Spoilers follow for The Mandalorian season 2.
In traditional Lucasfilm and Disney style, The Book of Boba Fett is shrouded in mystery – aside from the return of the eponymous bounty hunter (played by Temuera Morrison) and his associate Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), The Mandalorian spin-off is playing its Sabacc cards extremely close to its chest. In fact, when it comes to solid intel on the characters who’ll be crossing paths with the galaxy’s most infamous mercenary, even Bothan spies would be pulling their hair out.
But when Fett killed Bib Fortuna to take control of Jabba the Hutt’s vast crime empire, he opened the door to potential encounters with numerous classic Star Wars characters – from fellow bounty hunters, to Imperials and veterans of the Rebel Alliance.
So, making the assumption that if a character isn’t dead they’re fair game for a return – and that even those who are deceased could appear in flashbacks – we’ve assembled a list of the Star Wars heroes and villains who may show up in The Book of Boba Fett.
Everything you’ll read below is based on official Star Wars canon – movies, TV, books and comics – unless we specify otherwise.
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Bounty hunters
“Bounty hunters: we don’t need their scum,” Admiral Piett sneered at an underling in The Empire Strikes Back, but it would be surprising if The Book of Boba Fett shared his point of view. Even before he hooked up with Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian, Boba Fett had a long history of working with other mercenaries.
The famous usual suspects line-up from Darth Vader's Star Destroyer would seem a good place to start recruiting for the new show – because although it was disintegrations specialist Fett who eventually captured Han Solo, it’s likely that most of the other bounty hunters involved would still be in business six years later.
Both Bossk and Dengar have history with Fett, having worked with the aspiring bounty hunter during The Clone Wars (where Dengar was voiced by Simon Pegg). Both make brief background appearances in Return of the Jedi – Dengar in Jabba’s Palace, Bossk on his sail barge – so, assuming neither was on board the latter when it blew up above the Sarlacc, both could have lived to fight another day. In fact, a report in SlashFilm suggests Dengar survives through to The Rise of Skywalker – set three decades after The Book of Boba Fett – in the twisted form of cyborg Rothgar Deng.
IG-88, Zuckuss and 4-LOM completed the famous assortment of mercenaries hired to track down the Millennium Falcon. While it’s widely believed that Boba Fett defeated IG-88 before capturing Han Solo, leaving him for scrap on Cloud City, the droid ‘brother’ of The Mandalorian’s heroic IG-11 was resurrected in the Darth Vader comic book series, where he was hired to eliminate the Emperor’s right-hand man.
Zuckuss and his droid partner 4-LOM, meanwhile, both appear in the Star Wars: Bounty Hunters comic set after The Empire Strikes Back, so are presumably still looking for work by the time The Book of Boba Fett rolls around.
Cad Bane is yet to appear in live-action, but that didn’t bother The Mandalorian when it brought Clone Wars veterans Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze into the fold. Bane, a blue-skinned, Clint Eastwood-channelling bounty hunter, was a regular threat throughout The Clone Wars, and has also turned up in spin-off show The Bad Batch. He hasn’t made any canonical appearances beyond his recent Bad Batch appearance, but the fact he appears in some graffiti in Rebels suggests he was still infamous decades later. It therefore wouldn’t be a stretch for him to crop up in The Book of Boba Fett, especially as Bane’s a former associate of Boba’s dad, Jango.
Unless she gets some flashback scenes, one member of the Bossk/Dengar gang who won’t be showing up is Boba’s old mentor, Aurra Sing – during Solo: A Star Wars Story, it’s confirmed that Tobias Beckett killed her.
And if The Book of Boba Fett production team are looking for a seriously deep dive, there’s one other important Star Wars mercenary who’s long overdue a canonical appearance. “The bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell,” is casually referenced by Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back, yet has never appeared on screen. Non-canon 1981 comic The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell told the story of Skorr and his encounter with Solo – could this be the time he’s finally introduced into official continuity?
Other underworld figures
While Leia made sure that Jabba the Hutt was definitively dead – even before his sail barge exploded – we know that his master of ceremonies, Bib Fortuna, survived to take control of his old boss’s crime empire. Fett assassinated Fortuna in The Mandalorian season 2 finale, but who’s to say there aren’t other members of Jabba’s entourage out there?
