Just over a year since Boba Fett’s resurrection in The Mandalorian season two, the Star Wars galaxy’s most beloved bounty hunter is back for his own starring vehicle in The Book of Boba Fett, which just premiered on Disney Plus today. The spinoff show follows up on the Mando season finale’s post-credits scene, which saw Fett (Temuera Morrison) takeover the Tatooine criminal underworld with his loyal right-hand woman Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) by his side. But what is the exact nature of Boba and Fennec’s partnership?
As we learned on Mandalorian, Fett discovered Shand after she was left for dead in the desert and saved her life, fixing her injuries with cybernetics. In return, Fennec swore a lifelong loyalty to him, initially aiding Boba in his quest to retrieve his father’s suit of armor and now aiding him in his seizing of power. From the point of view of Wen — who previously reprised her role in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch animated series — the pair’s relationship is rooted in “respect and honor” due to their shared bounty hunter code.
“I feel like [Fennec and Boba] are bonded because both of them had near-death experiences,” Wen said to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. “They’re both bounty hunters, and they do adhere to a certain level of respect and honor. He saved her, and there’s a debt to be paid, and bounty hunters honor that debt.”
As for Fett, he’s not known for his do-gooding, so it’s intriguing that he saved Shand’s life in the first place. Clearly, he felt pity for her based on how her own situation mirrored his own. Just like Fennec, the rogue clone was also left to die on the sands of Tatooine. The duo has a lot in common, including a shared understanding and even affection for each other. To date, though, there has been nothing explicitly romantic about their bond.
However, this could well change across The Book of Boba Fett, which promises to dimensionalize Fett’s character more than we’ve ever seen. We’ll have to wait and see whether love is in the air for these bounty hunters-turned-crime lords as the series continues Wednesdays on Disney Plus.