Now, the latest addition to the “Mando-Verse” — which stars Wen reprising her role and Temuera Morrison as the legendary Star Wars bounty hunter — is set to air its fifth episode on January 26, 2022, and many Star Wars fans still aren’t sure where they land on the Robert Rodriguez-led project.
Episode 2 fared better. It was much longer, for starters, and a number of fans online seemed to change lanes, with some even hailing The Book of Boba Fettas “more compelling than The Mandalorian.“
Then, however, in the third installment, things somewhat derailed with the introduction of the divisive “mod gang.” This colorful group of street youths with Vespa-inspired speedsters led Fett on an uninspiring chase that has already been the subject of many memes.
This brings us to Episode 4, the latest installment in the seven-episode first season. Fans have their issues with this episode as well, but perhaps one of the most notable issues so far is that there is no major antagonist.
Instead, so far, we have two Hutts (“the Twins”) who have decided that Jabba the Hutt’s old Tatooine stomping grounds aren’t even worth their time and the Pyke Syndicate, who even Forbes has deemed “goofy.”
There is, however, one villainous Star Wars character who could potentially rescue The Book of Boba Fett‘s antagonist problem — Rotta the Huttlet, a tiny Hutt baby who appeared alongside Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) movie.
Heir apparent to the Hutt empire, Jabba’s infant son was barely old enough to slither before his conniving and power-hungry great-uncle, Ziro, already had him marked for death at the time of the Clone Wars. Ziro arranged for Rotta to be Huttnapped as part of an elaborate scheme to discredit the Jedi Knights and prevent them from entering an alliance with the Hutts.
…was kidnapped in a plot to trick the Hutts into choosing a side in the galactic civil war. That’s where he earned the nicknames Stinky (because he smells) and Punky Muffin (because he’s a baby, and people say ridiculous stuff to and about babies). He was safely returned to his father by the Jedi, and that’s where things get interesting, because his father was none other than Jabba the Hutt.
The implication here, of course, is that Rotta is the actual, legitimate heir to Jabba’s throne — not the late Bib Fortuna (Michael Carter), not “the Twins,” and not Daimyo Boba Fett — so the evil little Huttlet’s appearance could actually make a lot of sense.
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Credit: Lucasfilm