Cackling Kowakian monkey-lizard court jester Salacious B Crumb, for example, could have jumped ship after snacking on C-3PO’s eye. (That said, he’d be advised to steer clear of Nevarro, where roasted monkey-lizard is sometimes on the menu.)
Mad scientist Dr Evazan and his sidekick Ponda Baba survived their Mos Eisley bar brawl with Obi-Wan Kenobi, so could still be at large. And Ochi, the Sith assassin who killed Rey’s parents (as referenced in The Rise of Skywalker) previously had connections with criminal syndicate Crimson Dawn, whose interests could collide with Fett’s own black-market aspirations.
Any Crimson Dawn entanglements could be made even more intriguing if we see the return of Qi’ra, Han Solo’s ex (played by Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke) who became a major player in the organisation. The War of the Bounty Hunters comic reveals that Qi’ra stole the carbonite-encased Solo from Fett in between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, eventually auctioning him off to the highest bidder. Boba Fett may still hold a grudge…
And on the less scummy and villainous side of the underworld there’s pirate queen Maz Kanata, whose castle on Takodana is also a haven for the morally flexible. She even has a Mandalorian flag outside the front door, so may welcome certain bounty hunting visitors.
Rebel heroes
With Luke Skywalker busy training Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) in the ways of the Force, and Han Solo, Leia and Chewbacca probably having their hands full raising toddler son (and future Kylo Ren) Ben, it’s unlikely they’ll have a reunion with Boba Fett – even though there’s bound to be some residual animosity on both sides. There’s slightly more chance of a return for Lando Calrissian (who, like Fett, briefly worked for Jabba the Hutt), but we suspect The Book of Boba Fett will largely steer clear of Star Wars’ biggest names.
There are other Rebel Alliance veterans in play at this point in the timeline, however. Pilot Nien Nunb is a former smuggler, so has experience of the underworld, while fellow flying ace Wedge Antilles may have a few more years of action in him before retiring to a quiet life in the Outer Rim with his wife Norra Wexley – the mother of future Resistance pilot Temmin ‘Snap’ Wexley.
We also never found out what happened to former Clone Troopers Rex and Wolffe after the fall of the Empire. They’d surely be intrigued to meet their bounty hunting ‘brother’ Boba – the fact they’re all clones of Jango Fett (also played by Temuera Morrison) means the casting should be easy…
Characters from The Mandalorian
With The Mandalorian season 3 storylines to consider, the destinies of Din Djarin (aka Mando) and Grogu are almost definitely separate from Boba Fett’s. There are, however, other characters from the parent show who could crop up in The Book of Boba Fett.
Cobb Vanth, the Mos Pelgo town marshal who kept Fett’s armor warm during his enforced absence, is also on Tatooine, and may have a part to play in the story of how Boba escaped from lunch-by-Sarlacc. And while Mandalorian princess Bo-Katan Kryze has little love for Fett – who she regards as an imposter and a disgrace to the armor – there are plenty of reasons their paths could cross once again.
Former Imperial sharp shooter-turned-career criminal Mayfeld pulled off a successful heist with Fett in The Mandalorian season 2 episode 7, so it may be mutually beneficial for them to work together again.
It’s also unlikely that the newly established New Republic will turn a blind eye to criminal activities across the galaxy, so don’t be surprised if pilots/space cops Carson Teva and Trapper Wolf stick their noses into Boba Fett’s business from time to time.
Imperial remnants and the First Order
After the Battle of Jakku – which took place four years before the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett – the remains of the Empire signed a peace treaty with the New Republic. According to Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novels, Imperial bigwigs – including Admiral Rae Sloane and Commandant Brendol Hux (father of General Hux) – travelled to the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, where they went on to build the First Order.
While the Empire as we knew it is no longer in business, however, we know from The Mandalorian that there are sizeable, and dangerous, Imperial remnants making their presence felt across the galaxy – much like the one led by the now-incarcerated Moff Gideon.
The question is, how much will their operations come into Boba Fett’s orbit? The two sides do have a history of working together if their interests align, so don’t be surprised to see Fett joining forces with people dressed in Imperial uniforms once again.
The Book of Boba Fett streams on Disney Plus from December 29.
