In Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett, the hype machine is fully operational.
But it’s also an historicized love letter to the character.
The Short Take:
Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett, a behind-the-scenes documentary featurette, is a short and sweet 21 minutes. In that time, it packs substantive footage and interviews that will delight any fan of the infamous bounty hunter. Get hyped for The Book of Boba Fett, because that’s the main agenda here.
Image Credit: starwars.com
The Long Take:
What a day! What a Disney+ Day. While the deluge of Marvel announcements embarrassingly overshadowed the Star Wars content that came out of Disney’s latest press event (especially after the Obi-wan Kenobi sizzle reel leaked a day early), the most exciting offering overall was Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett.
What about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, you might ask? Surely that’s the headliner release. And it is. But I’m classifying Under the Helmet separately, as one of the promotional materials that dropped today rather than a purely content-based release. And that’s because by the end of the mini-documentary, the focus shifts from pinpointing the origins one of the most popular characters in Star Wars history (Am I right about that? That claim is harder to make now than it was years ago.) to previewing his upcoming Disney+ series, The Book of Boba Fett. The transition is very slick and seamless, but I couldn’t help but wonder what a standalone, and more extensive documentary about Boba Fett would look like, especially if the return of the character on The Mandalorian and the upcoming spin-off series were equally-measured points in the larger story rather than the endgame.
Image Credit: starwars.com
Who am I kidding, though. I’m still incredibly excited about The Book of Boba Fett, and I’m not upset that we got Under the Helmet because Disney needed to promote the new show (which will hit Disney+ on December 29th, in case you’re wondering). It’s worth watching a sizzle reel — that honestly I was going to watch anyway — if it means I get to see original footage from 1979 of the crew working on Empire Strikes Back. It’s even more worth it if I get to see one of them trying on a prototype suit based on concept artist Ralph McQuarrie’s original design. Or Boba Fett’s final look attracting the attention of fans of all ages at a local event in Lucasfilm’s home base, Marin County. I thought it was such a treat to see clips from these early days, and I definitely got the impression that the creatives working with George Lucas back in the day a.) had no idea what they really had on their hands and b.) were just having fun and creating cool stuff that they liked. The first half of the featurette makes a BIG nostalgia play, and I was here for every minute of it. Even the most high profile Star Wars collector, the founder of the Rancho Obi-Wan Museum, made an appearance to show off some of the quirky Boba Fett toys and merch featured in his collection. As someone who owns more than a few items myself, I felt like this cinched my connection with the show.
A broader nostalgia play is to be expected, but I didn’t expect — and loved — such a touching tribute to the late Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who usually inhabited the Boba Fett suit during the original trilogy’s production. Interviews with his wife and clips of him interacting with fans warmed my heart; he seemed to understand the huge role he played in the franchise and how much the character means to fans. When I attended Star Wars Celebration years ago, I remember passing by his signing booth and noting how happy he seemed to be there. Part of me regrets not waiting in line to get his autograph, but I got many amazing others that weekend, and it’s important to know one’s limits at cons.
As I mentioned earlier, the push to look ahead to the future of Boba Fett wasn’t bad by any stretch. The intercutting of present day interviews from current Star Wars creators, speaking to the significance of the character, works really well and doesn’t feel like filler at all. (I’m a little worried for Dave Filoni being overworked as he’s clearly sporting a pandemic haircut and bags under his eyes. But his insights about Star Wars as a mythology were as eloquent as ever, so he’s probably fine.) The commentary generated by the splicing together of past and present had a clear message: Boba Fett’s popularity defies logic.
So many interviewees featured in Under the Helmet, many of whom are big players in today’s Lucasfilm, note that part of the Boba Fett phenomenon stems from his mystique. They make a point to say that in the original trilogy Boba Fett has shockingly little screen time — “only four lines of dialogue and 6 minutes 32 seconds of total screen time” — and yet rocketed (see what I did there) into our pop culture consciousness. His character design alone makes him look insanely cool, and you want to know more about him immediately. One of the executives, in looking back on the character’s creation, says that George Lucas didn’t feel the need to give any backstory on characters like Fett, which only fanned the flames of fan interest. Who was this mysterious and cool-looking bounty hunter who quietly lurked behind Darth Vader? If I think back to that line-up of bounty hunters, I remember how much implied story there was with their visual design alone.
Image Credit: starwars.com
This mystique-centric messaging reinforced a concern I had about The Book of Boba Fett series when the new trailer hit the Internet a little over a week ago: that the series will dampen Fett’s mystique. If a lack of information made him appealing in the first place, what will providing more information and allowing us to get to know him in a whole series do to our relationship with the character? Should we be careful what we wish for here?
I could argue that neither the prequels, with the introduction of Jango Fett as Boba’s clone father, nor the appearance an older Fett has made in The Mandalorian has weakened his popularity. In The Mandalorian especially, I loved how the show just let him be as skilled as I had hoped he would be. His shooting down of a ship and saying, “I was aiming for the other one,” cracked me up and struck me as exactly the kind of humor that makes me love Star Wars so ardently. I would credit Temuera Morrison with a lot of why the Boba Fett’s entry into The Mandalorian works. His gritty, weathered vibes fit right in with the Western lone gunslinger aura of the show.
And, after all this, I’m craving more Boba Fett. I remember jumping on the discourse bandwagon when Disney first broached the idea of stand-alone Star Wars films. Fans clamored for a Boba Fett film, and I was right there with them.
Image Credit: The New York Times
Maybe I need to remind myself that The Book of Boba Fett is a new chapter in Boba Fett’s story rather than a shading in of his past, refocusing my attention to the kind of story the trailer implies we’re getting. Boba Fett and Fennec Shand stand before a banquet table of Jabba’s former captains, and try to make them an offer they can’t refuse, essentially. I get big underworld crime drama vibes from this newer trailer, with a little nobility sprinkled in. He will, after all, try to rule with respect, in contrast to Jabba’s ruling with fear. Honor among thieves and all that. If the prerogative of the show is to insert two of the galaxy’s best bounty hunters into the seedy underbelly of an organized crime ring, maybe I won’t feel like we’re pulling back the curtain too much because this is so different than the Fett of Empire.
From a television storytelling perspective, though, I would assume that at some point Fett will say, “When I was down in that sarlacc pit,” to another character in the face of a new crisis. Those retrospective moments will be where the show fails or succeeds, I suspect. I’m fine with exploring who Boba Fett is now and who he will become the longer he sits on Jabba’s throne. But do I want to go back to alter my conception of who Boba Fett was?