Posted in: Disney+, Preview, Star Wars, streaming, Trailer, TV | Tagged: boba fett, disney, Fennec Shand, lucasfilm, preview, star wars

No Love for Star Wars Holiday Special in Boba Fett Backstory Video?

We all know what the deal is with Disney+ and Lucasfilm's The Book of Boba Fett when it premieres this week. Legendary & infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) & mercenary Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) return to the sands of Tatooine to lay claim to the territory once ruled by Jabba the Hutt and his crime syndicate- a mission they intend to complete either through respect… or by fear. So you've got that all down, right? But what about how we got here? Feeling a little fuzzy about which movies Boba Fett appeared in and how the whole "clones" deal directly impacts him? Thankfully, What's Up, Disney+ hosts Jenny Lorenzo and Andre Meadows are here to help get everyone up-to-speed on everything we know so far about the legendary bounty hunter's backstory before The Book of Boba Fett premieres on Wednesday, December 29. Except there's one major bit of history missing, one that George Lucas wasn't the biggest fan of (though there's been a bit of thawing over the years). Yup, CBS's 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

Set between the original film and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the special was truly "special" in that it proved to be that rare instance when something can be so righteously bad that it actually swings all the way around to being enjoyable in an ironic & masochistic way. But it was highlighted by the first official "Star Wars" cartoon with the animated segment "The Faithful Wookiee," which was also the first time fans were introduced to Boba Fett. So then why didn't it make the cut? The segment itself made its way onto the streamer so there's that acknowledgment. Are we really going to have to have yet another social media deep-dive into whether or not something is canon or not? You see how well that's going with Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin return & the questions surrounding if he's the Netflix version or not, right? Anyway, here's a look at that quick Boba Fett recap:

Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson executive produce. Karen Gilchrist & Carrie Beck serve as co-executive producers, with John Bartnicki producing and John Hampian as co-producer. In the following teaser released on Christmas Day, someone wants to know who it is who enters unannounced. But Boba Fett knows that they know damn well who he is:

Here's a look behind the scenes with Morrison, Wen, Rodriguez, Favreau, and Filoni discussing the mysterious character's continued popularity and why now was the right time to not only start a new chapter for Boba Fett but also fill in some of the blanks on what he's been up to since Return of the Jedi and before The Mandalorian:

And here's a look back at the official trailer for The Book of Boba Fett, hitting Disney+ on December 29th:

As most of you should know by now, the Peyton Reed-directed and Favreau-written The Mandalorian season finale "Chapter 16: The Rescue" contained two pretty huge reveals. For these purposes, we're focusing on the surprise that came in the form of the end-credits scene. We cut to the double suns of Tatooine, slowly shifting our attention over to Jabba's Palace. The scene cuts to the inside of the palace, where we see Bib Fortuna is still livin' large- well, was still livin' large. That's because our bounty hunter (Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Wen) arrive to engage in a little "long-term house cleaning" (sparing the Twi'lek slave, though- because that's how they roll now).

As the dust settles, Boba Fett grabs a seat on Jabba the Hut's old throne in a Game of Thrones-like pimp move- with Fennec Shand by his side to let viewers know things are a little different now on Tatooine. And then the money shot. We get the title card, "The Book of Boba Fett" – along with the heads-up that it's coming in December 2021. It appears The Book of Boba Fett will join Ahsoka (with Rangers of the New Republic no longer in active development) in the same shared "Mandalorian" timeline. Favreau and Filoni will executive produce and oversee all of the series (think Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige), with things set to "culminate in a climactic story event." Think of it as the "Star Wars" universe's answer to Avengers: Endgame.

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