A long time ago, in a Gilpin Township home far, far away, I discovered the “extended Star Wars universe” after being enthralled by the original film trilogy.

It came in the form of “Tales from Jabba’s Palace,” an anthology of stories that delved into the lives of the weird creatures, dangerous bounty hunters and assorted riff-raff that populated Jabba the Hutt’s palace.

For me, nothing in either the prequel or sequel trilogies seemed to exist on the same level as the lived-in stories I can recall reading in that book. But the extended universe’s Disney+ shows — first “The Mandalorian” and now “The Book of Boba Fett” — feature the same sort of gritty, dusty future that the original films captured so well.

In fact, the rise of bounty hunter Boba Fett as a fan favorite — a character with barely any lines in the original films — has been pretty wild to watch, from YouTube reactors blowing their lids when he showed up in the second season of “The Mandalorian,” to the season-finale stinger showing Boba taking over Jabba’s palace and announcing that he would be getting his own show.

When he did show up in “Mandalorian,” it was sans helmet, and, initially, I wondered if taking some of the mystique out of Boba Fett would affect the way fans felt about him. After all, part of what made Mandalorians so awesome is that they never take off their helmets. Boba Fett didn’t have a choice after losing his, but I was still curious how someone who rarely spoke would be able to anchor a series.

The parallel storylines in “Book of Boba Fett” quickly allayed my fears.

Through the first four episodes, we’ve followed Boba’s current journey, where he’s attempting to take over as the local crime boss in Tattooine.

And at the same time, we get to see what happened after he was swallowed by the Sarlaac in “Return of the Jedi,” as he’s rescued by Tusken raiders and eventually earns their respect.

Last week’s episode brought the past storyline a lot closer to the present, as we watched Boba skulking around the outskirts of Jabba’s palace, trying to figure out how to get his ship back. Along the way, he runs into master assassin Fennec Shand (Pittsburgh’s Ming-Na Wen), who’s been shot in the gut.

That’s an injury we recognize, because it happened in the first season of “The Mandalorian.” We get to see how Fennec ends up with robot intestines, and we see the uneasy start to her partnership with Fett.

We also end up back at the Sarlaac pit where Boba goes looking for his armor, apparently forgetting that it was taken by Jawas shortly after his escape. But just like always, the Sarlaac is a hungry, hungry boy, and Fennec is only too happy to give him a detonator to eat.

So long, Sarlaac.

From there, Fett and Shand meet with Tattooine’s other crime bosses, and Fett makes his pitch to remain daimyo, which is Japanese for “great name” or “large estate,” another nod to the samurai aesthetic that clearly inspired the creation of the Jedi.

Fett is also adding to his inner circle, offering a job to (sorry, Chewbacca) the coolest Wookiee ever, even if his name is Black Krrsantan, which is ridiculous.

Criticism of this series has accused it of just running in place, content to spend time just hanging out in the “Star Wars” universe without actually doing much.

But the grand sweeping scope of the films made it basically impossible to do this type of character study on anyone not named Skywalker. There was a rebellion to win, a Sith lord to defeat, and that doesn’t leave much time to dwell on what type of droids Jabba employs in his kitchen.

But with Boba looking to set up his own criminal empire and only three episodes left in this season, I’m more than willing to hang out a little longer and see where things lead.

New episodes of “The Book of Boba Fett” stream Wednesdays on Disney+.

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