Boba Fett and Mandalorian - Is Lucasfilm Breaking Continuity?

Boba Fett and Mandalorian - Is Lucasfilm Breaking Continuity?

While Star Wars series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett take place after the events of the original trilogy of films, Disney is beginning to create some problems for the timeline. Not only has some confusion been created by The Book of Boba Fett's flashback sequences but retcons to Disney's own projects have begun to occur as well, creating continuity discrepancies for certain events and characters in the galaxy far, far away. While nothing incredibly egregious has occurred thus far, Disney needs to be careful as they continue to produce projects within this period spanning 30 years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

So far, The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett are the two primary series Lucasfilm has released on Disney+, both of which take place around five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. Flashbacks have featured Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and his time after his survival from the sarlacc pit, being rescued and integrated into a tribe of Tusken Raiders within the five years before his appearance in The Mandalorian. However, this creates some logic problems when it comes to the overall Star Wars timeline following Return of the Jedi.

Firstly, Boba Fett's time with the Sand People before teaming up with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) does not feel as though it spans a full five years following the end of the original Star Wars trilogy. While there are implied time jumps suggesting Boba spent quite a bit of time alone after the tribe of Tuskens was slain by a speeder bike gang, that concept isn't conveyed very well before he's suddenly rescuing Fennec during The Mandalorian's first season. Secondly, the events of The Book of Boba Fett's present timeline do not make much sense either. As an example, it should not have taken five years after Jabba the Hutt's death on Tatooine for his Hutt cousins to try and claim to his holdings. The desert world is a vital planet in the galaxy's spice trade, and as such, it's far more logical that the power vacuum would have been filled immediately.

There has also been some retconning of Disney's own canon, particularly in reference to the demise of the sarlacc pit after Return of the Jedi. The Aftermath book trilogy actually revealed the sarlacc's death, having been unburied and cut open by Jawas after the explosion of Jabba's sail barge. Now, its fate has been rewritten in The Book of Boba Fett episode 4. Seeing as how this final flashback allowed Fett to get his ultimate revenge by killing the sarlacc himself with a seismic charge, it's not the most egregious retcon to the Star Wars timeline's history. However, it does set a dangerous precedent going forward as Disney continues to release projects set after the original trilogy.

As exciting as it may be to see Boba Fett's survival and the continuation of his journey, The Book of Boba Fett creates some clear logic issues and retcons when it comes to the Star Wars timeline following Return of the Jedi. Disney is in a tricky position. Lucasfilm needs to be careful as they traverse the projects that already exist, but they also need to make sure that any new events make sense within the context of the era in which they're being told. If not, it's simply going to create viewer confusion and fan dissatisfaction with the Star Wars franchise if the waters continue to get muddied with an influx of timeline discrepancies, lending further evidence to the belief that Lucasfilm doesn't know what to do with the franchise beyond the Skywalker Saga.