Star Wars: The Mandalorian Premiere Includes Hilarious Boba Fett Reference From Return of the Jedi Death

The return of Star Wars: The Mandalorian on Disney+ was jam-packed with tons of Easter eggs and cameos in the Season 2 premiere, but it’s everything to do with the bounty hunter Boba Fett that has people buzzing. The fan-favorite character who first appeared in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back met an unfortunate and somewhat lackluster death in the next movie, but The Mandalorian managed to sneak in a hilarious jab at Boba Fett’s death in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. As many fans know, Fett was seemingly killed off when a blind Han Solo accidentally smacked his jetpack with a staff, inadvertently sending the bounty hunter flying into the sarlacc pit known as the Great Pit of Carkoon.

Decades later, even The Mandalorian found a hilarious way to call attention to the lackluster quality of the apparatus in the Season Two premiere. But this time, Boba Fett is not the butt of the joke.

WARNING: Spoilers below for The Mandalorian

The Season Two premiere sees Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) seeking out another rumored Mandalorian, a journey which takes him to Mos Pelgo. Shortly after his arrival, he meets the town marshal, who sports Boba Fett’s famous armor. Rather than being Fett, the figure is Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), who explains that he acquired the gear from Jawas.

Later in the episode, Din has to make a quick decision and he knows that, rather than arguing with Cobb about it, Din hits Cobb’s jetpack to send him launching into the sky, replicating the malfunction that led to Fett’s “death” in Return of the Jedi.

With less than a decade having passed since Fett’s seeming demise within the narrative, it’s clear that the armor hasn’t seen many repairs over the years. While we might not yet know how the armor managed to escape the sarlacc, the final moments of the episode make it look as though we’ll learn more about Fett’s fate, given the appearance of Temuera Morrison.

Reports emerged earlier this year that Morrison would be playing Boba in the series, though Lucasfilm never confirmed these details. Morrison played Jango Fett in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and with Boba being a clone of Jango, it only made sense that he would play the adult bounty hunter. However, with Morrison playing multiple clones in the prequel films, it’s possible we’ll learn this is one such clone at some point in the future.

Prior to Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, stories chronicled Fett’s return and detailed how he escaped the sarlacc. With those events deemed non-canonical in recent years, it’s unclear how Fett’s return will possibly be explained, but with the current Star Wars canon adopting various components of Legends stories, we can’t rule out the series reviving those narratives.

Tune in to new episodes of The Mandalorian on Fridays on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

Did you pick up on this reference? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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