The Book of Boba Fett stars respond to fan criticisms

The Book of Boba Fett is rolling on, and while Star Wars fans have mostly embraced it, there’s been a bit of backlash — in the age of the internet, that’s inevitable.

The latest bit of blowback came after the airing of the most recent episode, “The Streets of Mos Epsa.” To start, some fans took issue with how Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) returned to the Tusken Raider camp where he’d been staying only to find the lot of them dead. In the original Star Wars movies, the Tuskens were portrayed as savages, but both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett have done a lot to flesh them out, so to kill all of them offscreen seemed callous.

“[Their portrayal] was better than it was [in the films],” Morrison explained on the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “Then I read [in the script that] we were throwing dead bodies just on the fire and I was going, ‘Oh, hang on, we got to put a bit of ceremony into this.’”

It’s cool to hear that Morrison contributed to the scene where Boba Fett honors the Tusken dead. “But they are the Indigenous of the sands of Tatooine, and I was creating a little bit more history about their own culture — and I was pulling from my own culture, in a way, in terms of the ceremonies and preparing the warrior and preparing a weapon,” he continued. “And Boba has never experienced a real family before — with the young Tuskens and the old Tuskens — and protecting their land.”

Ming-Na Wen, who plays Boba Fett’s right-hand woman Fennec Shand, also weighed in. “We knew so little about the Tuskens, and [the show] really gave them an incredible backstory. … I thought all those elements really enrich who the Tuskens are … and [setting the bodies on fire] was part of Star Wars, with A New Hope, whether it’s the Jawas, when they were attacked, there is this ceremonious desire on Tatooine to burn the bodies as opposed to letting them lie out in the open in the desert.”

The Book of Boba Fett stars defend that brightly colored hover-bike chase

Another thing fans took issue with from this episode was the introduction of a street gang (led  by Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher) who took part in a (very slow) chase scene on the streets of Mos Espa. The gang members all ride brightly colored Vespa-looking hover scooters, which had some fans thinking of the Power Rangers more than Star Wars.

“Some of these things are out of our control,” Morrison said. “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.”

Once again, Wen came through with the Star Wars knowledge: “This is a real homage to the things [creator] George Lucas always loved — whether it was the Mods in the ’60s, or [Lucas’ hot rod film] American Graffiti,” she said. “At the same time, it lends itself to learning more about Tatooine. And Sophie was a lovely human being, and I definitely enjoyed getting to know her.”

Jonah Hill and Baby Yoda are in a feud

As long as we’re talking about all the Star Wars spinoffs on Disney+, here’s an interesting factoid: when Leonardo DiCaprio was working on the new Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up, he tried to make his costar Jonah Hill watch The Mandalorian, but it didn’t take. “[I]t was like, Baby Yoda was so cute, but I just didn’t give a fuck because I didn’t know anything that it was about,” Hill told W Magazine.

Fair enough — not everyone is gonna take to everything — but this being the internet, folks couldn’t let that comment rest. Hill took issue with a particular story that seemed to be trying to “create beef between me and Baby Yoda”:

"I’m getting ahead of it. I wanna say this once on the record officially: Baby Yoda and I are dear friends and text at least once a week. We may not be text every day type of friends and yes Covid put a strain on our friendship , but we are all good. And that’s all I will say on this matter ! Now please respect our privacy at this time."

Baby Yoda has yet to comment.

New episodes of The Book of Boba Fett drop on Disney+ on Wednesdays.

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