With The Book of Boba Fett just under two weeks away, Robert Rodriguez spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the show, the tricky time Fett has in front of him taking the underworld and the difficult task of making sure the show has a unique identity away from The Mandalorian.
The Book of Boba Fett is unusual for a franchise action series in that it stars a 60-year-old (Morrison) and a 58-year-old (Wen, who somehow looks like she still gets carded in bars). “You never feel like they’re an older cast; they’re so youthful and energized,” Rodriguez says. “Tem and I work out together — he really is Boba Fett. And for Wen, I would design whole sequences just to end on her and the look she would give Boba because she’s so badass. Tem knows this is his moment and she knows this is her moment, and when you get actors like that, they go for it and it’s palpable.”
Adds Filoni: “Tem brings the intensity and sense of weathered experience that a well-traveled bounty hunter needs while maintaining a sense of fun and adventure. He had more dialogue than Fett has ever had to deliver, but it’s also a very physical role, and Tem was there for it, training and enduring a lot of action.”
Wen’s character was introduced in the first season of Mandalorian and then was seemingly killed off. “There was no ‘seemingly,’” she says with a laugh. “It was very clear at the time.” But Favreau and Filoni had a change of heart and decided to concoct a storyline whereby Boba revived Fennec and the duo teamed up. When Wen made her deal to return, she thought she was simply signing on to more Mandalorian. “They’re so secretive that when dealing with the contracts, there isn’t even a title for the show; it’s all under pseudonym,” she says. “I naturally assumed I was doing Mandalorian season three until I showed up on set.” Wen adds that the spinoff feels more gritty than the other series. “We’ve always dealt with the Empire and the Jedis; this was about these gangster families and has a rawness to it,” she says. “It’s quite different from The Mandalorian, which is more like a Western.”
