As a kid, I used to play with action figures on a daily basis. I had seemingly every Batman and Superman toy along with a healthy collection of Ninja Turtles and one or two Transformers. My narratives were always of the “what if” variety. What if Batman and Superman teamed up to battle the Shredder? What if Joker assembled an army of Jurassic Park dinosaurs to take down the X-Men? What if the shark from Jaws could fly?
These stories never made much sense, narratively speaking, and were almost always capped off with an absurd amount of dramatic deaths, but it was all I could to do to quench my thirst for new stories with my childhood heroes. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to see what Darth Vader would look like fighting alongside Wolverine.
The Book of Boba Fett sees Dave Filoni (who also directed) and series creator Jon Favreau employ a similar tactic. You can practically see them, two big kids dressed in their favorite Star Wars apparel, eagerly dumping their vast collection of Star Wars toys all over the floor — or, in this case, all over your TV — in the hopes of impressing you with one of either Grogu, Luke Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett (in a brief cameo), Black Krrsantan, R2-D2, Din Djarin, and Cobb Vanth, all of whom appear in the latest episode of the spasmodic series.
Not impressed? Check out this Cad Bane action figure. Wizard!
This is where we’re at, folks. Take it or leave it.
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I’m not complaining. I get a kick out of seeing OT characters mingle with those from the prequels, comic books, video games, and cartoons. There’s a certain joy in hearing Ahsoka tell Luke how he reminds her of his father — sob! — and seeing Boba and Din bump shoulders during an all-too-brief meeting over one of those Star Wars holograms nobody seems to pay much attention to. And, yeah, Cad Bane got me hyped.
Plus, after four lifeless episodes centered around Boba Fett, the show needed a little jolt to recapture our attention — even if it is mostly just hollow fan service.
Still, I worry that cameos have become the new “shocking death” for TV and film. We’ve already seen Spider-Man: No Way Home run away with the box office on the backs of appearances from former Spideys Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Sam Raimi’s upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has already teased a number of guest stars, while Andy Muschietti’s The Flash has promised an extended role for Michael Keaton’s Batman. So far, the MCU’s reach into TV has mostly comprised of bland storylines mixed with surprise guest appearances from former (or future) Marvel heroes.
Cameos are fun, but they shouldn’t be used as the main crutch for a film or TV series. They shouldn’t even be icing on the cake, but rather the colorful sprinkles that make the dessert appealing without overpowering its flavor.
The Book of Boba Fett ran out of story for its titular character a few episodes back and decided to use its fifth episode to re-introduce The Mandalorian. That worked for me. The sixth episode took it one step further and used Mando as an excuse to show Grogu and Luke Skywalker, and then chucked Din all the way to Mos Pelgo (I think?) to re-introduce Cobb Vanth and introduce Cad Bane. Din had very little impact on the story and was mostly used as a plot device to get from Cameo A to Cameo B to Cameo C. In effect, the guest star became the conduit for more guest stars while Boba Fett, the show’s real star, stood quietly in the background contemplating his existence.
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I’m also not quite sure where I’m supposed to focus my attention. I thought Boba needed muscle to take out the bad guys and claim his place atop Tatooine’s criminal empire … so, why are we spending so much time with Grogu? How does Ahsoka fit into all of this? Were these merely fan service cameos to blind us from the convoluted plotting, or were the characters shoehorned into the episode so they could appear in the finale?
I assume this will all make sense in next week’s episode in what will likely be an Avengers-level event where all the heroes will come together to fight the bad guys and Boba will get to ride his Rancor. Though, it’s fair to ask if this journey has ultimately been worth it. Is there enough here to justify The Book of Boba Fett’s existence beyond a few (admittedly cool) cameos from legendary Star Wars characters?
Your answer probably depends on how excited you are to see Boba Fett atop a Rancor.
