When The Mandalorian Season 2 finale episode (“Chapter 16: The Rescue”) aired, Star Wars fans found themselves processing a lot of surprises. First, there was the triumphant return of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker (CGI Mark Hamill) to the Star Wars story.

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Fans Suddenly Wish Luke Skywalker Cameo Hadn’t Happened

He swooped in with his X-wing to to rescue titular bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Grogu (AKA “Baby Yoda”), Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Koska Reeves (Sasha Banks), and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) from certain doom onboard Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial starcruiser.

Related: Ex-‘Mandalorian’ Star Gina Carano Flips Off the Entire Internet, “Cancel This”

Then, during the unexpected post credits scene, The Book of Boba Fett was officially announced. The sequence saw Shand and legendary character Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) storm Jabba the Hutt’s former palace on Tatooine, unceremoniously kill Majordomo Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter), and take Jabba’s throne for themselves.

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Just Permanently Obliterated an Icon

When The Book of Boba Fett debuted on December 29, 2021 — 376 days after the last live-action Star Wars series ended with “The Rescue” — it was met with mixed reactions from both fans and critics. Many felt that “nothing happened” and that the premiere episode was “disappointingly short.”

The show even initially garnered the worst Rotten Tomatoes reviews of any Star Wars or Marvel Cinematic Universe series on the Disney+ streaming platform so far.

Related: ‘Falcon and Winter Soldier’ Finale Is MCU’s First “Rotten” Episode

However, now, with the penultimate episode of The Book of Boba Fett set to air on the heels of Djarin’s incredible return in last week’s aptly titled “Chapter 5: The Return of the Mandalorian,” Nielson has confirmed that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s latest venture definitely hasn’t been a failure.

Related: ‘Star Wars’ Fans Are Freaking Out Over Grogu’s Official Lightsaber

Per an article about Nielson’s latest numbers, the premiere episode of the Mandalorian spinoff actually did better than entire seasons of Netflix shows in the same frame of time:

Nielsen’s latest report for streaming data for the week of December 27, 2021 to January 2, 2022 reveals that the show was streamed 389 million minutes in the United States. Considering the series only had one episode released at that time, and only five of the seven days of that week, this shows how popular the series was going into its premiere and it was in fact so popular it beat out full seasons of Netflix TV shows.

Related: ‘Peacemaker’ Causes Disturbing ‘Star Wars’ Search to Go Viral, Blows Up Google

The report went on to note that Favreau and Filoni’s project was the “#8 original streaming show for the week of 12/27 – 1/2/22, falling behind Cobra Kai, The Witcher, Lost in Space and Hawkeye, but beating out Stay Close and The Great British Baking Show.”

Related: ‘The Mandalorian’ Is Over 100 Times More Popular Than Average U.S. Series

Again, remember that during this window of time, The Book of Boba Fett had only been available on Disney+ for five days and had just one episode. This is why the show actually did better than entire seasons of two Netflix series, and came close to several others.

As for what’s next in the final two episodes of the season now that Djarin has officially returned, Grogu is reportedly set to appear and many fans are also hoping for cameos by Timothy Olyphant’s Marshal Cobb Vanth, and, of course, Harrison Ford’s Han Solo — CGI, obviously.

Related: ‘The Mandalorian’ Is (Still) Doing One Huge Thing That ‘WandaVision’ Can’t

The big question now, though, is who could appear alongside Djarin as presumably goes to war on Fett’s side — the duo already teamed up in the second season of The Mandalorian, beginning in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy.”

One rumor about The Mandalorian Season 3 — which is currently filming — indicated that it will feature an epic scene with 75 Mandalorians coming alongside Djarin. Since the rumor mill is sometimes only half true, there exists the possibility that this sequence will occur in latter half of The Book of Boba Fett instead.

What do you think about the apparent popularity of Temuera Morrison’s latest entry in the Star Wars franchise?