The latest live-action Star Wars television show has drawn to a close, with viewers left wondering if they were watching The Book of “Boba Fett” at all. Despite appearing in all but two episodes, a suspicion lingers that this wasn’t really the show that John Favreau and Dave Filoni intended to make.

The two strongest episodes of the seven-part Disney+ series barely features the titular character at all, replaced by Pedro Pascal’s similarly Beskar-armoured bounty hunter Din Djarin and everyone’s favourite little green merchandising sensation, Grogu. It begs the question of whether Favreau and Filoni should have just made a third season of The Mandalorian.

One of the great disappointments of the series is that despite the promising set-up of Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett as Tatooine’s godfather of crime, we never really get a sense of what exactly motivates Fett and his major-domo Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) other than “why not?” The latter is let down by a lack of screentime and characterisation - Shand’s rescue and subsequent ‘fixing’ to Fett’s specifications feels icky and uncomfortable.

Most of Fett’s story is told in flashback sequences; while such a technique made sense for the first episode where we find out how he escaped the Sarlacc pit, it is far too drawn out over subsequent episodes, robbing the show of any momentum. This leads to painfully clunky, expository dialogue later on explaining exactly why the criminal Pyke Syndicate – aided and abetted by a pleasingly whacky Lee Van Cleef hat aping Cad Bane – are apparently so dangerous to a planet that has dealt with the Empire, Hutts, Rancors, and Tusken Raiders since forever.

The Grogu balloon floating through Central Park West, New York, during the Thanksgiving Day Parade, 2021. Credit: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Fett’s rescue and subsequent baptism as a Tusken Raider is one of the more interesting ideas explored, a comment on how indigenous people are initially treated with superstition and fear by colonial invaders such as Fett. However, their abrupt massacre at the hands of the Pyke’s--while undeniably chilling--cannot be truly conveyed in all its horrific violence in a PG-13 show.

Another group that Fett adopts – the achingly unsubtly named “Mods” – presents us with Tatooine’s disaffected youth (after all, who is Luke Skywalker but a farmer who was always daydreaming of what was beyond the horizon), left unemployed and bored by the Empire. However, the characters are executed poorly, and their shiny, primary coloured swoop bikes stink of a merch grab – it is Star Wars after all.

Part of the problem with franchise spin-off shows is that the casual viewer who hasn’t watched, read, or played every piece of Disney-created content can quickly feel overwhelmed. The balance that The Mandalorian successfully found between the casual and hardcore Star Wars fan feels lost here.

That being said, there is plenty that the more dedicated Star Wars fan will enjoy; appearances by the aforementioned Cad Bane – his introduction is straight out of a spaghetti western as is the tense duel that follows - and Ashoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) alongside a Luke Skywalker at the height of his Jedi powers, are unashamedly satisfying fan-service. As ever with Star Wars, the musical score never fails to be anything but evocative. And of course, the return of Mando and Grogu fires up the show throughout the last three episodes, posing the question of why Favreau and Filoni didn’t just make a third season of The Mandalorian.

With the next big Star Wars show being Ewan McGregor’s return as Obi-Wan Kenobi – simply called Kenobi – also being set on Tatooine, there is a danger of it being too similar; the lone wanderer in a sandy space western is at risk of feeling a bit played out. And while the twin sun planet will always be the franchises’ spiritual home, what will we learn that we don’t already know? It’s a big galaxy out there after all.

Ultimately, The Book of Boba Fett, while certainly not a total failure, feels like something of a muddled missed opportunity, and more of a Marvel-esque set up for something else. Which, since we already know that’s for the critically panned Rise of Skywalker, sort of undermines any anticipation that could be engendered.

Star Wars, much like the beloved Old Republic games, might benefit more by being set thousands of years before or after the ‘Skywalker Saga.’

As the real star of this particular show would put it: “This is the way.”

The Book of Boba Fett: Series Review (Spoiler Warning)