‘The Mandalorian’ Just Changed Everything We Know About Boba Fett

Every single week, The Mandalorian keeps outdoing itself. Last week we finally got to see live-action Ahsoka Tano and learn Baby Yoda’s real name (it’s Grogu to you!). This week at least matched last week’s WOW-ness by finally giving Star Wars fans something they have literally been waiting 40 years to see: Boba Fett in action.

After a brief tease in the season premiere, Temuera Morrison made his full debut as Boba Fett in the Mandalorian episode “The Tragedy.” But this is a Boba Fett unlike any we’ve ever seen before, mainly because the most important thing Boba Fett ever did in the original trilogy was look cool as hell. He didn’t do much else. That changed in Chapter 14 of The Mandalorian, and now we know way, way, way more about Boba Fett and his origin. Let’s get into it!

Who is Boba Fett?

Don’t make fun of this question, because it’s valid! Seriously—how much did you know about Boba Fett’s personality before this episode? You knew he was a bounty hunter and an unaltered clone of Jango Fett, that he had a habit of disintegrating his prey, and that Han Solo was no good to him dead. That’s it. So, who was he, as a person?

“The Tragedy” finally—after 40 years!—gives Boba Fett an onscreen personality. He’s cold and steely as beskar, a real old west style gunslinger type. But! As we see throughout the episode, he follows a pretty strong code of honor. First, he saved Fennec Shand’s life, seemingly out of the goodness of his own cloned heart; he says that she was left for dead in the desert, just like he was. That implies that he connected with her, that he saw her as more than just a potential weapon. Boba Fett has empathy!

A bigger moment comes when he steals his armor from the Razor Crest. Din Djarin never agreed to the deal Boba offered him, the green armor in exchange for Grogu’s safety. So Djarin never gave Boba the armor back, so he didn’t technically fulfill his end of the bargain. Boba circumvented the deal when he just took the armor. But when Grogu gets captured, Boba doesn’t take the armor and run—even though he totally could! When Djarin finds out that Boba is actually of Mandalorian heritage, he hands the armor that Boba is already wearing over. Then Boba says he vowed to keep the child safe in exchange for the armor, and now he’s all in. That’s. Rad.

How did Boba Fett survive falling into the sarlacc pit?

The last time we saw Boba Fett alive and in the armor was in Return of the Jedi, where he met an embarrassing end.

Then he popped up wearing a cloak and carrying Tusken Raider gaffi sticks in the Season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian. How Fett escaped his fate is something he doesn’t get into in this episode. He just says that Fennec Shand was left for dead in the desert just like himself, and that “fate sometimes steps in to rescue the wretched.” Also, Boba Fett’s armor is covered in weapons. It’s not hard to imagine how he escaped.

How old is Boba Fett now?

Temuera Morrison, who plays Boba Fett and Jango Fett, was born in 1960 and turns 60 later this month. Is that what you were wondering?

‘The Mandalorian’ Chapter 14 Recap: An Episode 40 Years in the Making

Okay, okay—it’s also possible to calculate Boba Fett’s age. Daniel Logan played young Boba Fett in 2002’s Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones. Logan was 14 years old at the time of filming. Since Boba was the only one of Jango’s clones not subjected to accelerated aging, it’s probably safe to say that Boba was around that age too. Attack of the Clones takes place 22 years before Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, and The Mandalorian takes place 9 years after A New Hope. Add all that up, and Boba Fett is roughly 45 years old now. Now, it’s possible that Teen Boba was older than 14 in Attack of the Clones, but honestly, I think Boba Fett looks great for someone who was eaten by a sand monster and presumably wandered through the desert for five years.

How many weapons does Boba Fett have?!

We know from watching Din Djarin do his thing that a Mandalorian suit of armor comes with a lot of gadgets, including a wrist-mounted flamethrower, a rocket-launching jetpack, and the flurry of micro-missiles known as the whistling bird. When Boba Fett enters the fray, we finally see what he’s packing.

In order of appearance, he has: a bomb; wrist-mounted lasers; some sorta concussive blast emitter on his right vambrace that’s powerful enough to send a stormtrooper flying; teeny missile launchers on his kneepads; a macrobinocular viewplate on his helmet; and, of course, the rocket-launching jetpack.

So… it looks like Din’s armor has a lot of room for upgrades!

Who is Jango Fett?

Jango Fett is Boba Fett’s father, having raised Boba for the first 14-ish years of his life. Genetically, Boba Fett is an unaltered clone of Jango Fett (which is why the characters are played by the same actor). Jango Fett operated as a bounty hunter and was instrumental in building the clone army of the prequel era; all of the clonetroopers were rapidly-aged, genetically altered clones of Jango Fett.

Was Jango Fett a Mandalorian?

Apparently! When Din Djarin refused to give over the armor to someone who never swore allegiance to the Mandalorian creed, Boba shoots back that the armor was given to his father by Djarin’s forebears. Later in the episode, Boba proves ownership of the armor by displaying its chain code, which I guess is like an intergalactic proof of purchase/family tree. Upon seeing that chain code, Din realizes that Jango Fett was a foundling—just like him. Boba’s like, “Yeah, man, and my dad even fought in the Mandalorian Civil Wars.” Jango Fett was a Mandalorian!

But didn’t Almec say Jango Fett was just a bounty hunter in Star Wars: The Clone Wars?

Yep! We’ve spent the 10 years since the “Mandalore Plot” episode of Clone Wars aired believing that Jango Fett was not a real Mandalorian, and therefore Boba Fett wasn’t either. That’s because Prime Minister Almec told Obi-Wan Kenobi that Jango Fett was just a “common bounty hunter” and that he had no idea how Jango acquired the armor. But listen: Almec was a shady dude and a total villain. It’s easy to believe that he would either lie to Obi-Wan about Jango Fett, or not consider Jango a Mandalorian because he’s a foundling, or just say some nonsense about something he admittedly knew little about. Whatever the case, Almec was wrong and Boba Fett is right—and he has the chain code to prove it.

Will we see more Boba Fett in The Mandalorian Season 2?

It seems like a certainty that Boba Fett will stick around for at least one, possibly two more episodes. There are only two more chapters left in this season and, the stakes being as high as they are, it seems likely that it’ll be a two-parter. Considering that Boba Fett is Din Djarin’s ride, it seems obvious that we’re gonna see that armor do plenty more badass stunts before the season is over.

The Mandalorian airs new episodes on Fridays on Disney+.

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