Featured Image Courtesy Zedge
On February 9th, the final episode of The Book of Boba Fett will be available for streaming. Whether knowingly or not, executive producers Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have set themselves up for a monumental decision. If you’ve not watched Episode Six that came out on February 3rd, you’ll need to watch it before reading this article or else understand that there are major spoilers up ahead.
Spoilers Follow:
When Disney decided to go with Kathleen Kennedy’s “vision” for a Star Wars sequel trilogy following their purchase of Lucasfilm, they had certain projections for financial outcomes. As much as people may say that Disney expected or knew that each Star Wars movie in the new sequel would make less than the one before it, that was not at all what the actuaries were counting on. The sequel trilogy was erroneously made, erroneously written, erroneously produced, and it cost billions of dollars for Disney with a “b”. Firing Gina Carano didn’t help.
But now we’re in a situation where the writers of The Book of Boba Fett have created a either-or decision point that is going to have many millions of dollars on the line, if not a billion or more. If Grogu decides to not be a Jedi, it will reaffirm the sequel trilogy that divided the fan base and cost Disney potential revenue that is unbelievable. You can disagree with that if you like — if you want to pretend that Rey and Kylo Ren are selling Star Wars products, merchandise, material, and more, this isn’t the article for you. However, if Grogu decides to become a Jedi in the final episode of this series, it sets up the possibility that the sequel trilogy, and specifically The Last Jedi, are being retconned.
https://twitter.com/FandomCollectiv/status/1488976348135796746
Just go look at Twitter and read some of the posts from fans who love the sequel trilogy (there are a few) and fans who hate the sequel trilogy. Disney could have avoided this situation by not revisiting Luke Skywalker; instead, we’re driving straight into a decision point where they’re either going to double down on the trilogy that damaged their IP, or they’re going to start trying to fix the issues it created (which some of our readers have already said isn’t enough). Favreau and Filoni have set up an episode in this series to decide which side they will seem to go with. There will be drama no matter which way they decide. One way will make them money, one way will cost money.
People that were hoping that the Star Wars streaming shows were gonna retcon the sequel trilogy out of canon shouting at Disney right now. pic.twitter.com/ifFJwsLFSr
— FigmentJedi (@Figment_Jedi) February 2, 2022
Now, I don’t think that Grogu is going to choose to be a Jedi. I also don’t think that it’s a final result that will continue for the rest of Grogu’s appearances, nor do I think Luke Skywalker’s two options will hold. How viewers (i.e. the market) respond will determine how this story goes. You think Bob Chapek is going to hang onto any idea that costs him billions of Star Wars revenue? You can bet that Luke Skywalker and Grogu are going to be a part of an ongoing saga for years or decades to come.
This episode is a big moment for Star Wars. There is no decision that Filoni or Favreau can make that won’t upend somebody’s apple cart. Either the sequel trilogy lives to fight another day, or it’s put on life support.
Major money is at stake in one week for Disney’s version of Star Wars. So are the reputations of Filoni and Favreau, even if their desire is to punt for a little longer. It’s hard to think of any one episode from any one show that has this much financial impact destined to occur.
What do you think? If Grogu decides to be a Jedi, does that excite you more or less for Star Wars? Let me know in the comments below. And continue checking out That Park Place for all the latest Star Wars stuff that other sites just might not yet be covering…
Update 11:24 PM EST:
A reader left a comment that I think is so good it needs to be added to this article. How many more people feel this way?
From Lorn:
I’ve been pondering yesterdays episode for a full day, because I didn’t want to react too quickly.
I absolutely LOVED 90% of the episode – but that last 10% scares me to death.
WDW Pro – While I agree that Disney would love to have Grogu as a Jedi for merchandising purposes, my feeling is that they’re going to want him together with Din Djarin even more, at least for the time being.
Having him there ensures that people don’t lose interest in the Mandalorian, and it solves a problem regarding the sequel trilogy if they choose to keep it. The fear for them had to be that if the sequel trilogy remains, Grogu has to die in the destruction of Lukes school. No chain shirt is going to protect him. There’s no way they’ll kill this cash cow, so choosing to go with Din gives them an easy out.
Narratively – I”m a bit confused. I was shocked that Luke is espousing prequel-era dogma about attachment. To me, the only way all of this is narratively satisfying is if the Mandalorian and Jedi creeds borrow from each other to moderate.
Obi-Wan and Yoda did not believe that Vader could be redeemed. They trained and sent Luke to kill Vader. But Luke believed in the inherent goodness of his father – he had an attachment, even if it had only been created in his own mind. The prequel era Jedi FEARED attachment, and it clouded their judgement.
Luke, of all people, should know this.
My hope is that they still manage to steer things in this direction somehow, but the school that he is building really does look like the temple that was burning in The Last Jedi.
If the next episode does have Han bringing a young Ben Solo to the temple, I and many like me will be truly done with Star Wars forever. While I haven’t been giving them a dime for quite some time (so maybe they don’t care about people like me?), reopening that wound will be the final straw and they will never get me back.
My hope all of this time has been that the sequels would be obliquely referenced (through location names, events like Operation Cinder, etc), but slowly diverge and overwrite them out of existence.
Unfortunately, it looks to me like Disney is hoping that Filoni and Favreau can do with the sequels what Filoni managed to do for the prequels.
If so, it will not work. The sequels undermine the entire foundation upon which Star Wars is built, and are a complete narrative dead end. There is no redeeming them.
Finally – a prediction:
I think there will be a Book of Boba Fett Season 2. Up to this point, I believed it was just going to be a mini-series – but a line by Cad Bane (and didn’t he look amazing?!) changed my mind:
“Tatooine belongs to the Syndicate. As long as the spice keeps running, everyone will be left alone.”
But the spice ISN’T going to keep running. With the destruction of Garsa Fwips sanctuary, war has been irrevocably declared. The people of Mos Pelgo have been galvanized, and the Pykes WILL be routed.
Cad Banes threat means that the larger crime syndicate that backs the Pykes won’t let their supply lines be disrupted so easily. If something disrupts their business – Crimson Dawn will redouble their efforts to take the planet. My guess is, THIS is where we’ll see the Boba Fett we wanted to see in this series.
Another prediction – like the epilogue at the end of the Mandalorian Season 2 that announced this show, we will get TWO epilogues in this one –
The aforementioned confirmation that there will be a Book of Boba Fett Season 2, and the formal announcement of the leaked “Tales of the Jedi” series.
Grogu’s decision will be important here, and my true hope is that he chooses to stay with Luke for the time being. If so, that series will likely be an anthology show focusing on different periods of Jedi History – stories that Luke relates to Grogu as he formally becomes Luke’s Padawan.
If not, it may show the formation of the Jedi School with Ben Solo as Luke’s first student – and signal the death knell of the franchise.
