The Book of Boba Fett is the Star Wars project Disney has wanted since buying Lucasfilm. The Mandalorian season 2 finale included a post-credits scene with the surprise announcement fan-favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett was getting his own spinoff show for Disney+. Titled The Book of Boba Fett, the series is set to premiere in December 2021. Temuera Morrison and Ming-na Wen are set to star as Boba and Fennec Shand, respectively, reprising their roles from The Mandalorian. It's one of three confirmed Mandalorian spinoffs, alongside The Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka.
Boba Fett has been one of the most popular Star Wars characters since his big screen debut in The Empire Strikes Back, but it took Disney a long time to capitalize on that. Prior to The Mandalorian season 2, Boba was conspicuously absent from new materials - save for a possible hint in the Aftermath novel he survived Return of the Jedi. However, this wasn't for lack of trying. While viewers waited years to see Boba come back onscreen, Lucasfilm was working behind-the-scenes to make something happen.
Essentially since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, there have been plans for some kind of Boba Fett project. Initially, Josh Trank was going to helm a Boba Fett anthology film (a sizzle reel was even prepped for Star Wars Celebration 2015), but that feel apart when Trank left the project. There was another attempt at a Boba Fett movie in 2018, when it was reported James Mangold was going to direct. When that failed to get off the ground, The Mandalorian helped fill the void, as it was created to take advantage of Boba Fett hype. Now, nearly a decade after the Lucasfilm purchase, the Boba spinoff is finally happening.
As for why previous attempts failed to come into fruition, Solo: A Star Wars Story is the most likely culprit. Opening in May 2018, the young Han Solo prequel became the first Star Wars box office bomb, which led to Lucasfilm putting other character-based spinoff films on hold. It seems that part of the reevaluation strategy in that aftermath was repurposing movie projects for TV. Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally conceived as a feature film before it became a miniseries. Knowing the Disney+ platform presented numerous opportunities, Lucasfilm probably felt streaming was the better medium to tell these types of stories. It's telling there are multiple new Star Wars shows in the works centered on a single character, including Andor and Lando. That could work better than trying to have one of them carry a major studio tentpole.
The Mandalorian's proven to be a monumental success for Lucasfilm and Disney+, which undoubtedly galvanized them to expand Star Wars' presence on the small screen. Hopefully, The Book of Boba Fett will be a similar hit, building off the character's triumphant return on The Mandalorian season 2. In many ways, Boba's supporting role on the show was the apology his fans deserved, reestablishing the bounty hunter as one of the fiercest and coolest characters in Star Wars lore. If anything, The Book of Boba Fett should be a satisfying payoff for years of waiting.