Despite only appearing on screen a few times in the original Star Wars trilogy, Boba Fett
has become one of the saga's most iconic characters. From his unusual beginnings to his untimely
demise, this is everything you need to know about the story of Boba Fett.
During the last days of the Old Republic, a group of cloners on the planet Kamino created
a clone army supposedly on the orders of the Jedi High Council. To do this, they used the
genetic material of a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. There was one clone, however,
who remained unaltered at Jango's request. This unaltered clone is Boba Fett, who was
raised to believe that he is Jango's actual son and that's where this story begins.
Enter Obi-Wan Kenobi.
"Hello there."
When Obi-Wan arrives on Kamino to question Jango about his involvement in the assassination
attempt of Padme Amidala, their relationship gets off to a fairly rocky start. Obi-Wan
knows that Jango is the killer he's been looking for, and Jango realizes he and his son will
need to make a quick getaway.
It's at this point that Boba Fett's hatred for the Jedi Order begins even as a child,
he's witnessed their distrust of his father, a man he very clearly looks up to.
After deliberating with the Jedi Council, Obi-Wan Kenobi returns to apprehend Jango
Fett. By the time he gets back, however, Jango and Boba are in the process of making their
escape from Kamino. When a fight breaks out between Obi-Wan and Jango outside Jango's
ship, Boba is forced to defend his father against the Jedi.
The Fetts manage to escape, but not before Obi-Wan is able to secure a homing device
to the hull of their ship. He catches up to the pair near Geonosis, and the battle continues
in an asteroid field. Thinking they've outrun Obi-Wan, the Fetts take refuge on the planet,
along with Count Dooku and his separatist army.
When the Jedi storm Geonosis to come to Obi-Wan's aid, a battle ensues that brings them face
to face with the full force of Count Dooku's army. Boba Fett watches from the sidelines
as his father enters the fray, acting first as Dooku's personal bodyguard and eventually
going head-on against Jedi Master Mace Windu.
After a brief fight, Windu takes Jango out with a single swing of his lightsaber, cutting
off his head and leaving Boba an orphan. Boba vows revenge on Mace Windu for his father's
death and vanishes, just as the new Grand Army of the Republic swoops in to save the
Jedi thus beginning an all-out war that would last for the next three years.
It's during this time that Boba Fett meets up with several intergalactic bounty hunters,
most notable of whom is Aurra Sing, a ruthless bounty hunter and former acquaintance of Jango's.
Aurra essentially adopts Boba, allowing him to work on her crew while teaching him the
ins and outs of the trade.
In The Clone Wars, Boba's real introduction to his father's line of work is rough, made
all the more difficult by Aurra's heartless approach to their business. Anyone who crosses
her is killed without a second thought, and although Boba sees himself as part of her
inner circle, it becomes clear as time goes on that he's only there to serve her interests.
Part of Boba Fett's arrangement with Aurra Sing involves her helping him exact revenge
on Mace Windu for the death of his father. Boba's first attempt on Mace Windu's life
is the result of an intricate plan which first involves him posing as a clone cadet to gain
access to the Endurance, a Republic cruiser on which the Jedi Master is located.
Boba plants an explosive device in Windu's quarters, but the assassination attempt fails
when an unlucky clone trooper trips the device instead. At this point, Boba decides the best
cause of action would be to take out the ship's reactor. Boba then escapes the ship alongside
a group of fellow clone cadets, but abandons them in the middle of space when Aurra shows
up to rescue him. Boba has come pretty far in his bounty hunter training by now, so while
he is reluctant to leave his friends to die, he does so nonetheless. After all, the life
of a bounty hunter doesn't allow room for such trivial things as friends.
Not willing to just let things go after his first failed attempt, Boba Fett decides to
have another go at Mace Windu this time by leaving a sabotaged Mandalorian helmet in
the wreckage of the crashed Endurance. Again, his plan fails. This time, Mace is able to
put two and two together seconds before the device is set to go off, and uses the Force
to throw it just far enough to save Anakin and himself.
Thinking his plan has succeeded, Boba convinces Aurra Sing to return to the crash site by
telling her that Count Dooku will pay a higher bounty if they're able to turn over the Jedi's
head. He also picks a fight with another bounty hunter and asserts himself as the guy who's
been taking all the risks. Unfortunately, they're stopped by R2-D2, who's able to pull
Mace Windu and a young Anakin Skywalker to safety before Boba and the gang can finish
what they started.
At this point, Boba Fett knows he's failed twice to kill the man responsible for his
father's murder and it's starting to get to him. Aurra Sing decides the best thing to
do is to murder one of the clone hostages they've been saving for Count Dooku and send
the footage to the Jedi Council, along with a demand that Mace Windu face Boba. In response,
the Jedi dispatch a couple of their own to track down the bounty hunters.
On Florrum, Boba, Aurra, and the rest of the crew are confronted by Plo Koon and Anakin
Skywalker's Padawan apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. After a quick skirmish, Boba does what he
does best and sets another bomb off but the blast only allows for Aurra to escape, essentially
abandoning the kid in order to save her herself.
