Ranker Spotlight: The Book of Boba Fett

Sometimes fans latch on to minor characters, and that is certainly true of Boba Fett, a galactic bounty hunter whose first live-action appearance in 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back immediately resonated. Star Wars fans couldn’t get enough of this mysterious figure, even as he coldly wheeled away Han Solo’s carbon-frozen body for delivery to mob boss Jabba the Hutt. And they were understandably distraught when Boba Fett quickly perished in the belly of the sarlacc desert creature in Return of the Jedi in 1983. Fittingly, he sits at the #1 slot on Ranker’s list of Awesome Movie Villains Who Get Defeated Way Too Easily.

Fans got an early Christmas present on December 4, 2020, when Boba Fett made a triumphant return in Season 2 of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, which takes place only five years after Jedi, confirming what many had always hoped: Boba Fett somehow survived his supposed desert demise to fight another day. On December 29, 2021, Disney+ will premiere The Book of Boba Fett, appropriately giving this fan-favorite his very own series and honoring Ranker’s #1 ranked Minor Character Who Deserves Way More Screen Time in the process.

To be sure, Disney+ hopes The Book of Boba Fett will build on the success of The Mandalorian (and all of its Baby Yoda/Grugu pop-culture relevance). But the larger question is whether fans of this popular but decidedly minor character will maintain their enthusiasm as Boba Fett graduates to leading man status. Is the world ready for a fully rounded Boba Fett, with thoughts and fears and... feelings? Let’s use Ranker data to look at the sizable Boba Fett fan base for a glimpse at some of the opportunities and challenges facing Disney as it finally puts our favorite sci-fi bounty hunter center stage.

How Boba Fett Ranks on Ranker

The Boba Fett character remains popular, with 63% average positive sentiment globally, and in the U.S., with a slight popularity edge in the Northeast, according to Ranker data. That’s a good base from which Disney+ can build as it rolls out The Book of Boba Fett, which is already #5 out of 58 shows featured on Ranker’s list of The Most Anticipated Sci-Fi And Fantasy Shows Of 2021. And even more encouraging for The Mouse could be Boba Fett’s wide appeal beyond Star Wars geeks, considering that out of 685 shows across multiple genres, The Book of Boba Fett still ranks as the #7 Most Anticipated Show Of 2021. In fact, real-time sentiment has been rising steadily since March 2021, when The Book of Boba Fett dropped as low as 34% and has since reached 78.3% in October. However, Disney may want to step up its marketing over the next few weeks, because real-time sentiment has declined after that October peak — as of November 2021, it sat at 42.7%.

Of course, can short-term swings really dent Boba Fett’s overall popularity? Ranker data suggests the Force is strong with this one. Not only does Boba Fett rank as the 15th Best Star Wars Character Ever out of 998 characters listed, but he’s ranked #37 out of 857 of The Greatest Movie Villains Of All Time and — if you can believe it — # 44 out of a whopping 3,510 of The Best Movie Characters Of All Time. That’s across all movies. Ever. And Boba Fett easily makes the Top 50. If you ever wondered why Disney marketers thought a Boba Fett-centric series was a good idea, wonder no more.

What Do Boba Fett Fans Love?

Although The Book of Boba Fett will likely generate interest from die-hard Star Wars fans (and casual fans as well, based on the character’s popularity across a broad swath of Ranker touchpoints), that doesn’t mean marketers can’t better target their messages based on correlations. Some are obvious, such as fans’ likelihood to vote up other Star Wars villains like Jango Fett (6X), Darth Maul (6X), Jabba the Hutt (5X), and Emperor Palpatine (4X). But go outside the Star Wars universe, and the data gets a little more interesting, with Boba Fett fans also voting up characters like the dragon Smaug from Lord of the Rings (4X more likely), iconic movie monster Godzilla (3X), and even ever-rebooted classic cyborg hero Robocop (3X). Might Disney be wise to mine those parallel fan bases for new Boba Fett groupies? 

In addition, Disney may even find its next “minor character” series through some of these correlations. Consider, for example, that Boba Fett fans are 7X more likely to vote up Bossk, a reptilian rival bounty hunter who first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back and became a fan favorite. (Perhaps producers will give Bossk an appearance in Book of Boba Fett as a test run, just in case Disney+ later decides to give our favorite space lizard his own show.) It’s also interesting to contemplate who Boba Fett fans don’t want to see in this series (or really anywhere), including Githany, Talon Karrde, Vergere, Gilad Pellaeon, and the ever-derided Jar Jar Binks, all of whom Boba Fett fans voted down on the Best Star Wars Characters Ever list.

Disney also may want to just look closer to home as it markets The Book of Boba Fett. After all, people who voted it up as one of their most anticipated shows were also 7X more likely to vote up Loki, from which Disney+ already has substantial and recent viewing data mined from only a few months ago. In the end, Disney has plenty of ways to find fans of all stripes as it gives the Boba Fett character his first real spotlight since he debuted 41 years ago as a grouchy bounty hunter. As The Book of Boba Fett helps the world ring in the New Year, Disney+ similarly hopes to bring in millions of viewers (and new subscribers) without losing any ground. Based on the data, it’s Disney’s game to lose.

These stories are crafted using Ranker Insights, which takes over one billion votes cast on Ranker.com and converts them into actionable psychographics about pop culture fans across the world. To learn more about how our Ranker Insights can be customized to serve your business needs, visit insights.ranker.com, or email us at insights@ranker.com.

MORE INSIGHTS LIKE THIS: