The Book of Boba Fett launched to an opening that didn’t quite meet the same percentage of Disney+ subscribers tuning in as earlier Star Wars live action episodes. In fact, the first episode of Boba Fett just barely topped Hawkeye, a series that was known for lackluster viewership. Now, the same source that clued me in on The Book of Boba Fett having underwhelming views before anybody else knew is telling me that the third episode is a disaster… and the blame game internally has just begun.
Of course, all of this should be held as rumor at this point. Readers can look at my track record and make their own determination as to the likelihood of the information.
What I’m being told is that Episode 3 of The Book of Boba Fett has shed approximately 50% of the audience of the original episode, depending on how you quantify the viewership. The interesting thing is that my source says the episode may look pretty good on trackers like Samba TV because they check for at least five minutes of viewership in order to give credit for a show. However, the same source that was right about the original episode ratings is telling me that what is happening is that many people are actually tuning into The Book of Boba Fett and simply skipping straight to the speeder bike gang sections. What may be occurring is that people are watching certain parts of the episode, not out of interest in the show, but out of interest of the lack of quality.
You might scoff at the idea, but just look at the following quote from the stars of The Book of Boba Fett. And remember, when giving interviews, seasoned actors usually know how to manage public relations:
Asked about the bikers, Morrison replied, “Some of these things are out of our control. We can’t say as performers, ‘We don’t want to work with these people, that’s not good enough.’ … They brought a lot of color to it, I thought … they were great, were working hard.”
That looks to me like Morrison letting it slip that the speeder bike gang was known to not be “good enough”, followed by an attempted save.
Internally, I’m hearing from another source that The Book of Boba Fett is unlikely to improve in quality enough to save the series from this poor start. Not even a cameo is likely to do what the series is intended to achieve: increase subscriptions. As a result, a blame game has begun. I’m hearing chatter that there’s a camp of people trying to claim that this is all director Robert Rodriguez’ fault. According to some, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were not able to give The Book of Boba Fett full attention because they had to remap their plans for the Star Wars streaming and cinematic future after Gina Carano and her Rangers show were cancelled. Likewise, apparently Jon Favreau is getting pulled by Alan Bergman into a larger role within the company of helping guide both Star Wars and Marvel projects as a consultant in creative direction meetings. According to those putting the blame on Rodriguez, this allowed him to push The Book of Boba Fett in a silly, Spy Kids direction without someone to corral that back in a better lane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRjlJWsVaAs
Was that the worst chase scene in the history of filmmaking?
However, it may be that the Kathleen Kennedy loyalists at Lucasfilm now have an opportunity to say that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are failing. Many at Lucasfilm would like nothing more than to blame all of this on a toxic fanbase and move full-speed ahead with High Republic type projects. Their ambition is to use Star Wars as a socio-transformational tool and then watch as people of less represented demographics fall in love with their material.
None of this is good for Bob Chapek’s desire to move straightforward into a better, more fan-centric position. But for now, this is a mess that may be too far gone to fix. Damage control time now could be to try to save Kenobi and Ahsoka.
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