book of Boba Fett airs new episodes every Wednesday on Disney Plus.

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Source: Deadline