The last time we saw the Galaxy’s most famous Bounty Hunter, Boba Fett, he was on his way to 1,000 years of painful digestion but we now know that he will be coming back in a big bad way.
Throughout this post, we’re gonna be discussing how the character managed to survive this fate at the end of Return of the Jedi, and what he did after. We’ll also be giving our theories on how he could be brought into the Mandalorian and whether he’ll be a hero or villain.
There will be some spoilers here so if you don’t want anything potentially ruined about it then I highly recommend that you click off now.
Boba Fett Returns
The Hollywood Reporter dropped the news on Friday that Boba Fett would be appearing in The Mandalorian and that he would be played by none other than Temuera Morrison. This was the actor that played Jango Fett in Attack Of The Clones and it’s great to see him back.
Fett was used as a template for the clone troopers and he was also given an unaltered clone for his own son which he named Boba.
So it makes sense that he is reprising his role as the bounty hunter.
Now though I have seen some unsure on whether he would be appearing in flashback and that the Sarlaac would indeed still remain as his death, due to Morrison’s age and the fact that the show is already set five years after the events of Return Of The Jedi, it does make sense to have the character older.
Let’s face it we all want to know what happened to him and in the wake of the cancelled Boba Fett solo movie, there’s never been a better time to truly explore what happened to him on Tattooine.
But how exactly did he get to this point and have we seen him before?
Boba Fett First Appearance
Well in Episode 5: The Gunslinger, we did get a tease that a mysterious figure would be appearing in the show.
In the episode, Mando teamed up with a rookie bounty hunter in an attempt to hunt down Fennec Shand.
Things kinda went awry but the episode ended with a mysterious pair of boots and a cape approaching Shand’s body. This was confirmed by the creative team to be Moff Gideon, however, I do think in light of the recent announcement that this will retroactively be changed to Fett. Boba is, of course, a Bounty Hunter so his tracking of Shand makes sense and it could also set up how he will appear in the show which I’ll get into in just a bit.
How Boba Fett Survived
No as for how he survived in every version of the character’s resurrection he went out the same way, however for this breakdown, we will be focusing on A Barve Like That: The Tale Of Boba Fett by J.D. Montgomery.
This book was published in 1996 and it pretty much centres around how Fett managed to escape.
Upon landing in the Sarlacc, Fett awakened the consciousness within it. One of its first victims was a young Choi known as Susejo and his mind had melded with the pit and it was as much him as he was it.
Susejo had pretty much become the pit and over millennia it had existed by injecting its prey with neurotoxins and then it slowly digested them with its stomach acids.
Fett was able to communicate with Susejo telepathically and during this time he learned that they were one and the same. Thus if he was able to fool Susejo he would be able to escape.
Fett tricked the creature into wrapping itself around his jetpack which then exploded hurtling him free of the monster’s tentacles. Using a concussion grenade he was able to escape through a wall in the creature.
Now what happens from here kinda varies depending on what you read. In Star Wars legends he’s actually found by a Sandcrawler that just so happened to have also kidnapped R2-D2. Han Solo and Leia were on a rescue mission and here they found Fett.
Solo didn’t want to harm the Bounty Hunter but he attacked the character and Solo managed to dive off the Sandcrawler just as it hurtled back into the Pitt.
So yeah, this is the kinda fan fiction we used to get, he got out then he went back in.
However, Fett managed to escape once more in the same manner as before and he was found by Dengar who had came to search through the wreckage of Jabba’s barge.
Dengar didn’t know that it was Fett due to the damage on his armour and he helped him get back on his feet and took him away to be healed.
They kinda had a back and forth over the years but one of the notable things that happened to Fett was that he actually returned to the pit one year after escaping it.
He was originally going to destroy it but using his telepathic connection with the creature he decided not to.
The Mandalorian Season 2
I think that this story will pretty much be carried over to the show except for the whole in-and-out storyline involving Han Solo.
He has to escape in some way so they might as well keep it as simple as possible.
Now the way I think that he will be brought back into the show is through a similar thing that we’ve already seen. I do believe that he will be revealed as tracking down Shand and with the Bounty still on Baby Yoda’s head, I think he will be one of the first to go after the character.
Moff Gideon has already failed and, likely, the price for the little youngling has now increased greatly, becoming an even more valuable target for Bounty Hunters.
We know that Fett has worked with the Empire before and that he was instrumental in tracking down Han Solo. Perhaps Gideon knows of his exploits and has gone after him personally to give him a job that he really can’t refuse.
Fett Vs Mando
Now there are two ways that Fett can really go and that is either a friend or foe.
I’m kinda using common sense to predict the way that I think the show will go here though I may be wrong completely.
However, I think Fett will initially start as a villain and though his appearance is said to be small who doesn’t want to see Mando and Fett facing off against one another.
It’s potentially one of the biggest battles that there could be in Star Wars and it would bring so much hype to the show that even none subscribers of Disney Plus would likely sign up just to see it go down.
I think Fett might actually beat Mando too either in a space battle or from afar. However upon getting in close and seeing that a Mandalorian is guarding his target he might have a change of heart.
Again that’s not really like the Fett we know who tends to be Bounty over everything but I’m just saying how I think the show will operate.
Though Fett isn’t technically a Mandalorian himself, I think he will find some common ground with Dynjarring and this may be the main thrust of the episode that he features in.
Dyn was of course saved by The Mandalorians and then brought into the creed and both in some way mirror one another.
They are both characters that took up the lifestyle of The Mandalorians and it pretty much plays into every aspect of who they are and what they have done.
I think that due to Fett’s reputation that Dyn will look up to the character and after the pair bond Fett may even become a mentor that could give him some advice.
Though the part is small I think that there is potential here for him to be a returning character as it just doesn’t make much sense to resurrect Fett and then kill him off at the first available opportunity.
Unless of course, Disney wants to show that they actually rule Star Wars now and there’s no way that any of their characters would be beaten by the old ones.
What Can We Expect?
They are kinda playing with fan emotions at the moment and hearing of the character’s return saw a lot of positivity towards the Disney Plus show. So I think it would be stupid to take all of this goodwill and scrap it at the first available opportunity.
The Mandalorian Season 2 is currently playing heavily into fan service with Ashoka returning too and there are rumours that there will be more characters announced as coming back the closer to the release date that we get.
I think it’s a smart move on Disney’s part now that all of the new characters are established to bring in the old ones.
It would be amazing if Baby Yoda was trained by Ashoka whilst Mando was mentored by Fett and in some ways, it would symbolise a passing of the torch to the new generation that would restore faith in the series after many felt that it was destroyed due to the sequel trilogy.
Or.
What could happen is that he just pops up at the back of the Cantina and looks over and gives a little nod, just a little nod and then he’s off again to who knows where.
Then Palpatine shows up for some reason and it turns out that he was controlling it all from behind the shadows.
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the character is coming back and whether you think he will be a hero or a villain. Comment below and let me know!
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