In a competition of nostalgia, it looks like time itself is the ultimate deciding factor in at least one particular instance. Disney Plus seems to be capitalizing on memories of old favorites as pretty much their entire marketing strategy at this point, asThe Book of Boba FettandHawkeyeprove, and audiences are all too eager to play along. That’s not to say it’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s just interesting to see what happens when popular takes on popular when the biggest difference between the two is time.
That’s what appears to bethe case withThe Book of Boba Fett, which premiered on December 29th to an uncertain but intrigued reaction from fans and newcomers alike. As the current majorStar Warsproduction (at least until the next one), this series was pretty much guaranteed to enjoy some enviable viewership numbers. But how did it end up comparing to another recent offering from Disney Plus?
RELATED:The Book Of Boba Fett Episode 1 Easter Eggs
That’s where the surprisingly festiveHawkeyecomes in. According to Deadline, while both shows sported some impressive ratings for their premiere episodes, it wasThe Book of Boba Fettthat edged out the competition by pulling in 13% more viewers for its debut than the Jeremy Renner andHailee Steinfeld-led holiday romp. 1.7 million households were confirmed to have been checking out the new show during its pilot, whileHawkeyewrangled 1.5 million, which is still nothing to sneeze at. This isn’t entirely surprising, especially given howStar Warsfans seem to get more and more excited for more of their favorite series the longer they have to wait for a new entry. It looks like nostalgia for a movie from the ’80s rather soundly beat out the same feeling for a film from 2012.
It’s worth noting that, whileThe Book of Boba Fettenjoyed some impressive numbers on its own, it still trails behind the most popular Disney Plus premiere so far. That honor still goes tothe surprisingly deepLoki, which blew them both out of the water with an imposing 2.5 million households entranced by its intriguing debut. Still, anything Disney-related is on a whole other level than most other properties out there. Even 1.5 million households would turn any random obscure series into a smash hit. So it’s interesting, and possibly a bit morbid, to see that divide.
It will be worth checking how things go from here, since viewership can pretty easily drop off after a premiere.The Book of Boba Fettis a bit different fromThe Mandalorian, which could easily go either way in terms of popularity. On one hand, audiences absolutely adoreThe Mandalorian. But on the other, that show is still running, so having 2 series with similar premises could end up hurting both.
Either way, it will probably be a long time before audiences have to go as long as they used to betweenStar Warsprojects.The Book of Boba Fettlooks to be one of the most grounded storiesin that universe so far, so it will be interesting to see how that ends up panning out as the series progresses.
The Book of Boba Fettairs new episodes every Wednesday on Disney Plus.
