Spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2 episode 8 – or Chapter 16: The Rescue – follow.
The Mandalorian season 3 may have to wait a little while – the post-credits sequence of The Mandalorian season 2 episode 8 makes it clear that the next chapter in the Star Wars TV universe will be a spin-off called The Book of Boba Fett, focusing on the titular bounty hunter who was reintroduced in this season of the Disney Plus flagship show.
The Book of Boba Fett's release date has been confirmed for December 2021 by a teaser card in the episode.
This tallies with what we've been learning about the future of Star Wars lately. During the Disney Investor Day last week, Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy mentioned that the next chapter in the story of The Mandalorian was coming in time for Christmas 2021 – but she didn't specifically say The Mandalorian season 3. In addition, while she discussed this subject, an image of The Mandalorian featuring Boba Fett played by Temuera Morrison was in the background. Now we know why.
Rumors of a Boba Fett spin-off series, possibly to film before The Mandalorian season 3, were circulated in the last couple of months. The post-credits sequence confirmed The Book of Boba Fett will arrive in December 2021.
That means, we assume, that The Mandalorian season 3 will follow in 2022. But we'll update this when Lucasfilm says more on the subject – which is likely to be early next week.
Here are a quick couple of screengrabs of the teaser cards at the end of season 2:
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Boba Fett just killed Bib Fortuna
As suggested by the post-credits of The Mandalorian Chapter 16, 'The Rescue', this show will focus on Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). What adventures they'll get up to is unclear – but this episode ended with Boba Fett arriving on Tatooine to execute a character that Star Wars fans will likely remember from Return of the Jedi: Bib Fortuna.
Once known as Jabba the Hutt's right-hand man, the Twi'lek had put on a little weight as the new ruler of his palace. Now, he's dead, and Fett sits on Jabba's throne. Let's hope someone gave it a wash since the Hutt was killed by Leia during the first act of Return of the Jedi.
Could The Book of Boba Fett explore the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe? This feels like a great opportunity to rope in Fett's fellow bounty hunters from the Star Wars universe, like Dengar and IG-88.
We'll just have to wait until December 2021 to find out more.
