Continuing from last week, I’ve put together another list of references, Star Wars Easter Eggs, and allusions to other media in the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett on Disney+, entitled “The Tribes of Tatooine”.
1 – The Path to the Palace: We see Fennec Shand leading the assassin she captured in the first episode up the same rocky desert path that C-3PO and R2-D2 took to reach Jabba’s Palace at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Then they enter through the giant door the two droids and Luke Skywalker all used to enter the location.
2 – “E chu ta!”: This Huttese insult was first heard spoken by a Bespin protocol droid to C-3PO in The Empire Strikes Back, and the captured assassin says it to Boba Fett here.
3 – Order of the Night Wind: Believe it or not, the assassin belongs to a faction newly introduced to the Star Wars universe. That’s right: this technically isn’t an Easter Egg or reference to anything that came previously, but I chose to include it on this list anyway, because it seems like it’s probably going to be important.
4 – Rancor Pit: After the assassin falls through the trap door, we get to see the location where Luke fought the Rancor in ROTJ. Only now it’s empty, thanks to our hero previously having crushed the enormous creature to death with a door. The only thing living here now is apparently a (non-Womp) rat.
5 – Kyuzo: This is one that I missed last week, but it popped up again so I thought I’d throw it in: a member of Constable Zuvio’s (from Star Wars: The Force Awakens) species is seen wandering the streets of Mos Espa.
6 – Ithorian: Turns out the mayor of Mos Espa is a member of this species first seen in the original Star Wars film’s Mos Eisley cantina. Mok Shaiz is voiced by none other than executive producer Robert Rodriguez, who also played a Trandoshan character in the premiere episode last week.
7 – “Running a family is more complicated than bounty hunting.”: I have to assume this line of dialogue from Mok Shaiz is an in-joke reference to the line “Bounty hunting is a complicated profession,” famously spoken by Werner Herzog’s Imperial sympathizer character The Client in The Mandalorian’s first season.
8 – Mustafar: Boba Fett name-drops the lava planet where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker had their climactic duel in Revenge of the Sith, but not even Wookieepedia knows what a “Gumpta” is.
9 – Snivvian: This species, once known as “Snaggletooth” on Kenner’s Star Wars action figure packages, was first seen roaming Mos Eisley in A New Hope. Here, there’s one playing Sabacc at the Sanctuary casino.
10 – Hutts: “The Twins” are new characters, but the Hutts as a concept have been around since the beginning of Star Wars. A few references are also made to their home planet of Nal Hutta.
11 – Black Krrsantan: This is where it gets exciting– the fearsome Wookiee bounty hunter was introduced in 2015’s Star Wars: Darth Vader comic book from Marvel. Since then he has become a regular fixture of the Doctor Aphra title, serving as frenemy and foil to the rogue archaeologist character. From what we know about him, he definitely isn’t above working for the Hutts.
12 – “Death Pits of Duur”: From what I can tell, this is another new reference.
13 – Worrt: This frog-like creature was first spotted outside Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, but there are also a couple in tanks providing their eggs for drinks in Oga’s Cantina at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
14 – Pyke Syndicate / Sansanna Spice: The Pykes were introduced in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and have since shown up in live-action form in 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. And the illicit spice they mine on Kessel has long been the Star Wars galaxy’s analogue for certain recreational substances (read: drugs).
15 – Funeral Pyre: Boba helps burn his Tusken Raider friends after some of them are taken out by the Pykes, but we’ve seen this happen in Star Wars before: C-3PO burns Jawas in A New Hope, Luke burns Darth Vader’s armor at the end of Return of the Jedi, and there’s another funeral pyre for Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
16 – Cycler Rifle: The Tusken Raiders’ long-range weapon of choice, first seen in the original Star Wars.
17 – Nikto: This species first popped up in Return of the Jedi (their name is a reference to a phrase from the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still), but has since become a regular fixture of the Star Wars universe.
18 – Camie and Fixer: Who would have thought we’d see Luke’s friends from the deleted scenes of the original Star Wars show up as two put-upon bar patrons in The Book of Boba Fett? I guess Tatooine really is a small world, after all.
19 – Train Heist: This fixture (I keep using that word, don’t I?) of the Western movie genre has appeared in countless films over the past century or so, starting with 1903’s The Great Train Robbery. Heck, we’ve even seen this happen previously in Star Wars a couple times, including in Solo. The speeder bikes are like horses in this scenario, but I probably didn’t need to point that out, did I?
20 – Macrobinoculars: Luke uses this tech to look for R2-D2 in A New Hope, and the young Tusken Raider uses a pair to search for the oncoming train. Bounty hunter Toro Calican was also forced by Din Djarin to give his binocs to Tuskens in The Mandalorian, but I don’t think this is the same pair as those were newer-looking and the timing wouldn’t really line up.
21 – The Dune Sea: Again, this is reference in the original Star Wars, and we’ve both seen and heard about it a bunch since then, but here we get some interesting backstory about the location from the native Tusken Raiders– “Since the oceans dried, we have stayed hidden.”
22 – Vision Quest: Oh boy, this is pretty interesting, and further drives the point home that the Tusken Raiders are basically Native Americans. Boba Fett gets a lizard put up his nose (think Peyote) and has a walkabout in the desert where he sees the eyes of Jawas, the Slave I flying around on Kamino, the Sarlacc pit, and a big tree that made me think of both Black Panther and Game of Thrones.
23 – Boba’s Robes: We see how Fett finally changed from wearing his old worn-out underwear to acquiring the black robes he wore in The Mandalorian. Geez, you really have to accomplish a lot in Tusken culture to be gifted with some new clothes.
24 – Crafting the Gaderffii: Boba makes his very own Gaffi stick out of the large branch he took from the tree, kind of like how a knight might craft his own sword in some fantasy mythology, or like how the Armorer built Din Djarin’s weapons and shielding out of the Beskar he acquired.
BONUS – Biker Gang Mascot: I can’t quite tell what this creature is supposed to be, but it shows up both as a marking on the speeder bikes and as a patch on the back of the gang’s jackets. At first it looked like some kind of spider-like droid to me, but upon closer inspection I think I see a skeleton of a Rancor or something similar. The creature also appears to have a large keg or pouch attached to its hip. Who knows? The Aurebesh text simply reads “Tatooine.”
New episodes of Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett will continue to be released over the next five Wednesdays, exclusively on Disney+.