I’ve seen the draft and it’s already my favourite version of the Boba show yet. Acbagel has selected the absolute right set of scenes, and made the absolute right set of trims to those scenes. I’m REALLY excited to see the final version of this one - I think it’s going to be the best way to watch Book of Boba Fett out there.
Thank you for the kind words and all the help you’ve given in this project over the last couple of years. Eddie has played a huge role in helping structure and review the films, so major props for all that work!
I can’t wait…love this series. That is high praise from Eddie, but I know Acbagel deserves the praise and recognition. SO ready for the updated Book Five to drop!
Thanks! We are getting very close, see the end of this post for a progress report…!
Super excited for this to be finished. Then I can rewatch the Mandalore stuff while a presumably great Bad Batch edit is in the making. 😃
For sure, I’m really excited to work on that soon. Will have the full 3 seasons to see the big picture storyline and then be able to make solid movie edits akin to this Mandalore saga.
I have not watched most of your edits yet, my wife and were doing a chronological series watch through. We only just finished (well like a month ago) Eddie’s TCW:R and are now looking for movie edits for things like Rebels, Bad Batch and Andor. So it might be a minute. But, can I get up to date links to your latest versions?
Links sent!
As for what excites me about your edits… the thing I desired most out of the series was a LOOOONGG time away from Grogu. When Luke took Grogu in the S2 finale… the greatest moment Disney has had with the franchise… I was very excited at the prospect that we would probably not seee Grogu again until maybe the VERY finale of the series or later even, 2 to 4 seasons of content at the very least. I wanted them apart for years. You can imagine how dissapointed I was when only 2 more Din episodes later (his boba episodes), they’re already back together. That is why I haven’t even given Season 3 a chance, I havent even watched it.
(And of course like a mentioned before, how Boba was shafted in his content, I feel the way you’re pacing his content throughout Mandalorian is the best way to salvage his content, thank you for that)
So with that in mind, my biggest request for you going into these later edits, 6, 7, 8 etc, is, please do your best to keep them apart for as long as you can possibly get away with. I think the longer you hold it off, the more powerful it will be.
I definitely agree here. The ending of season 2 was my favorite Disney Star Wars content so far. That’s one of the few times it has felt like OG Star Wars to me. I’d say that, some other parts in Seasons 1/2, Grogu’s training in BoBF, Siege of Mandalore in TCW, half of Rogue One, some episodes of Andor/Tales of the Jedi, and a couple scenes in Ahsoka are my Star Wars film/tv highlights of the decade… That’s a bit sad, but at least we’ve had some moments rather than none! I will do everything I can to make this Grogu separation as long as possible as I believe their reuniting was absolutely disastrous for the story and future of the characters.
With that said, here is our (new) first installment of Grogu-less Mandalorian… a Book 5 progress report!
Wrapped up draft #2 yesterday and currently getting a final review of it. Will probably need one more pass for bug fixes and maybe a new scene placement or two and then it’s ready. So I’m looking at a Friday-Monday release depending on when I can get time to do one more review. In the meantime, I want to point out some of the highlights of this update and release the teasers.
Book 5: The Apostate update changelog:
- As discussed in the thread, I am reverting back to including the majority of Boba’s story in BoBF. I have merged my last Book 5 release with my 2022/23 version of Book of Boba Fett (with a lot of updates to both, I had actually made a newer version of my old Book 5 that I think I only privately showed to a few people before deciding to cut a lot of BoBF to work on the Season 3 content). This decision to reinstate the main plot of BoBF is intended to accomplish a few goals:
- Give Boba his full character arc, consistent with how I’ve built him over the past few films.
- Extend Grogu and Din’s separation for as long as possible.
- Better organize events for Books 6 & 7.
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As this is a revamped version of my 2022 Book 5, pretty much the whole scene structure is different. Back then I was just trying to break ground by combining these shows by any means necessary. It wasn’t exactly in a theatrical film format with the best storytelling, it was an obvious fan edit. With my last round of updates, I’ve really focused on thematic storytelling, character arcs, scene order, and pacing, making it feel like a seamless movie release. So I’ve put that sort of polish on this film as a whole.
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We open on Din this time. It’s his series, and although I’ve made Boba a major character throughout this saga, Din is still the protagonist. After Din’s bounty hunting, we see what Boba is up to with a new opener for his character in a custom-created dream sequence that explains his inner turmoil. Using footage from the Tusken lizard vision, his bacta healings, etc, we now have a proper thematic intro for what he is doing and dealing with these days.
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In regard to the overall Pyke/crime lord story for Boba, from a DM conversation with Eddie:
- The Pykes onscreen aren’t a very interesting threat. They have no main characters, only working through agents. They’re literally a faceless army in this show, and in the end, they’re taken out quite easily by Fennec.
- They’re only a threat in the sense of being a nebulous presence of unknown size who intend to cause grief at a time when Boba doesn’t need extra grief. It’s not their story- they’re only relevant for what they implicitly represent to Boba- a challenge to his control.
- But, they do still have that impact on the audience, and having their presence explicitly ties everything together, in terms of his dealings with the character threats (assassins and Cad Bane) and other factions (the mayor, the three families).
Having them hang over the plot keeps the Boba plot feeling more tight and focused than keeping them a mystery, which means the three-act structure keeps the movie feeling like a complete movie, and it means that Boba’s central challenge (‘what kind of ruler will you be?’) keeps relating to their actions.
This is the approach I have now taken to the overall conflict against Boba. This principle has guided the pacing and scene structure, and how/when to introduce the antagonists (which I would argue aren’t necessarily the Pykes/crime lords, but the internal conflict Din and Boba deal with throughout).
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If there are some scenes missing that you still wanted to see Boba in… perhaps it’s because I am saving them for Book 6/7 😉
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I have removed all mentions of Din’s redemption. No discussion of the mines, waters, restoration… No hope. Din is on his solo journey, looking for a new purpose. He doesn’t engage in this quest for Mandalore at all in BoBF, so there’s no reason to even bring it up. After he lends a hand to Boba and realizes he still can’t be with Grogu, we will start to deal with the What’s next? in Book 6 and use the dialogue there to kick off his new journey.
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There are a LOT of small updates in this that I can’t even begin to list. From new audio, voice lines, soundtracks, scenes, and intricately chosen shot ordering (for example, when Cad says to Boba, “You never should have left him without his armor,” referring to Cobb getting shot, the Disney version then cuts to Boba’s reaction first, then Fennec’s reaction, THEN Din’s reaction of coming out with his blaster over 5 seconds later. No…! That’s not natural timing, and that’s not thematically the correct reaction for Din. When that line is delivered, we need to cut RIGHT to Din’s reactions to show his emotions as he hears that his friend has most likely been killed). I have taken this approach to countless scenes, from Boba’s meeting with the petitioners to the crime lords, to his Western with Cad, to Cad’s meeting with the Pyke & Mayor… I think there were a lot of sloppy shot selections in this show and I couldn’t have possibly caught everything, but I tried!
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With all that said, I’d like to leave some of the selected events as a surprise so that you can have a new experience as you watch this. The movie is clocking in around 2 hours and 5 minutes, which is right in line with where I have tried to keep my films.
Link to the trailer on YouTube.
Poster
Thanks, everyone, the release is right around the corner. Would love to be able to deliver for the weekend, but I can’t 100% promise it… Doing what I can to make that happen though!