While Lucasfilm is reportedly having issues trying to figure out their next “Star Wars” feature film after they pumped the breaks on Patty Jenkins‘ project “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron,” these issues don’t exist so much on Disney+. It’s full speed ahead on a lot of projects (ok, minus “Rangers of The Republic“) and the next big release will be “The Book of Boba Fett” debuting on December 29.
“The Book of Boba Fett,” which was announced today as seven episodes long, takes place years after the events of “Star Wars: Return of The Jedi,” where we saw the death of the Tatooine-based gangster Jabba The Hutt at the hands of Princess Leia. Temuera Morrison‘s Fett and his new partner Fennec Shand, played by Ming-Na Wen, are taking it upon themselves to insert themselves in the underworld of the “Star Wars” universe after disposing of Jabba’s successor Bib Fortuna at the end of the second season of “The Mandalorian.”
In the latest issue Empire, the show’s co-creator Jon Favreau revealed that the death of Jabba opened the door for them to explore the gangster genre and the underworld.
“There is a power vacuum because Jabba is gone,” he explained. “Jabba was clearly a very strong and imposing leader, who people were very scared of, and who seemed to rule with an iron fist. You pull somebody like that out of the ecosystem of Tatooine — and Hutt Space in general — and you have the opportunity that’s ripe in the gangster genre,” Favreau told Empire.
One has to wonder if Guillermo del Toro‘s idea for a “Star Wars” gangster project featuring Jabba had anything to do with the show pivoting away from bounty hunting.
The Hutts are a group and Jabba wasn’t the only one running a criminal enterprise in the galaxy. In fact, Lucasfilm has seemingly long been interesting a criminal underworld movie or series. Much of that crime milieu was already depicted on animated “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series, and clearly the end of “Solo: A Star Wars Series,” with its Darth Maul tease at the end of the film was hoping to set up a Crimson Dawn crime syndicate story.
One criminal character from the animation side we’ll keep our fingers crossed that we’ll end up seeing in a live-action form in a show like “Boba Fett” is Hondo Ohnaka, from the ‘Clone Wars,’ and “Star Wars: Rebels” who has a robotic and park character versions at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. It wouldn’t be that strange given the wave of animation characters already graduating to a live-action setting. Check out a new TV spot and character posters below.