Realizing he's been deserted by the only person he had left in the universe, Boba comes to
understand that maybe vengeance isn't the best life path. He's quickly arrested, and
although he admits his wrongdoing, he refuses to ever forgive Mace Windu.
Fast forward a couple of years, and Boba Fett is the head of his own bounty hunter outfit.
The bounty hunter Bossk convinces the Sith assassin Asajj Ventress to join them on an
upcoming assignment, and she does but she and Boba immediately butt heads, because she
thinks he's too young and inexperienced to actually know what he's doing.
Over the course of their assignment, the other bounty hunters become lost, and Boba and Ventress
wind up fighting over what to do with the actual bounty once it's been acquired. Boba
by this time still has no idea how to best someone with Force abilities, so he's overpowered,
and left to spend the following years wallowing in his hatred.
As the Galactic Empire comes into power, Boba Fett and his crew become one of the most sought-after
bounty hunting outfits in the galaxy. He develops a reputation for ruthlessness and is generally
not known to bring in live bounties.
“No disintegrations.”
“As you wish.”
It's at this point in time that Boba has taken up wearing the same sort of Mandalorian armor
that his father used to wear, albeit with some minor changes. Instead of the silver
and blue that Jango wore, Boba's armor is green and gold, and while it's been beat up
and battle-worn over the years, it's also got a working rocket pack and flamethrower.
He's also managed to reacquire his father's ship, the Slave One, making him a near identical
copy of his Clone War-era father. Or a clone, if you will.
One of Boba Fett's top clients is Jabba the Hutt, a gangster with deep ties to both the
political and criminal world. When Han Solo's debts to Jabba become too much for the crime
boss to excuse, he hires Boba to retrieve him.
Han tries to make an escape in a cluster of space trash, but Boba successfully tracks
him to Bespin. Then, after setting a trap for the rebels in Cloud City, Boba does what
any shrewd businessman would and takes in two bounties for the price of one. He turns
the rebels over to Darth Vader, but does so under the condition that he can take Han as
prisoner, to be delivered to Jabba. This, of course, means freezing him in carbonite
first, thereby creating one of the most macabre wall hangings in the galaxy.
"Laugh it up, fuzzball."
But Boba Fett's success is short-lived. In Return of the Jedi, the bounty hunter seems
to be enjoying his victory over Han Solo, hanging out with Jabba the Hutt in his palace
on Tatooine. But things start to go awry when Luke Skywalker attempts to stage a rescue
and seemingly fails, getting himself sentenced to die in Jabba's Great Pit of Carkoon.
On the way to his execution at the Sarlacc pit, Luke breaks free and Boba steps in to
try and thwart the rebels' escape. Call it dumb luck or an uneven match, but in spite
of Boba's high-tech gear fighting prowess, a freak accident puts an end to his life…
and his infamous career. Let's face it: it's not an impressive end for the legendary bounty
hunter.
In the original Star Wars expanded universe, Boba Fett survived his tumble into the pit
and went on to have a long and illustrious career but its removal from canon has left
many wondering what exactly happened to the famed bounty hunter. As it turns out, he may
have actually made it out alive after all.
The 2015 novel Star Wars: Aftermath sheds some light on what happened to Boba in the
time following the events of Return of the Jedi. When two travelers come across a Jawa
Sandcrawler on Tatooine, they discover the wreckage of a Sail Barge, reminiscent of the
one used by Jabba the Hutt. Their other big discovery? Damaged Mandalorian armor that
looks as though it's been in contact with acid. Since Sarlaccs use acid to digest their
food, and it can take up to 1,000 years to do it, the amount of time between when Fett
fell into the pit and when the Mandalorian armor was found suggests that he was able
to make it out before being completely consumed by the creature.
When Boba Fett's standalone film was scrapped in favor of Disney+ series The Mandalorian,
fans were left wondering if the original bounty hunter would ever see the light of Star Wars
canon again. But the show may have given an answer to that question in its fifth episode,
"The Gunslinger." When the Mandalorian makes an emergency landing on Tatooine, he takes
a job helping to locate an assassin named Fennec Shand. Fast forward to the end of the
episode: Shand is dead, and Mando has hit the interstellar road with Baby Yoda.
"Stop touching things."
But in the episode's final moments, a mysterious stranger approaches the body a stranger accompanied
by the sound of spurs.
Boba Fett fans were quick to point out the possibility that this new bounty hunter could
in fact be their beloved lost Mandalorian mostly because Boba was accompanied by the
same sound effect in the original trilogy. The fact that the cameo's backdrop took place
on the same planet Boba supposedly died on also felt a little too much to be mere coincidence.
Others, meanwhile, argued that it couldn't have been Fett, citing, among other things,
the length of the stranger's cape. Regardless, the mysterious stranger's appearance certainly
seems to have opened the door to a future run-in between Boba Fett and the Mandalorian.
Whether that actually takes place, however, is yet to be seen.
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