Temuera Morrison in the Mandalorian | Is he playing a...

The first episode of The Mandalorian season two ended on a bang when Star Wars fans around the world were surprised by the obvious return of the classic original trilogy character Boba Fett – played by Temuera Morrison – in the closing scene.

Mandalorian viewers are already theorizing what comes next for Boba, how he will crossbreed with the Mandalorian (aka the lead character, Din Djarin, played by Pedro Pascal), and how he survived his death in Return of the Jedi in the first place – but are we getting ahead of ourselves?

It may sound strange, but we have to ask ourselves – what if it is? Not Boba Fett, who appeared in that last scene? What if Morrison instead played an entirely new character closely tied to Star Wars past and present?

Take us with you because we’re about to spill the boba tea.

First, the reasons why we should think this is Boba Fett in the episode are numerous. The character appears to have surfaced in search of his signature Mandalorian armor, which Din Djarin found in the episode after it was used by local Marshal Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant). Why should anyone but Boba be after?

The character is also played by Temuera Morrison, who appeared as Jango Fett in the Star Wars prequels and whose clone “Son” grew up following in his father’s footsteps. Obviously as a clone, Boba would look like Jango, and so would Morrison – and while he was played by another actor in his original appearances (Jeremy Bulloch wore the costume and John Morton provided the voice), we never saw a Mandalorian helmet beneath his distinctive character.

In other words, we can canonically accept Boba hat always looked like Morrison even if we never saw him, aided by the fact that Morrison dubbed Boba’s voice in newer media (including updated editions of the original Star Wars trilogy).

So far, so cut and dried – if it weren’t for a little argument. You see, Boba wasn’t the only clone from Jango Fett – in fact, he was one of over a million created by the Republic for their war against the Separatists, also known as The Clone Wars. Each and every one of these clones was also an exact duplicate of Jango Fett. So who can say Morrison couldn’t play any of them in live action?

After all, we know that some clones survived the war, many of which appeared in spin-off television series such as Star Wars Rebels and the upcoming series The Bad Batch (with the characters of voice actor Dee Bradley Baker on the various series). . One clone was even re-linked to Return of the Jedi, with a random perk on Endor that LucasFilm retrospectively credited as Captain Rex, a popular character from the Clone Wars TV series.

In other words, Star Wars has been telling clone stories for a while. What if they do the same here? What if a leftover clone decided to track down what it believed to be its birthright – the armor of his “father” Jango Fett and his “brother” Boba Fett – on Tattooine, and his continued efforts resulted in him being in future episodes clashed with The Mandalorian.

This could fill a few plot holes, such as how Boba survived his fall into the Sarlacc Pit in Episode VI, how he lost his armor, and why it took him so long to get it back. If this were a clone, it would never have done it would have the armor – with which it falls into someone else’s hands after Boba’s death.

Plus, the presence of a clone could go well with Star Wars’ animated series, including the upcoming series The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni, the creative mind behind The Clone Wars and its followers (including Rebels, Star Wars Resistance, and The Bad Batch), is a key figure working with Jon Favreau on The Mandalorian and is rumored to be the animated favorite Ahsoka Tano has launched action for the second season (played by Rosario Dawson). If anyone centered a Star Wars story around a clone, it would be them.

Of course there are some problems with this theory, most of which have to do with age. To prepare them quickly for war, the “normal” clones had aged twice as quickly as a normal human, which would mean that all surviving members of the Army of the Great Republic would be physically in their eighties at the time of the second season of The Mandalorian.

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59-year-old Morrison is a little young to achieve this – but then again, considering that Boba Fett would only be around 41 at the time of The Mandalorian’s season two (read our article on When is This Mandalorian -Set for the full Star Wars?) Timeline), that’s not entirely true either. Who can say they don’t play older than they look?

Some fans of reddit have also noticed that in some (now decanonized) Star Wars novels we met clones who had managed to reverse their accelerated aging. In the upcoming series, The Bad Batch, we will also follow a crew of clones that have various mutations and differences from the norm. With that in mind, it might be possible that a clone was created that was not aging quite as fast as its brothers.

Or the answer could be simpler: this theory is nonsense, and The Mandalorian did exactly what it appears to be doing, bringing back Boba Fett for grateful fans. But there is just something wrong with it …

This wouldn’t be the first time The Mandalorian has misdirected Boba Fett – a character wearing his armor was teased in season one, but revealed as Olyphant’s Cobb Vanth in season two – and as a twist to that new development would be a great way to guess the fans. Returning Morrison as a clone allowed the series to play around with Boba Fett’s legacy while leaving the door open for a later return without completely rewriting his original death in Return of the Jedi.

Basically, the question of whether Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc Pit has been one of the longest running arguments among Star Wars fans for years. We would be almost disappointed if the answer were revealed so easily.

Want to learn more about the cast of The Mandalorian, the Mandalorian’s release schedule, or our review of The Mandalorian? Check out our content suite RadioTimes.com.

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