Boba Fett might finally be a leading man in Disney+'s The Book of Boba Fett, but it still won't make him a good guy.
As reported by The Direct, Ming-Na Wen, who plays Fett's ally Fennec Shand, explained to Disney's D23 Magazine how the bounty hunters' dynamic largely stems from their respective shared traumas and professions. "They're bonded by the fact that they both lived through a near-death experience. And there is a sense of code that they both abide by," she said. "So it's going to be really interesting to see how their dynamics grow in The Book of Boba Fett. I think that's all I can say. The rest is... you have to watch." Touching on Fett and Shand's morality, however, Wen admitted both characters aren't "bad guys" but "not that good either" compared to other Star Wars characters in the Mandalorian world. "We are the anti-hero," she continued. "I like playing an anti-hero. You get away with more, I think."
The Book of Boba Fett will pick up where The Mandalorian's Season 2 mid-credits scene left off, with Temuera Morrison's Fett taking over Jabba the Hutt's base of operations as a crime lord. Series producer Jon Favreau noted that Star Wars' criminal underworld now faces "a power vacuum, because Jabba is gone," and Fett seeks to "rule with respect" as a departure from his predecessor. In addition to fighting alongside him, The Book of Boba Fett trailers show Shand acting as a mediator between Fett and the other crime bosses, pointing out that he treats them much differently than Jabba did when they speak out of turn.
Fett's return was originally teased at the end of the Mandalorian episode "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger" after an unknown figure came across Fennec Shand's incapacitated body on Tatooine. Following a cameo by Morrison in the Season 2 premiere, the two confirmed their partnership in "Chapter 14: The Tragedy," revealing that Fett, who sought his old armor back from Din Djarin, had revived Shand with mechanical organs. This marked Morrison's first time donning Boba Fett's helmet on camera, despite re-dubbing the bounty hunter's lines for Star Wars' DVD re-releases and voicing him in video games like the Star Wars Battlefront series.
Most recently, Morrison returned to voice Fett in the English-dubbed Star Wars: Visions episode "Tatooine Rhapsody." Wen, whose character was created for The Mandalorian, also voiced an animated version of Shand in episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
The Book of Boba Fett premieres Dec. 29 on Disney+.
Source: D23 Magazine, via The Direct